see that the lights are out. take care of the building. get coffee for everyone. write these letters.

take charge of the meeting. tell them what happened.

4.Once in a blue moon I'm late. he's early.

they're on time. she telephones me. we go out to dinner.

Jim writes me a letter. I get a bad cold.

5.You really know the ropes in this office. your department.

this company. this organization. this club.

that society. your factory.

6.You must take into account that I've been here ten years. I'm older than Tom.

she's his sister. they're well informed. he's from Brazil. we're students.

he's only a child.

Homework exercise

Write a paragraph using at least three of the idioms in this lesson.

Reading VI: The Man With The Scar

When Detective Paul Nichols asked the teller at the Middle-ton Bank to describe the robber, she replied. 'He had a long, ugly scar on his right cheek. Also, he seemed quite ill at ease, as though he might be unsure of what he was doing. But he did it. I had the feeling, though, that he went through with it almost just to save face. Once he decided to rob the bank, he had to carry out his plan.'

She explained that the man had come into the bank that morning and stood in line with the other customers, as if waiting to deposit money or cash a check. When he reached the window, however, he did not beat around the bush he handed the girl a piece of paper that had written on it, 'Do not say anything or do anything unusual. I have a gun and will use it if I have to. Put five thousand dollars in an envelope and hand it to me.'

The girl was so shocked that she just stood looking at him for a moment. She realized he was not joking what he ordered was straight from the shoulder. He said he would use his gun if he had to, and she was sure he would keep his word if she didn't cooperate. The teller did exactly as he told her.

'Remember me to your mother,' the thief said. Then he walked casually out of the bank. Not even

the lady behind him in line at the window realized what had happened.

The teller sounded the alarm, and immediately the guards ran to find the thief. 'You can't mistake him with that scar,' the girl told them. 'But be careful. He has a gun.'

A thorough search was made, but no such person was found. The guards couldn't even come up with a piece of evidence.

'I can't understand how he could get away so rapidly,' Detective Nichols told his wife Nancy that evening, as the two of them were having supper. 'We questioned everyone inside and outside the bank at the time of the robbery. No one saw a man with a scar on his face. The guard at the door sees everyone who goes in and out, but he doesn't recall anyone with a scar. It looks as though the man appeared from nowhere and returned to nowhere. At least, for the moment it seems so.'

'He came from somewhere and he went somewhere when he left the bank,' Nancy replied. 'The question is, where did he go?' Nancy Nichols was a very practical woman. Her husband liked to discuss his cases with her because of this trait.

Paul continued. 'The girl was surprised because it all happened within a few seconds, and so smoothly. She just stood watching the man walk away. When he went out the door, her senses returned to her and she called the guard.'

'What time of day was it?' Nancy asked.

'Noon. The streets were filled with people. At that hour of the day, it's always that way in front of the Middleton Bank. He could get lost in the crowd very easily. The men on the police force insist he just disappeared.'

'With a scar on his face? I take that with a grain of salt. He didn't disappear you can be sure of that. But what did he do?' Nancy began to have an expression of real excitement in her eyes. She was in her element when helping Paul solve a case. She loved to do her bit and resented it when Paul didn't consult with her. After ten years of being a detective's wife, she ought to know the ropes — and she did. This was the type of case she enjoyed most.

'That's what is so confusing. We looked high and low and questioned everyone in the area at the time of the robbery but no one observed anything or anyone unusual. Several people admitted they saw a man come out of the bank about that time, but he didn't have a scar on his face.' Paul shook his head and sighed wearily. It had been a tiring day and a mystifying case. Once in a blue moon Paul had a case that seemed impossible to solve. This was one of them. And it was up to Paul to solve it.

'Don't worry,' Nancy encouraged him. 'In the end you'll find your thief.'

When supper was over, the Nichols had their coffee in the living room. Paul turned on the television set and immediately became interested in a detective program. Nancy did not watch the program but sat drinking her coffee in silence. When she had finished, she went into the kitchen and began washing the dishes.

Fifteen minutes later she returned to the living room. She went directly to the television set and turned it off.

'What are you doing?' Paul objected, almost losing his temper. 'It's a very exciting story tonight!' 'Have you taken into account,' Nancy asked, ignoring his annoyance, 'the possibility that the thief wanted the teller to see his scar, that he was just leading her on?'

'What? But why?' asked Paul, immediately forgetting the TV show. 'Why should he want her to see it? It would be an excellent way to describe him. Just the opposite. He would want to hide the scar.' 'As you say, it's an excellent way to describe him. And that's exactly what he wanted. He wanted her to describe him just as she did. That way, the police would be looking for a man with a scar on his right cheek.'

Paul shook his head again. 'What are you trying to say, Nancy?'

She did not reply. Instead she simply peeled off one of her false eyelashes.

For a moment Paul sat staring at her, more confused than ever. Nancy's false eyelashes were one of the few things the Nichols ever argued about. Paul tried to discourage her using false eyelashes