Tom: John Blake was trying to find out about a pendant that had been stolen from a museum. With his friend, Mary Green, he went to the shop of the bookseller, Mr. Egg. They found him dead, murdered. Someone set the shop on fire, but they managed to escape. The detective asked them to go to the police station. He asked them several questions, and he also gave John back his cigarette lighter, that Miss Haverel had taken from him. Miss Haverel was a strange old lady. The stolen pendant had once belonged to her. When they left the police station, John asked: “Where was Miss Haverel at 7 o’clock tonight?” Mary said: “Let’s find out. Let’s go back to Miss Haverel’s.” But John didn’t want to. “I promised the detective,” he said, “I said I’d go straight home. He said he’d jump on me.”
Cathy: Wait a minute, Tom. “I said I’d go straight home.” “He said he’d jump on me.” Is this the same form we were talking about last time?
Tom: Oh, no. They sound the same, but they’re not. D’you remember our example: “If he lived long enough, he’d make a good husband.” But here John said: “He said he’d jump on me.” In Present Tense the sentences would be: “He says he’ll jump on me.” “He says he’ll go straight home.” But in the Past Tense, we have to use “should” or “would” instead of “shall” or “will”. “He said he would jump on me.” “He said he’d go straight home.”
Tom: “John asks where they’ll go.”
Cathy: “John asked where they would go.”
Tom: Good. “John promises that he won’t play at detectives.”
Cathy: “John promised that he wouldn’t play at detectives.”
Tom: Correct. “Mary says they’ll go to Miss Haverel’s.”
Cathy: “Mary said they would go to Miss Haverel’s.”
Tom: That’s right, Cathy. Well,
John didn’t want to go to Miss Haverel’s. He was afraid of the detective. “He
said he’d jump on me,” he remarked. But Mary replied, “He can’t. We’re not
breaking the law.” If you kill or if you steal, you break the law. That is, you
do something wrong for which you can be arrested and put into prison. But John
and Mary weren’t breaking the law by going to Miss Haverel’s. They wanted to
find out what Miss Haverel had been doing that evening.
John: Where was Miss Haverel at 7 o’clock tonight?
Mary: Let’s find out.
John: How?
Mary: Let’s go back to Miss Haverel.
John: We can’t go back to Miss Haverel.
Mary: Are you afraid of an old lady?
John: The detective told me to go straight home.
Mary: Yes, he told me to take you there.
John: So, we can’t go to Miss Haverel, can we?
Mary: The detective doesn’t know everything.
John: He said he’d jump on me.
Mary: We must go now, immediately.
John: If the detective finds out, he’ll lock us up.
Mary: He can’t, we are not breaking the law. We’re visiting Miss Haverel.
John: But I promised the detective… I said I’d go straight home.
Mary: We want to find the pendant, don’t we? Come on!
John: To Miss Haverel?
Mary: To Miss Haverel’s house.
Tom: Well, Mary insisted on going to Miss Haverel’s. John said, “The detective told me to go straight home, so we can’t go to Miss Haverel’s, can we?” But Mary was firm: “We want to find the pendant, don’t we?”
Cathy: Tom, let’s revise the short questions “we can’t go, can we?”, “we want to find it, don’t we?”
Tom: Well, that’s a very English way of asking for agreement. All you have to remember is that when the first verb is positive, the short question is negative, and when the first verb is negative, the short question is positive.
Woman: (sounds of orchestral music) Isn’t it lovely? I do like Beethoven, and especially the Seventh Symphony. It’s charming, isn’t it?
Man: But darling, it isn’t Beethoven – it’s Dvořák’s New World Symphony.
Woman: It’s not! It’s Beethoven, isn’t it, Mr. Brown?
Mr. Brown: Well, John, I hope your wife isn’t as stupid as she looks, is she?
Cathy: I see, I see. So that’s the short question at the end of a sentence, isn’t it?
Tom: Yes, it is.
Cathy: You explained it very well, didn’t you?
Tom: I hope so.
Cathy: Well, I think we ought to go on now, oughtn’t we?
Tom: Yes, you are right.
Cathy: We’ll listen to the next part of the story, won’t we?
Tom: Yes, we will.
Cathy: In the next part John and Mary go to Miss Haverel’s, don’t they?
Tom: Yes, they do. They go to Miss Haverel’s house, and knock on the door.
(knocks on the door)
Miss Haverel: Good evening.
John: Oh, hello.
Miss Haverel: I am Miss Haverel.
John: How do you do?
Miss Haverel: You’re Mr. Blake, aren’t you? We have met before, I remember the face. Where have I seen you before?
John: Here, I visited you this morning.
Miss Haverel: Of course. You brought your sister with you.
John: I brought my friend with me. This is my friend, Mary Green.
Miss Haverel: How do you do, Miss Green?
Mary: How do you do?
Miss Haverel: I’m pleased to meet any of Mr. Blake’s friends. But you look just like his sister. Do come in!
Mary: Thank you.
Miss Haverel: Come upstairs. I’m afraid the servants are all out. This way…
John: Thank you, thank you…
Tom: Miss Haverel remembered John at once: “You’re Mr. Blake, aren’t you?” But she didn’t remember Mary. She thought Mary was John’s sister. “You look just like his sister,” she said. Then John began to ask her questions, and he told her Mr. Egg had been killed. “Someone stuck a knife into him,” he told Miss Haverel. “Some people are so careless,” was the old lady’s answer.
Woman1: (sounds of breaking a plate) Oh, my most beautiful plate!
Woman2: I am so sorry! I put it at the edge of the table and knocked it off.
Woman1: How careless of you to put a plate like that at the edge of the table!
Tom: Well, when Miss Haverel heard that someone stuck a knife into Mr. Egg, she said: “Some people are so careless. They’re not careful about what they do.” And she said: “You leave Mr. Egg to the police.”
(footsteps)
Miss Haverel: Here we are. Sit down, please.
John: Thank you. (after a short pause) When did you last go out, Miss Haverel?
Miss Haverel: Let me see… I went out last week.
John: Didn’t you go out this evening?
Miss Haverel: No. I had a visitor this evening.
John: You didn’t go to Mr. Egg’s bookshop, did you?
Miss Haverel: I’ve never been there.
John: We saw Mr. Egg this evening.
Miss Haverel: How is he?
John: He’s dead.
Miss Haverel: I’m not surprised.
Mary: Aren’t you?
Miss Haverel: He never looked healthy—he didn’t eat enough fruit and green vegetables. Do you eat fruit?
Mary: And green vegetables, Miss Haverel.
Miss Haverel: Good girl. But you look healthy.
John: Mr. Egg died suddenly about 7 o’clock tonight. Someone stuck a knife into him.
Miss Haverel: Some people are very careless.
John: The police are asking questions.
Miss Haverel: Then you leave Mr. Egg to the police. They’ll know what to do with him.
Mary: Miss Haverel, d’you remember a book written in Italian?
Miss Haverel: I remember several books written in Italian.
Mary: Can you speak Italian?
Miss Haverel: No, but I remember the books.
Mary: I’m talking about a book with pictures in it. This book had a picture of your pendant in it. You sold the book to Mr. Egg. You remember that book, don’t you?
Miss Haverel: I remember the book and the pendant. Once I had both.
John: Now you have neither.
Miss Haverel: Oh, I have the pendant.
John: What? You have the pendant?
Mary: Where is it?
Tom: When Miss Haverel saw Mary, at first she thought she was John’s sister. She said to her: “You look just like his sister.” And she said later to Mary: “You look healthy.”
Man1: (sounds of underground) Pretty woman in a big hat!
Man2: Where?
Man1: There, walking ahead of us. I wonder what she looks like from the front.
Man2: Oh! That’s my wife. That’s her hat. Wait a minute, I’ll give her a surprise! Hello, darling!
Woman: Let me go! Who are you?
Man2: Oh, oh, excuse me! You look just like my wife.
Man1: Look, there’s the new manager.
Man2: Oh, he looks quite clever.
Man1: Well, he may look clever, but when he opens his mouth, he sounds very stupid.
Cathy: Well, Tom, what a pity the listeners can’t see what we look like!
Tom: I think it’s much better they can’t see me.
Cathy: And what about me?
Tom: Oh, you? You look just like Elizabeth Taylor.
Cathy: Well, Tom, it was very nice of you to say so, but I’m afraid it’s a slight exaggeration. Oh, never mind! It’s really a very slight one. But still…
Tom: Do you know what, Cathy? Though the listeners can’t see how pretty you look, they can hear how clever you sound, when you
EXERCISE YOUR ENGLISH.
Exercise 1
Listen to the example:
A: You speak too quickly.
B: Just like you.
Listen, speak, listen.
A: You speak too quickly.
[Your response]
B: Just like you.
A: Your car’s dirty.
[Your response]
B: Just like yours.
A: Miss Haverel is a bit eccentric.
[Your response]
B: Just like you.
A: You’re too lazy.
[Your response]
B: Just like you.
A: Your child’s frightened.
[Your response]
B: Just like yours.
A: You’re careless.
[Your response]
B: Just like you.
A: Your husband is breaking the law.
[Your response]
B: Just like yours.
A: You’re half asleep.
[Your response]
B: Just like you.
A: Your friend is late.
[Your response]
B: Just like yours.
A: You’re a good friend.
[Your response]
B: Just like you.
Exercise 2
Listen to the example:
A: You never look healthy.
B: What do you mean? I look just as healthy as you!
Listen, speak, listen.
A: You never look healthy.
[Your response]
B: What do you mean? I look just as healthy as you!
A: You never look happy.
[Your response]
B: What do you mean? I look just as happy as you!
A: They never look tired.
[Your response]
B: What do you mean? They look just as tired as you!
A: He never looks worried.
[Your response]
B: What do you mean? He looks just as worried as you!
A: She never looks frightened.
[Your response]
B: What do you mean? She looks just as frightened as you!
A: You never look surprised.
[Your response]
B: What do you mean? I look just as surprised as you!
Exercise 3
Listen to the example:
A: He’s a thief.
B: He doesn’t look like a thief.
Listen, speak, listen.
A: He’s a thief.
[Your response]
B: He doesn’t look like a thief.
A: They’re foreigners.
[Your response]
B: They don’t look like foreigners.
A: He’s a bachelor.
[Your response]
B: He doesn’t look like a bachelor.
A: She’s my sister.
[Your response]
B: She doesn’t look like your sister.
A: This is my coat.
[Your response]
B: It doesn’t look like your coat.
Tom: And here is our story once again. John and Mary left the police station and were talking about Miss Haverel.
John: Where was Miss Haverel at 7 o’clock tonight?
Mary: Let’s find out.
John: How?
Mary: Let’s go back to Miss Haverel.
John: We can’t go back to Miss Haverel.
Mary: Are you afraid of an old lady?
John: The detective told me to go straight home.
Mary: Yes, he told me to take you there.
John: So, we can’t go to Miss Haverel, can we?
Mary: The detective doesn’t know everything.
John: He said he’d jump on me.
Mary: We must go now, immediately.
John: If the detective finds out, he’ll lock us up.
Mary: He can’t, we are not breaking the law. We’re visiting Miss Haverel.
John: But I promised the detective… I said I’d go straight home.
Mary: We want to find the pendant, don’t we? Come on!
John: To Miss Haverel?
Mary: To Miss Haverel’s house.
(two car door slams, sound of a car driving off)
(knocks on the door)
Miss Haverel: Good evening.
John: Oh, hello.
Miss Haverel: I am Miss Haverel.
John: How do you do?
Miss Haverel: You’re Mr. Blake, aren’t you? We have met before, I remember the face. Where have I seen you before?
John: Here, I visited you this morning.
Miss Haverel: Of course. You brought your sister with you.
John: I brought my friend with me. This is my friend, Mary Green.
Miss Haverel: How do you do, Miss Green?
Mary: How do you do?
Miss Haverel: I’m pleased to meet any of Mr. Blake’s friends. But you look just like his sister. Do come in!
Mary: Thank you.
Miss Haverel: Come upstairs. I’m afraid the servants are all out. This way…
John: Thank you, thank you…
(footsteps)
Miss Haverel: Here we are. Sit down, please.
John: Thank you. (after a short pause) When did you last go out, Miss Haverel?
Miss Haverel: Let me see… I went out last week.
John: Didn’t you go out this evening?
Miss Haverel: No. I had a visitor this evening.
John: You didn’t go to Mr. Egg’s bookshop, did you?
Miss Haverel: I’ve never been there.
John: We saw Mr. Egg this evening.
Miss Haverel: How is he?
John: He’s dead.
Miss Haverel: I’m not surprised.
Mary: Aren’t you?
Miss Haverel: He never looked healthy. He didn’t eat enough fruit and green vegetables. Do you eat fruit?
Mary: And green vegetables, Miss Haverel.
Miss Haverel: Good girl. But you look healthy.
John: Mr. Egg died suddenly about 7 o’clock tonight. Someone stuck a knife into him.
Miss Haverel: Some people are very careless.
John: The police are asking questions.
Miss Haverel: Then you leave Mr. Egg to the police. They’ll know what to do with him.
Mary: Miss Haverel, d’you remember a book written in Italian?
Miss Haverel: I remember several books written in Italian.
Mary: Can you speak Italian?
Miss Haverel: No, but I remember the books.
Mary: I’m talking about a book with pictures in it. This book had a picture of your pendant in it. You sold the book to Mr. Egg. You remember that book, don’t you?
Miss Haverel: I remember the book and the pendant. Once I had both.
John: Now you have neither.
Miss Haverel: Oh, I have the pendant.
John: What? You have the pendant?
Mary: Where is it?
Miss Haverel: Here it is. This is the pendant, isn’t it?
John: Yes, that’s the pendant.
Mary: Where did it come from?
Miss Haverel: I took it.
(theme music)