GE|Adults|Intermediate|Revise and Check 18-23

Man Woman Journalist Footballer John Mary Policeman Gerald Mother Tony Alex

Man: So then I spoke to the manager… Hey, my computer’s not working.
Woman: The electricity’s just gone off. It’ll come back on in a minute.
Man: Oh no. I don’t know if I’ve saved the article I was writing.
Woman: Doesn’t it save automatically?
Man: Yes, but only every half hour. Oh — it’s back on again. Now we’ll see. Yes, thank goodness, it’s all there. If I hadn’t saved it, I would have had to look up all that information again.
Woman: You were lucky. So tell me what the manager said…

Journalist: Why do you always wear that yellow T-shirt when you play?
Footballer: Man It’s my lucky shirt. I put it on under my football shirt.
Journalist: Do you really believe it brings you luck?
Footballer: Well, I suppose it’s just superstition really. But the one time I wasn’t wearing it we lost.
Journalist: Why weren’t you wearing it?
Footballer: Because I’d left it out the night before on my chair, but my wife thought it looked dirty and put it in the washing machine.

John: What are you reading?
Mary: The Minotaur by Barbara Vine.
John: She’s a detective writer, isn’t she?
Mary: Yes, she’s brilliant.
John: You’re always reading detective novels. Don’t you ever read anything else?
Mary: Of course I do. I read lots of classics, and science fiction too. It’s just that when I’m on a train or a bus I need something light. And anything’s better than reading the sports papers like you do. Anyway, shut up now and let me read. I’m just about to find out who the murderer is.

Policeman: OK, now I’m going to ask you a few questions. And just so that you know, this interview will be recorded. This is detective inspector David Hawkins interviewing Gerald Carter on Thursday May the 20th. OK, let’s start with what you were doing last night.
Gerald: I was at home.
Policeman: Any witnesses?
Gerald: My mum. She was there. You can ask her if you like.
Policeman: So you didn’t go out at all.
Gerald: No, I stayed in and watched TV. Wel, I went to the corner shop to get milk, but that was just five minutes.
Policeman: Did you watch anything in particular? On TV?
Gerald: Yeah, the football. England and Denmark. Rubbish match.
Policeman: So you weren’t anywhere near the pub? The Kings Head?
Gerald: The pub? Me? No way.
Policeman: So you’d be surprised to hear that three people saw you there.
Gerald: They’re lying. And I’m not going to answer any more questions without a lawyer.

Mother: Could you turn the TV off, please?
Tony: But Mum, it hasn’t finished yet.
Mother: What hasn’t finished?
Alex: The film. It’s Star Wars. The Return of the Jedi.
Mother: But you’ve seen it before. I know you have.
Tony: Yes, but it’s so good. And it’s nearly finished, I promise. Just five more minutes.
Mother: I don’t care. It’s 10 o’clock and it’s time to go to bed. It’s already half an hour past your normal bedtime.
Alex: But yesterday you said we could watch it if we’d finished our homework.
Mother: Yes, but I didn’t know it was on so late. Bedtime and that’s that.

Fred Molly

Fred: You like crime novels, don’t you Molly? Which one do you think is your favourite?
Molly: Mmm. I used to read Agatha Christie a lot — I think my favourite is probably still Murder on the Orient Express.
Fred: I’ve never read it. Why do you like it so much?
Molly: I love the setting, which is on a train in Yugoslavia in the 1930s. It’s very exotic. Also, it has a fascinating mix of characters including a Russian princess, an English colonel, and an American actress.
Fred: So, what’s the plot?
Molly: Well, there’s a snowstorm in the middle of the night, which stops the train, and one of the passengers is found murdered. Poirot, the detective, who happens to be a passenger, realizes the murderer must be on the train because there are no footprints in the snow, so all twelve passengers and the train conductor become suspects.
Fred: Uh-huh.
Molly: Poirot finds several pieces of evidence in the victim’s cabin, for example, a handkerchief, a button, pieces of a letter, which seem to suggest the murderer has just been careless. But he can’t prove who did it because at first one person seems guilty and then another until it looks as if it could have been any one of the thirteen.
Fred: It’s quite complicated, isn’t it?
Molly: Yes, and we keep finding out more information. For example, Poirot realizes that everything happened an hour earlier than he’d thought because they’d entered a new time zone. So his first theory is that the crime could have been carried out by someone who had left the train before the snow started. But… it doesn’t explain all the facts, does it?
Fred: Er …
Molly: But I don’t want to spoil the ending for you. You could just watch the film — it’s perfect for a cold winter’s evening.
Fred: Good idea.