Detectives and crime: reading, literacy and text-based activities for KS3 (11-13yo)

1. Detectives and Crime

2. SPELLING
WRITE OUT EACH OF THE SPELLING WORDS FIVE TIMES FOR PRACTICE.
precipitous
bedraggled
parallel
glowering
unexpected
unavoidable
gladiator
slightest
cavernous
interrupted

3. Struggle at the Waterfall: the words of Dr Watson at the end of the ‘The Final Problem’
I stood for a minute or two to collect myself, for I was dazed with the horror of the thing.
I followed along the path to where the two men had struggled on the edge of the precipitous drop. Near the
edge of the falls, the blackish soil is kept forever soft by the continuous drift of spray from the plunging waters. In
front of me, two lines of footmarks were clearly imprinted along end of the path, both leading away from me.
Although the prints led to the cliff’s edge, there was none returning. A few yards from the end, and the cavernous
drop, the soil was ploughed up into sharp ridges and a patch of fresh mud; the branches of nearby ferns, which
fringed the chasm, were also torn, trampled and bedraggled. I feared the worst. Crouching close to the ground, I
inched my head towards the edge and peered over, with the waterfall’s spray billowing into my eyes. The sun had
dropped since I left the hostel, and now the darkness glowered all around me. All that was visible over the cliff’s
edge was the glistening of moisture on the mountain’s black walls, like an open gullet. Far, way down, half a mile I
should say, the last gleam of the sun’s light broke on the boiling waters below. I shouted, but only the half-human
cry of my echo answered. It was all to clear that Holmes had gone, forever.

4. Find and write the meaning for each of the following words:
Precipitous _____________________________________________________
Fringed ________________________________________________________
Cavernous ______________________________________________________
Chasm _________________________________________________________
Bedraggled _____________________________________________________
Billowing _______________________________________________________
Glowered ______________________________________________________
Gullet _________________________________________________________

5. Extract from: Murder on the Island
Pugnale, was a tall, Italian man who wore a black patch over his right eye, and he had the kind of broad, fierce features that would
have better suited a Roman gladiator. Brutish and focused, he pushed his way through an oak-panelled door at the side of Queen’s
Club and down three steps and out onto the gravel drive.
Pugnale was thinking about the poker game that he had just played, and the three spades which he had magically been dealt to clinch
his win. He was on his way to attend a business meeting with the Dragon Triad at the Shanghai Century Hyatt complex, but he felt
annoyed that this unexpected engagement had interrupted his run of good fortune at the card table.
Suddenly, out of the shadows, the figures of two blind beggars appeared in front of Pugnale, and suspiciously Pugnale began to
monitor the progress of these two ragged men as they slowly tapped their way along the pavement in front of the club’s black
railings. He calculated that they would pass him just before he reached his car which was parked in the shade of a tall acacia tree next
to the gatehouse. Now almost parallel with the beggars, he flipped a dollar coin into the tin cup held by the foremost man, and the
beggar responded with, ‘Bless you.’ in a heavily accented croaky voice.
Pacing faster, Pugnale reached into his pocket for the car’s ignition key, and as he did so, he vaguely registered that the tapping of the
blind men’s sticks had stopped. But it was already too late for Pugnale.
The two men disguised as blind beggars had now both turned, and stood side by side directly behind the broad-shouldered Italian.
Each held a black, Russian-made nine millimetre pistol aimed at Pugnale’s head, and both of the guns’ dull muzzles sported short,
black silencers. Without flash or flame, the four pistol shots were nothing more than sharp hisses in the still heat of the summer air.
Then, almost in slow-motion, Pugnale’s body crashed forward, with a crunching slap, onto the blood-spattered gravel. And there he
lay, wide-eyed and still as the bell tower began to chime twelve.
There was just the slightest haze of white dust that hovered where Pugnale had dropped - the white ghostly echo of his fall.

6. List five things that are either similar or different about the story details in the two extracts:
1. ________________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________________________
4. ________________________________________________________________________
5. ________________________________________________________________________

7. Test your understanding (Murder on the Island)
1) GLADIATOR:
a) priest b) fighter c) servant
2) CHIME:
a) ring b) sing c) king
3) MUZZLE:
a) end of gun barrel b) gun trigger c) gun handle
4) PARALLEL:
a) round b) running side by side c) square
5) FOREMOST:
a) last b) first c) in the middle
6) ENGAGEMENT:
a) a conversation b) a trip c) an appointment
Murder on the Island: true or false ?
1. Pugnale was a short man.
2. Pugnale was a gambler.
3. Pugnale had just been to Queen’s Club.
4. It was noon.
5. Pugnale saw two crippled men.
6. Pugnale did something genereous.
7. Pugnale died immediately when he was shot.
8. Pugnale fell into the gravel.

8. Describe what each of the following underlined phrases tells the reader about the detail in each story
Murder on the IslandStruggle at the Waterfall
‘the soil was ploughed up into sharp ridges and a patch of
fresh mud’
‘ploughed up’ suggests ___________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
‘the darkness glowered all around me’
‘darkness glowered’ suggests ____________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
‘the glistening of moisture on the mountain’s black walls, like
an open gullet. ’
‘like an open gullet’ suggests _____________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
‘fierce features that would have better suited a Roman
gladiator’
‘would have better suited a Roman gladiator’ suggests
________________________________________
________________________________________
‘the four pistol shots were nothing more than sharp hisses in
the still heat of the summer air’
‘nothing more than sharp hisses’ suggests ____________
________________________________________
________________________________________
‘haze of white dust that hovered where Pugnale had dropped
- the white ghostly echo of his fall. ’
‘the white ghostly echo of his fall’ suggests: ___________
________________________________________
________________________________________

9. WRITING A PEEL PARAGRAPH:
How does the scenery at the waterfall suggest threat and violence in the Sherlock Holmes extract?
Point - make one or two comments about how the scenery seems to suggest threat and violence
(without using quotes at this point)
Evidence - put in a quote from the text that backs up the point that you are making
(i.e. the details in the quote suggest some kind of threat or violence in or around the waterfall)
Explore - explain what the quote is describing and also explain how it seems threatening or violent
Link - explain how these details in the extract would strengthen the reader’s sense of drama around the
disappearance of Sherlock.

10. WRITING A PEEL PARAGRAPH:
How does the scenery at the waterfall suggest threat and violence in the Sherlock Holmes extract?
Point – The setting for the extract seems…
(troubling, oppressive, mysterious, savage, ferocious, brutal, harsh, fierce, cruel)
Evidence – This can be seen in the wording: ‘………..’
Explore - Threat and violence is suggested in this quote, because…
Link - This background menace adds extra drama to the scene, because the reader…
(explain the impact and the impression that the scenery has on the reader)

11. Success Criteria
READ THROUGH YOU PARAGRAPH AND CHECK WHETHER:
1. You have followed the PEEL plan Yes/No
2. You have written in complete sentences with full stops and capital letters Yes/No
3. You have:
• explored the meaning of the quotes Yes/No
• linked the details back to the question Yes/No
WHAT ELSE COULD YOU ADD TO YOUR PARAGRAPH TO IMPROVE IT?