4

DOMINOES
Sherlock Holmes:
The Speckled Band S

‘Help me,’ says Helen Stoner. ‘My sister died, and

now I am going to die too.’

SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE SPECKLED BAND   SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson must answer the
question of how Julia Stoner died, two years ago.
If they cannot, then Helen Stoner will die too. But
her house is very strange - and her stepfather, Dr
Grimesby Roylott, is very angry and does not want
Holmes there.
Who killed Julia, and how? And why did she say
‘the speckled band!’ before she died?

Text adaptation by Lesley Thompson

Illustrated by Giorgio Bacchin
  Dramatized audio available

Word count 3,371

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 DOMINOES

Sherlock Holmes:
The Speckled Band
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Founder Editors: Bill Bowler and Sue Parminter

Text adaptation by Lesley Thompson
Illustrated by Giorgio Bacchin

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), born in Edinburgh, Scotland, is best known as the
creator of Sherlock Holmes. He started writing after working as a doctor, and soon became
one of the world’s best-known authors. The Sherlock Holmes stories The Blue Diamond,
The Emerald Crown, The Norwood Mystery, and The Sign of Four are also available as
Dominoes.

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 1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, ox2 6dp, United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade
mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
This edition © Oxford University Press 2015
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First published in Dominoes 2015
2019  2018  2017  2016
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
No unauthorized photocopying
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as
expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the
appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning
reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the ELT
Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must
impose this same condition on any acquirer
Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and
for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials
contained in any third party website referenced in this work
isbn: 978 0 19 460905 0 Book
isbn: 978 0 19 463920 0 Book and Audio Pack
Printed in China
This book is printed on paper from certified and well-managed sources

acknowledgements
Illustrations and cover artwork by: Giorgio Bacchin/Beehive Illustration Agency.
The publisher would like to thank the following for permission to reproduce photographs: Alamy
Images p.40 (snake/Interpix); Corbis pp.30 (Victorian Gothic English country house/Clay
Perry), 40 (spotted porcupinefish/Dave Fleetham/Design Pics); Getty Images pp.31 (young
baboon/Tony Karumba), 31 (cheetah running/Gallo Images - Martin Harvey), 40 (blue
poison dart frog/Danita Delimont), 40 (blue ringed octopus/Richard Merritt FRPS).

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 Contents

Before Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv
Chapter 1   Before Her Wedding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Chapter 2   The Old House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Chapter 3   Dr Grimesby Roylott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Chapter 4   The Bedrooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Chapter 5   Danger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Chapter 6   The Speckled Band . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Project A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Project B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
About Dominoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

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 ACTIVITIES
BEFORE READING
1 Match the words and pictures. Use a dictionary to help you.

a  prison b  marry c  inn d  lamp

1 2

3 4

2 What do you think happens in the story? Complete the sentences with the words
from Activity 1 in the correct form.

a Dr Roylott an English woman in India.

b He kills somebody and he goes to   .
c Holmes and Watson stay at an near Stoke Moran.
d Helen Stoner puts a in her window and Holmes sees it.

Dr Roylott Helen Stoner Sherlock Holmes Dr Watson

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 1.  Before Her Wedding

It is 1883 in London and we are at 221B Baker Street.

Sherlock Holmes is at home with his good friend, Dr
Watson. Mrs Hudson, the servant, comes into the room.
‘Mr Holmes,’ she says, ‘there is a young woman at the
door. She wants to see you.’
‘Of course,’ Holmes says.
A woman of about thirty walks into the room. Her hair is
beginning to go white and her face is older than her years.
Doctor, Dr this
‘Please sit down,’ Holmes says. ‘Are you cold? Would you person helps
people when they
like a hot drink?’ are ill
‘I’m not cold,’ the woman answers. ‘I’m tired and I’m servant  a person
who works for
afraid. Oh, Mr Holmes, can you help me? I can’t give you someone rich
any money now, but in six weeks I marry. After that, I can marry  to make
someone your
give you money for your work.’ husband or wife

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 ‘It doesn’t matter about that now,’ Holmes smiles. ‘Now
sit down and tell me your story.’
‘My name is Helen Stoner and I live with my stepfather.
His name is Dr Grimesby Roylott.’
‘Ah yes, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran,’ Holmes says. ‘I
know them. They are an old, important family.’
‘They aren’t very important now,’ Helen says. ‘They
stepfather not have the big, old house at Stoke Moran, it’s true, but it
your father, but
married to your needs a lot of work. My stepfather lives on my mother’s
mother
money. She is dead, and my poor sister is dead too.’
poor something
you say when ‘Your sister?’ Holmes asks.
you feel sorry for
someone ‘Yes, my sister Julia.’

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 Holmes thinks for a minute.
‘Now I remember the story of that family. Grimesby Roylott
goes to India and he’s an important doctor in Calcutta for
many years. He marries a woman with two young children.
One day, there is a robbery in his house. Roylott is angry with
one of his servants, he hits him and the man dies. Roylott is in Calcutta 
/kælˈkʌtə/
prison in India for a long time. When he comes out, he cannot robbery taking
something that is
work and he goes back to England with his family. His wife dies not yours 
when her daughters are two years old. The little girls go to live prison  a place
where people
with their stepfather at his family’s old house. The family live must stay when
they do something
happily for some years. wrong

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 ‘Miss Stoner, why are you afraid?’ Holmes
asks.
‘My stepfather is a different man
now, a very unhappy man. He
is always angry and everybody
is afraid of him, not only me.
His only friends are the gypsies.
They sleep near the house. He
sometimes goes away with them
for many weeks. When he comes
back, he doesn’t
Cheetah speak for days.
He brings animals
from India and he puts
them in the garden. A
cheetah and a baboon
are living there now.
Nobody wants to visit
gypsy somebody us. It’s terrible!’
who doesn’t live
in a house, and ‘So you are alone with
travels a lot
your stepfather,’ Holmes
animal  a living
being that moves; says quietly.
a dog or a cat is an Baboon
animal ‘Yes, Julia is dead. Dead for two
terrible very years – and only two weeks before her wedding,’ Helen
bad; making
people afraid says sadly. ‘I want to talk to you about her, Mr Holmes.
alone with I can’t stop thinking about her death these days. I feel
nobody
wedding the very alone in that big house. My days are long and I can’t
day when two
people marry
sleep at night because I see her poor face!’
sad  not happy Holmes looks carefully at the young woman. ‘Tell me
death when about your sister’s death, Miss Stoner,’ he says.
someone stops
living

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 5

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 ACTIVITIES
READING CHECK
Match the people in Chapter 1 with the sentences. You can use some names more
than once.

a Mrs Hudson opens the door and speaks to Sherlock Holmes.

b is a young woman but she looks old.
c is a good friend to Sherlock Holmes.
d Helen Stoner is afraid of   .
e remembers the story of the Roylott family.
f wants to marry an old friend.
g Helen tells and Dr Watson about Dr Roylott.

WORD WORK
1 Find words from Chapter 1 to match the pictures.

a sad b c

d e f
6

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 ACTIVITIES
2 Use the words in the safe to complete the sentences.

doctor terrible

alone

poor

wedding

stepfather

animal

a Watson is a doctor   .

b Helen says ‘ Julia’ because she feels sorry for her sister.
c The cheetah is a very fast   .
d Dr Roylott marries Helen’s mother so he is Helen’s   .
e When Julia dies, Helen is at Stoke Moran.
f Julia’s death is a thing for Helen.
g Julia dies only two weeks before her   .

GUESS WHAT
What happens in the next chapter? Tick two boxes.

a   Helen tells Holmes about her sister’s death.

b   Holmes cannot help Helen.
c   Helen dies in Watson’s arms.
d   Helen feels much better.
7

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Around the World in Eighty Days
Jules Verne
‘Today you can go around the world in eighty days,’ says Phileas
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This is the beginning of one of Jules Verne’s most exciting stories.
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The Bottle Imp

Robert Louis Stevenson
Keawe buys a magic bottle that can give him anything he wants.
He builds a beautiful house, falls in love with and marries Kokua,
and is very happy.
But if you have the bottle and die, you go to hell – and when
Keawe tries to get rid of the bottle, it comes back. He wants to sell
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Can Kokua find a way to help Keawe? Or will one of them go to
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