Learning English

Will Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson solve the mystery?

How do you think the story will end?

A) Sherlock Holmes solves the mystery
B) Dr Watson solves the mystery
C) The mystery remains unsolved
D) Something else 

To do

Watch the video and find out which option is correct. And listen out for four more uses of dead.

ነቲ ቪድዮ ብምዕዛብ ነቲ ስራሕ ዕመምዎ

To do

So, the correct answer was A) Sherlock Holmes solves the mystery. He realises that Stapleton used the dogs to kill Charles and attempt to kill Henry in order to inherit the money.

Now lets practise the different uses of dead. Have a go at this quiz.

Over to you

How was that? Now it's time for you to tell us a story! It can be a true story or an imagined one - but it must be your own original work. Try to use as many of the phrases with dead as possible:

• dead
• dead certain
• deadly danger 
• the dead of night 
• stops dead in his tracks 
• dead silence 
• stone dead 
• dead giveaway 
• dead ringer 

Email your story to us at [email protected]. Make sure you write 'dead story' in the subject line and in your email too. Unfortunately, we can't give individual feedback, but we do read every email, and we’ll publish our favourites here or on our social media sites.

Your stories

Bernard 

One morning Chameleon found his neighbour dead and he thought it must be someone responsible for his death.
And Chameleon was dead certain that it was an eagle who killed him because he saw some marks of claws.
It was a dead give away the owl had seen the eagle on Chameleon's neighbour compound at [in] the dead of night .While he was on his usual duty ,the owl stopped dead in his tracks .
Suddenly he heard a big scream then dead silence.
And he thought the Chameleon's neighbour was in deadly danger.
When he aproached he found Chameleon’s neighbour laying stone dead though the had hiden himself .
Finally the eagle come and Chameleon become confused with their both site because they are a dead ringer for each other that he hardly know whom he had talking to and who has come.
But Chameleon was dead certain they are both flesh eaters divided by day and night.

BBC Learning English says:

Thanks for the story. You have accurately used some great examples of the word ‘dead’

____________________

Yana, Ukraine

One day Tom was walking home in the dead of night. He didn't think that it can be a deadly danger.  He really liked night walking and pretty often had been returning home along after midnight. There was dead silence around him, the town had been sleeping.  Suddenly he heard a loud noise and then a woman screamed. Tom stopped dead in his tracks.  Then all become quiet again. But Tom was  dead certain that something bad had happened to this woman. Maybe she had was already dead. 

He had decided to go in a direction where he heard the scream and found the woman, who was stone dead. Suddenly Tom had heard a meow and looked up, where he saw a cat in open window.  The piece of cloth was hanging on the handle of the window. It was a dead ringer to the fabric from a woman dress. It was a dead giveaway to find who this woman was. He called the police and told them everything that he had known. And then he continued his walk to home.

BBC Learning English says:

What a scary walk home but with some good uses of ‘dead’! Thanks for sending it in.

____________________

Next

That's the end of Session 4. In session 5, Tim's in the pronunciation workshop. Don't miss it!