THE ADVENTURE OF THE CLAPHAM COOK 1- Answer these questions

Vernica Quartucci

Captain Hastings and Poirot were reading the newspaper the headline Absconding Bank Clerk Disappears with Fifty Thousand Pounds Worth of negotiable Securities when a woman called Mrs Todd came to Poirots house requiring his services. Her problem was that her cook, Eliza, had gone. At the beginning he was not interested in the case and he told her that he was a private detective, and he didnt touch that particular kind of business, but he changed his mind when he realized that it was very important for her to find her cook.

In the newspapers Poirot advertised a phrase that made Eliza go to his house. There she told him that she left her place of employment because that night, near Mrs Todds a beard Australian lawyer had shown her a letter from Melbourne saying she had inherited a house in Carlisle, Cumberland and a considerable sum of money, but she might be taking possession of the house immediately. He advised her to get the station at this moment to catch the train. There she wrote a letter to Mrs Todd explaining the facts and gave it to the lawyer. Eliza thought Missus was angry because she sent up her things in paper parcels, keeping her trunk.

When she finished telling the whole story Poirot solved the case. Someone needed the trunk, and also needed the cook out of his way for a long time. The answer was in Mrs Todds paying guest Mr Simpson. He worked in the same bank as the absconding bank clerk called Davis. Mr Simpson was the thief; he murdered Mr Davis, disposed his body in the trunk and sent it anywhere. But he didnt escaped, he was discovered on the Olympia, en route to America. Poirot framed Mrs Todds cheque to remember him never to despise the trivial, the undignified. A disappearing domestic at one end, a cold-blooded murder at the other.

2- Give appropriate information / descriptions connected with the following nouns that appear in the story: a) Mrs Todd: She is a stout red-faced lady. b) Eliza Dunn: She is a middle-aged, tall, stout, black hair turning grey, most respectable woman. She has been ten years in Mrs Todds house and she is a good and economical cook. c) Elizas trunk: It is a pedigree battered tin trunk of assured respectability. d) Annie: A very obliging neat maid, with a pretty face. e) Mr Simpson: He is Mrs Todds paying guest. A twenty-eight nice inconspicuous quiet young fellow with spectacles. He works in the same bank as Mr Davis. f) Mr Todd: a melancholy lantern-jawed man of forty-odd. He is never worried. He works in a firm in the city. g) Mr Davis: A bank clerk, it is supposed to be absconded. He works in the same bank as Mr Simpson. h) Kings Cross: It is a railway station in London. It is on the northern edge of Central London, in the Kings Cross district.

3- Look for names of cities and regions that are mentioned in the text and say where they are. Clapham: It is a district in south London. Australia: officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere. Melbourne: it is an Australian city. Cumberland: the extreme N.W. county of England. Carlisle: It is a city located within the county of Cumberland, in the northwest of England. London: the capital of England and the United Kingdom.

4- Write a letter as if you were Mrs Todd. Write the letter to a friend of yours telling her/him what has happened in your house. (Number of words 150/180)

Dear Sally: I thought Id better write and let you know that my cook Eliza has gone, she has disappeared and I asked the well known detective Poirot to find her. You may laugh at this decision, but you know, a good cook is a good cook. She walked out of the house and never came back. I thought of inquire at any of the hospitals, but surprisingly she sent for her box. The detective inquired Annie, the maid, about Eliza. He also asked some questions to my husband and to our paying guest Mr Simpson. After talking the matter over with my husband I saw it was foolish to call in a detective about a purely domestic affair. And my husband convinced me saying: Well, get another! And I decided to do that even though I know it is not easy to find another cook. Im looking forward to your next letter, so write as soon as you know! With all my love, Vero