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Файл:Основы письменной речи английского языка. Учебно-методическое пособие
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Whitefly, boll weevils and caterpillars multiplied and destroyed their crops, despite the
constant application of pesticides. The average yield of cotton fields in Andhra Pradesh fell by
more than half in just one year. Now the farmers are in no position to repay the loans or feed
their families.
Nearly half the pesticides used in India go into protecting cotton, the most important
commercial crop in the country. However, pests have shown increased immunity to a range of
pesticides. Last year there were heavy crop losses due to leaf-curl, which is caused by the
dreaded whitefly. This nondescript, milky-white fly sucks sap from the cotton leaves, making
them curl and dry up. The fly struck first in Pakistan and north-western India. Then it turned
south.
Exercise 3. Write the topic sentences for each of the following paragraphs.
Paragraph 1.
Firstly, they live in or on a host, and do it harm. The depth to which they penetrate the host
varies, as indeed does the damage. Fleas, leeches and lice live on the surface and cause
superficial injury. Athlete's foot is a skin disease caused by a fungus living in the surface layers
of the foot. The parasite of sleeping sickness is found in the host's blood wriggling between
blood corpuscles. Secondly, parasites show some simplification of body structures when
compared with free-living relatives. Sacculina (a relative of the crab) shows loss of limbs and is
reduced to a mass of reproductive tissue within the abdomen of its crustacean host. Dodder, a
plant parasite, lacks leaves, roots and chlorophyll. Thirdly, although all organisms show
adaptations to their way of life, in the case of parasites they are often associated with a complex
physiological response, e.g. the ability to survive in regions almost devoid of available oxygen,
such as adult liver flukes, or the hooks and suckers of adult tapeworm. Lastly, parasites exhibit a
complex and efficient reproduction, usually associated in some way with the physiology of the
host, e.g. rabbit fleas are stimulated by the level of sex hormone in their host.
(J. Hard, (1975). Biology, p. 57)
Paragraph 2.
In 1920 an average of 2.75 pounds of waste were produced each day by each individual in
the United States. Today the quantity of waste produced is 53 pounds per person, and by 1980 it
is estimated that this will rise to 8 pounds per person. One year's rubbish from 10,000 people
covers an acre of ground to the depth of 10 feet. In one year Americans throw away 48 thousand
million cans, 26 thousand million bottles, 430 million tons of paper, 4 million tons of plastic and
100 million tyres which weigh almost a million tons.
(John W Klotz, (1972). Ecology crisis, p. 197)
Paragraph 3.
That it might be experienced in any other way seems unnatural and strange, a feeling
which is rarely modified even when we begin to discover how really differently it is handled by
some other people. Within the West itself certain cultures rank time much lower in over-all
importance than we do. In Latin America, for example, where time is treated rather cavalierly,
one commonly hears the expression, "Our time or your time?" "Hora americana, hora
mejicana?"
(Edward Hall, (1973), The silent language, p. 6)
Paragraph 4.
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From the late 1870s onwards, cheap American corn began to arrive in the country in large
In particular
However
For instance
consequently
otherwise
as a rule
quantities, along with refrigerated meat and fruit from Australia and New Zealand, and in a
period when both farmers and businessmen were complaining of depression, standards of living
rose higher than they had ever done. The change began each day, as Victorian writers frequently
pointed out, with the food on the breakfast table - with eggs and bacon as staple fare for the
middle classes - and went on through tea, high or low, to multi-course dinners or fish-and-chip
suppers. The poor were eating better as well as the rich. The annual per capita consumption of
sugar, which had increased from 18 lb. to 35 lb. between the Queen's accession and 1860, rose to
54 lb. in 1870-99 and 85 lb. in 1900-10; that of tea, which along with beer had now become a
national drink, went up from 1½ lb, first to 4¼ lb and then to 6 lb.
(Asa Briggs, (1983). A social history of England, p. 246)
Paragraph 5.
The first is the way in which living cells develop an energy currency. This, like ordinary
money, can be used to exchange one vital commodity for another. The second is the use of
substances called enzymes as go-betweens to reduce the amount of energy needed to make many
chemical reactions essential to life take place fast enough.
(The sciences: Michael Beazley Encyclopaedias (1980), p. 136)
Paragraph 6.
At first it was little more than a trickle. For a long time the Norman conquerors did not mix
much with their Saxon subjects. There are plenty of indications of this; for the languages, too,
moved side by side in parallel channels. The custom of having one name for a live beast grazing
in the field and another for the same beast, when it is killed and cooked, is often supposed to be
due to our English squeamishness and hypocrisy. Whether or not the survival of this custom
through ten centuries is due to the national characteristics in question it would be hard to say, but
they have certainly nothing to do with its origin. That is a much more blame-less affair. For the
Saxon neatherd who had spent a hard day tending his oxen, sheep, calves and swine, probably
saw little enough of the beef, mutton, veal, pork and bacon, which were gobbled at night by his
Norman masters. There is something a little pathetic, too, in the thought that the homely old
word, stool, could be used to express any kind of seat, however magnificent, until it was, so to
speak, hustled into the kitchen by the smart French chair. Even the polite, however, continued to
use the old word in the idiom ‗to fall between two stools‘.
Exercise 4. Transition word exercise
Always ask yourself what the exact relationship is between the sentences or
parts of sentences. Are you leading to the result of something? Are you making a
deduction? Are you introducing some contradictory evidence or ideas? Your
choice of word or phrase obviously depends on this. And always check in a good
dictionary if you're not quite sure about a word's use or its position in a sentence.
Remember that punctuation will affect what you use.
Insert the best alternative
1 Polls show that Tony Blair is the most popular Prime Minister this century.
______________ , there are even members of his own party who are uneasy with his approach.
2 There are some slight variations in temperature, but ________________ 26 to 27ºC
should be expected.
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for example
namely
in particular
As a result
So that
Likewise
Above all
Correspondingly
In contrast
Nevertheless
In other words
Similarly
Furthermore
In comparison
With reference to
as well as
in addition
in the same way
obviously
otherwise
as a result
Nevertheless
Because
Even though
3 The two main Channel Islands, ________________ Jersey and Guernsey, are much
closer to France than to England.
4 It was announced that nurses' working hours would be increased by 25%.
______________ , even fewer trainee nurses are expected to join the profession.
5 Sales of CDs have experienced a small but steady fall over the past 12 months.
_____________ , vinyl records have seen an increase in their share of the market, up to 1.7%.
6 The Vice Chancellor explained that in light of the current financial climate and because
of unexpected bad debts, it would be necessary to peg salary levels at their current level for all
grades of staff. ______________ , no-one was getting a pay rise.
7 It is clear, therefore, that the situation in Brazil will improve only slowly.
______________ the economic problems being experienced in Japan, the outlook is slightly
more optimistic.
8 In order to try to reduce car use in the inner cities, the government has announced new
restrictions on company parking spaces and ______________ , a new tax on individual car use.
9 Essays must be handed in by the deadline, ______________ they will not be marked.
10 ______________ it has been shown that fractures can occur at even relatively low
pressures, the use of the material should not be completely discounted.
Exercise 5. The information contained within a paragraph is based on the topic
sentence of a paragraph. The topic sentence is generally the first sentence
and expresses the main idea to be developed within the paragraph.
a) Look at the topic sentences below and discuss what kinds of information you would
expect to follow.
1. The government of the United States of America consists of three main branches.
2. The world-wide increase in road transport is a serious threat to the natural
environment.
3. Deforestation has a direct effect on food supplies.
4. Although development in the Third World is intended to increase self-reliance, the
actual result is often increased dependence on the West.
5. There is a mistaken idea that, because of pocket calculators, children no longer need to
learn how to do basic arithmetic.
6. When it comes to the arts, there is a clear case for subsidy.
7. There are no grounds for subsidising the arts.
8. The British attitudes towards food are very different from the attitudes in my own
country.
9. My grandfather/grandmother is/was very easy/difficult to get on with.
10. There are no justifications for any country possessing nuclear weapons.
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11. There are a number of reasons to justify a country possessing nuclear weapons.
b) With two or three other students, discuss your answers.
c) Take one of the sentences a write a paragraph.
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Lesson II. Writing a reproduction of a text
You can reproduce the text after listening or reading it. When you are to write the
reproduction of a text you must give the contents of it without retelling every sentence.
Paraphrase the sentences, giving the general idea and conveying the atmosphere, the problem
raised. It should be your vision of the text. (Don‘t confuse it with text interpretation or analysis,
it can be part of text interpretation, analysis, rendering, composition based on the text.) Mind that
certain words must be excluded from our written vocabulary since their meaning will not be
clear to everyone. They are slang words, dialect words, foreign words and phrases, technical
words. Use synonyms instead.
Tips for text reproduction:
Change direct speech into indirect
Avoid the author’s devices
Combine short sentences making complex ones
Use means of text compression (complex object, participle and gerund
constructions).
Here is an example of text reproduction (the text and the reproduction )
Life of Ma Parker by Katherine Mansfield (abridged)
When the literary gentleman, whose flat old Ma Parker cleaned every Tuesday, opened the
door to her that morning, he asked after her grandson.
―We buried him yesterday, sir,‖ she said quietly.
―Oh, dear me! I‘m sorry to hear that,‖ said the literary gentleman in a shocked tone.
Ma Parker gave no answer. She bent her head and hobbled off to the kitchen, clasping her
old bag. The literary gentleman raised his eyebrows, and went back to his breakfast.
While the water was heating, Ma Parker began sweeping the floor. ―Yes,‖ she thought.
―I‘ve had a hard life.‖ Even her neighbours said that of her. Many a time, hobbling home with
her old bag full of brushes and cloths, she heard them say among themselves, ―She‘s had a hard
life, has Ma Parker‖ It was so true.
At sixteen she came to London as kitchen-maid. That was a dreadful place – her first place.
She was never allowed to go out, and the cook was a cruel woman. After some years of work
from morning till night, she married her husband. She had thirteen little ones and buried seven of
them. Yes, seven had gone, and while the six were still small, her husband was taken ill with
consumption.
The struggle she had had to bring up those six little children after her poor dear husband‘s
death! Terrible it had been. And then she was left alone. The two elder boys emigrated, young
Jim went to India with the army, the two girls went wrong and left her, and Ethel, the youngest,
married a waiter, who died of ulcers the year little Lennie was born. And now little Lennie, her
only grandson…
He had never been a strong child, - never from the first. He had been one of those fair
babies that everybody took for a girl. Silvery fair curls he ha, blue eyes, and a little freckle on
one side of his nose. But he was Gran‘s own boy from the first…
―Whose boy are you?‖ said old ma Parker. And a little voice, so warm, so close, it seeme
to be in her breast under her heart. – laughed out and said, ―I‘m Gran‘s boy…‖
At that moment there was a sound of steps and the literary gentleman appeared, dressed for
walking.
―Oh, Mrs. Parker, I‘m going out.‖
―Very good, sir.‖
She took her brushes and cloths into the bedroom. But when she began to make the bed,
the thought of little Lennie was unbearable. Why did he have to suffer so? That‘s what she
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couldn‘t understand. There was no sense in making a child suffer like that. From Lennie‘s little
chest there came a sound as if something was boiling. When he coughed, the sweat sprang out on
his head, his eyes bulged, his hands waved… But what was more awful than all was when he
didn‘t cough, he sat against the pillow and never spoke or answered, only looked offended,
dreadfully offended.
But at the last… No, she simply couldn‘t think about it. It was too much. She had had too
much in her life to bear. She had borne it up till now and nobody had ever seen her cry. Not even
her own children had seen Ma Parker break down. She had kept a proud face always. But now!
―What have I done?‖
Her misery was so terrible that she put on her jacket and walked out of the flat like a
person in a dream. She did not know what she was doing.
It was cold in the street. There was a wind like ice. People went by, very fast; and nobody
knew, nobody cared.
If she could only cry now, cry for a long time, over everything, beginning with her first
place and the cruel cook, and then the seven little ones, death of her husband, the children‘s
leaving her, and all the years of misery that led up to Lennie.
Her chin began to tremble. ―Ah, that‘s what Gran wants to do, my dove. Gran wants to
cry.‖ But to have a proper cry over all these things would take a long time. All the same, the time
for it had come. She must do it. She couldn‘t put it off any longer; she couldn‘t go home. Ethel
was there. She couldn‘t sit on a bench anywhere; people would come asking her questions. She
couldn‘t possibly go back to the gentleman‘s flat; he could be at home. Oh, wasn‘t there any
place where she could hide and cry as long as she liked? Wasn‘t there anywhere in the world
where she could have her cry out – at last?
Ma parker stood, looking up and down. And now it began to rain.
There was nowhere.
Reproduction
The literary gentleman opened the door of his flat to Ma Parker, his housekeeper. He
asked after her beloved grandson, Lennie. Ma Parker replied that they had buried him the day
before. The literary gentleman felt very sorry for her and watched her for a moment before
returning to his breakfast.
Ma Parker began the arduous task of cleaning up the kitchen of the literary gentleman. As
she cleaned, Ma Parker thought back on her own hard life. Even her neighbors said so but she
wasn‘t one to complain. Lennie‘s death; however, was different compared to the other losses she
had faced over the years. At sixteen she left the town of Stratford, England and went to London
to work as a kitchen maid in the home of a well-to-do family. Their cook was cruel to her and
kept her locked in the cellar when she wasn‘t working and threw her letters from home into the
fire. On at least two occasions Ma Parker was sent to the hospital, presumably from the physical
and/or emotional abuse she suffered at the hands of the cook. Then she was married to her
husband, a baker. Ma Parker spent her life taking care of their thirteen children, seven of whom
diedThe six children that remained were all very young when Ma Parker‘s husband died of
consumption. She raised her children on her own . Then her daughter Maudie ―went wrong and
took her sister Alice with her‖ (88). Two of her boys left England and emigrated elsewhere. Jim,
another son, joined the army and went to India. Ethel, her youngest daughter, married young
and was widowed. She was the mother of Lennie, and lived with Ma Parker.
Lennie had been ill from birth and was small of stature and unable to gain weight. Lennie
remained small, pale, and was often mistaken for a girl. He had light blonde hair and a freckle
on his nose. Ma Parker loved him with a fierce passion and called him ―Gran‘s boy.‖ She was
so taken with this thought that she could almost hear Lennie calling to her.
Instead she heard the steps of the literary gentleman who came brusquely into the kitchen.
Tucking in the literary gentleman‘s bed sheets, Ma Parker‘s resolve began to crumble. She
questioned why a child like Lennie had to suffer so. Why had he been burdened with such a hard
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life? It wasn‘t fair. Neither of them should have lived such difficult lives and now she would have
to endure the loss of Lennie as well. No matter what she and Ethel did for Lennie he continued to
decline, a lump formed in his lungs and every breath became a struggle. On his deathbed Lennie
stared accusingly at his grandmother, as if he thought it was her fault that he was dying and she
shrank away from her touch.
The memory of Lennie‘s painful death was too much to bear for Ma Parker. She gathered
her cleaning supplies and rushed out of the gentleman‘s house and into the street. She needed to
cry but had nowhere to go. She could not return to the gentleman‘s house nor could she sit in the
park for fear that one of her neighbors or a police officer would see her. She could not go home
to cry because she knew that it would upset Ethel. Ma Parker had never cried in all of the long
years of her life, during all of her troubles she had not felt the need to cry but now that Lennie
was gone she could no longer hold back her tears.
However, there was nowhere for her to go. Ma Parker had kept herself to herself for too
long. Alone with her thoughts, it began to rain.
Exercise 1. Improve the style of the following sets of sentences by combining them into
a complex sentence containing an attributive clause.
1. The partisans had acted upon a certain plan. It answered well.
2. The war-correspendent got much experience in the trenches. It opened his eyes on the
truth.
3. Late in the evening the scout had gone to some place for a certain reason. Nobody
knew the reason and the place of his destination.
Exercise 2. Improve the style of the following sets of sentences by combining them into
a complex sentence containing an object clause.
1. He says something to you. You cannot rely on it.
2. The schoolboy had done something wrong. He was punished for it.
3. The wounded soldier could be helped somehow. The doctor was thinking of the way
to help him.
Exercise 3. Paraphrase the sentences, if required by the sense, using the following
verbs:
to inform, to promise, to remind, to declare, to remark (to observe), to
determine, to assure.
1. He said to her, ―I know they visited the picture gallery long ago.‖
2. He said to her, ―The museum opens for the visitors at 9 a.m.‖
3. He said to her, ―Your handbag is not locked properly.‖
4. He said to her, ―I shall go to the picture gallery by all means.‖
5. He said to her, ―It is too late to go now.‖
6. He said to her, ―I shall accompany you when you go there.‖
7. He said to her, ―You have not yet seen the metro, mind.‖
8. He said to her, ―You may be sure that we shall have time for everything.‖
9. He said to her, ―I am not going to obey a girl younger than myself.‖
Exercise 4. Paraphrase the sentences, if required by the sense, using the following
verbs: to inquire of smb, to wonder, to want to know, to be interested to
know, to ask smb‘s permission .
1. He said to her, ―Are you fond of fairy-tales?‖
2. He said to her, ―Where are such books to be found?‖
3. He said to her, ―Can I find it at the library?‖
4. He said to her, ―Why did you choose this sort of book?‖
5. He said to her, ―Have you read it to the end?‖
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6. He said to her, ―May I take this book to read?‖
7. He said to her, ―How long will it take to read it?‖
Exercise 5. Paraphrase the following imperative sentences, if required by the sense,
using the following verbs: to request, to beg, to implore (to entreat)
(умолять), to order (to command), to forbid, to invite, to advise, to allow
(to permit), to offer, to suggest.
1. He said to him, ―Please, be seated.‖
2. He said to him, ―Take this book to read, if you like.‖
3. He said to him, ―Go to the station at once, if you want to catch the train.‖
4. He said to him, ―Pray, don‘t trouble!‖
5. He said to him, ―Come to see me, when I return from the Caucasus.‖
6. He said to him, He said to him, ―Open the window, will you?‖
7. He said to him, ―Do help me out of this awful trouble!‖
8. He said to him, ―Let us go to the country together.‖
9. He said to him, ―Kindly tell us the time.‖
10. He said to him, ―Don‘t touch my notes, or my papers!‖
11. He said to him, ―Let me help you with this heavy bag.‖
12. He said to him, ―Come at once!‖
13. He said to him, ―Let your little brother play with this ball.‖
Exercise 6. Use the complex object instead of the subordinate clause.
1. I expect that the weather would be fine and hot.
2. Have you ever heard how the nightingale sings?
3. I have seen how the birds fly away to the South.
4. Many people consider that he is a great naturalist.
5. I believed that he was a lover of nature.
6. Walking in the wood we heard how the birds twittered and how the stream rippled in
the distance.
7. Our teachers wished that we should never stop on our way forward.
8. Silly people consider that pleasure is the aim of life.
9. I never expected that she would think only of her own pleasures.
Exercise 7.
Analyze the following sentences from the point of compression. Make up your own
sentences of the kind.
1. Speaking without thinking is shooting without aim.
2. Without opening fire the partisans crawled as noiselessly as they could.
3. Without thinking of the danger the pilot opened fire.
4. On coming to the village the soldiers stopped there for the night.
5. On arriving at the aerodrome the plane landed.
6. The commander insisted on my going to the hospital.
7. The children were the first to see the soldiers approaching the village.
8. The captain was the last to leave the sinking ship.
Exercise 8. Paraphrase the sentences using the words and expressions given in
brackets.
1. A murmur from the crowd, which swells into a roar, as the waves surge aimlessly up
and down. (the voices, to be heard, on the shore, to grow louder, to rise, to fall)
18
2. Then all melts away into the white seething waste; and the billows plunge more
sullenly and sadly towards the shore, as if in remorse for their dark and reckless deed. (to
disappear, the white foam of the waves, to rush, gloomily, sorrowfully, to be sorry for, to do)
Exercise 9. Give synonyms for:
Kindly, to boil up, to roll back, ghastly, polished, to nerve oneself for action, to jump up, a
cry of joy, unconscious, to wake somebody up, courageous.
Give antonyms to:
To raise one‘s arm, to go down, patiently, to roll in, rough, dead, weak, close to.
Exercise 10. Paraphrase the following sentences using synonyms for the italicize words
or introducing new words.
1. Before they could nerve themselves for action the wave had come.
2. The girl sprang to her feet with a scream of horror.
3. The billow came, and surged over the man and the girl, and up to old Willis‘ throat,
and round the knees of Jan and his neighbor; and then it returned, and every limb quivered with
the strain; but when the cataract had disappeared, the chain was still unbroken.
4. ―Saved!‖ and a cheer broke from all lips but those of the girl herself; she was as
senseless as he whom she had saved.
Exercise 11. Expand the following sentences using attributes in or post-position
.
1. A ship was seen far out of the sea. (big, black, with beautiful white sails)
2. The ship was tossed like an egg-shell by the waves. (huge, leaping, covered with white
caps of foam)
3. The girl‘s eyes were turned toward the roaring sea. (big, steady and wide-open)
4. Pointing with her outstretched arm toward the sea, the girl sprang to her feet with a
scream. (wild, heart-rending)
5. A wave rolled in and boiled up in the crack. (huge, white with foam)
Exercise 12. Reproduce the following texts by Agatha Christie following all the rules of
text reproduction.
Murder on the Links By Agatha Christie (an extract)
…Strangely enough, this tale of mine opens in much the same fashion. Only the lady who
gave utterance to the exclamation was not a duchess.
It was a day in early June. I had been transacting some business in Paris and was returning
by the morning service to London, where I was still sharing rooms with my old friend, the
Belgian ex-detective, Hercule Poirot.
The Calais express was singularly empty—in fact, my own compartment held only one
other traveller. I had made a somewhat hurried departure from the hotel and was busy assuring
myself that I had duly collected all my traps, when the train started. Up till then I had hardly
noticed my companion, but I was now violently recalled to the fact of her existence.
Jumping up from her seat, she let down the window and stuck her head out, withdrawing it
a moment later with the brief and forcible ejaculation: 'Hell!'
Now I am old-fashioned. A woman, I consider, should be womanly. I have no patience
with the modern neurotic girl who jazzes from morning till night, smokes like a chimney, and
uses language which would make a Billingsgate fish-woman blush!
I looked up, frowning slightly, into a pretty, impudent face, surmounted by a rakish little
red hat. A thick cluster of black curls hid each ear. I judged that she was little more than
seventeen, but her face was covered with powder, and her lips were quite impossibly scarlet.
Nothing abashed, she returned my glance, and executed an expressive grimace.
19
'Dear me, we've shocked the kind gentleman!' she observed to an imaginary audience. 'I
apologize for my language! Most unladylike, and all that, but, oh, Lord, there's reason enough
for it! Do you know I've lost my only sister?'
'Really?' I said politely. 'How unfortunate.'
'He disapproves?' remarked the lady. 'He disapproves utterly—of me, and my sister—
which last is unfair, because he hasn't seen her!'
I opened my mouth, but she forestalled me.
'Say no more! Nobody loves me! I shall go into the garden and eat worms! Boohoo. I am
crushed!'
She buried herself behind a large comic French paper. In a minute or two I saw her eyes
stealthily peeping at me over the top. In spite of myself I could not help smiling, and in a minute
she had tossed the paper aside, and had burst into a merry peal of laughter.
The Big Four by Agaha Christie
…The floor was covered with a dark-green linoleum which was ideal for showing up
footprints. A door at the farther end led into the small kitchen. From there another door led into
the scullery (where the back door was situated), and another into the bedroom which had been
occupied by Robert Grant. Having explored the ground, Poirot commented upon it in a low
running monologue.
"Here is where the body lay; that big dark stain and the splashes all around mark the spot.
Traces of carpet slippers and 'number nine' boots, you observe, but all very confused. Then two
sets of tracks leading to and from the kitchen; whoever the murderer was, he came in that way.
You have the boot, Hastings? Give it to me."
He compared it carefully with the prints. "Yes, both made by the same man, Robert Grant.
He came in that way, killed the old man, and went back to the kitchen. He had stepped in the
blood; see the stains he left as he went out? Nothing to be seen in the kitchen—all the village has
been walking about in it. He went into his own room—no, first he went back again to the scene
of the crime—was that to get the little jade figures? Or had he forgotten something that might
incriminate him?"
"Perhaps he killed the old man the second time he went in?" I suggested.
"Mais non, you do not observe. On one of the outgoing footmarks stained with blood there
is superimposed an ingoing one. I wonder what he went back for—the little jade figures as an
afterthought? It is all ridiculous—stupid."
"Well, he's given himself away pretty hopelessly."
"N'est-ce pas? I tell you, Hastings, it goes against reason. It offends my little grey cells. Let
us go into his bedroom—ah, yes; there is the smear of blood on the lintel and just a trace of
footmarks—the bloodstained."
"Robert Grant's footmarks, and his only, near the body—Robert Grant the only man who
went near the house. Yes, it must be so."
"What about the old woman?" I said suddenly. "She was in the house alone after Grant had
gone for the milk. She might have killed him and then gone out. Her feet would leave no prints if
she hadn't been outside."
"Very good, Hastings. I wondered whether that hypothesis would occur to you. I had
already thought of it and rejected it. Betsy Andrews is a local woman, well known hereabouts.
She can have no connection with the Big Four; and, besides, old Whalley was a powerful fellow,
by all accounts. This is a man's work—not a woman's."
"I suppose the Big Four couldn't have had some diabolical contrivance concealed in the
ceiling—something which descended automatically and cut the old man's throat and was
afterwards drawn up again?"
"Like Jacob's ladder? I know, Hastings, that you have an imagination of the most fertile—
but I implore of you to keep it within bounds."
I subsided, abashed. Poirot continued to wander about, poking into rooms and cupboards
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