Name:

Three is a lucky number

Reading comprehension activities
1. Read pages 1, 2 and 3 again. Answer the questions.
a. What was Ronald Torbay doing at the beginning of the story?
b. What did he realize?
c. Where and who did he live with?
d. What was the pattern of his three marriages?
e. What did the will say?
f. How did Mary and Dorothy die?
g. What did Ronald notice from the moment he saw Edyth?
h. What was Edyth background?
i. When did Edyth marry Ronald?
j. Why was this marriage the most pleasant of all?
k. Why did Ronald decide that it was time to act?
l. What did he start doing?
m. What was Edyth doing?
2. Writing:
Imagine that you are Ronald. Write the plan for your fourth murder.
Include: name of the victim; when and where you met her; her
personality; her background; how you plan to kill her; how the story
ends. Give details. Use a wide range of vocabulary. Narrator: 1st person
singular. Write 120-150 words.

Name:

1.
a. He was making preparations for his third murder.
b. He realized that murdering people became more dangerous if he did it
often.
c. He lived with his wife Edyth in a flat that he had rented.
d. Ronald used a false name and went to a place where no one knew
him. He found a middle-aged unattractive woman, with some money of
her own and no family. The woman would not make friends quickly in a
new place. Finally, he married her.
e. The woman made a will which left him all her money.
f. Mary had had a deadly accident almost unnoticed, in the bathroom
of the house he had rented. The police hadnt found anything wrong.
Dorothy had given Ronald more trouble because she wasnt alone in the
world as she had told him. Dorothys brother appeared at the funeral and
asked questions about her money. Ronald won the court case and the
insurance company paid him the money.
g. From the moment he saw Edyth he knew she was his next subject.
He could see that she was not happy and that she was wearing a
valuable ring.
h. Edyth background was suitable for Ronald. She had taught girls
school for ten years. Then she looked after her sick father and stayed
with him until he died. She was now 43 years old and she didnt know
what to do with herself.
i. Edyth married Ronald five weeks after they met.
j. Because he found Edyth a cheerful person. She was also quite
sensible.
k. Because of the way Edyth refused to talk about her money and
because of her unnecessary interest in his job. (THEY CAN GIVE
MORE INFO)
l. He began to run water into the bath to prepare it for Edyth. (THEY
CAN GIVE MORE DETAILS)
m. She was clearing the dead leaves from the edge of the roof. She must
be standing on the ladder which was kept otside the kitchen door.