Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Detective Club (ESL/EFL Version with Audio)
    The Detective Club (ESL/EFL Version with Audio)
    The Detective Club (ESL/EFL Version with Audio)
    Ebook158 pages4 hours

    The Detective Club (ESL/EFL Version with Audio)

    By Qiliang Feng and Ellis Parker Butler

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    This is Book , Collection I, of the Million-Word Reading Project (MWRP) readers. It is suitable for learners with a basic vocabulary of 1,500 words.
    Million-Word Reading Project (MWRP) is a reading project for ESL/EFL learners at the elementary level (with a basic vocabulary of 1,500 words). In two years, for about fifteen minutes each day, an ESL/EFL learner can read one million words, and reach the upper-intermediate level, gaining a vocabulary of about 3,500 words and a large number of expressions.

    [Text Information]
    Readability | 85.28
    Total word count | 31945
    Words beyond 1500 | 1802
    Unknown word percentage (%) | 5.64
    Unknown headword occurrence | 4.53
    Unknown words that occur 5 times or more | 76
    Unknown words that occur 2 times or more | 208

    [Synopsis]
    Three girls and two boys who live in Tenth Street have formed the Tenth Street Reading Circle. They read detective mystery stories together. One day, Betty Bliss suggests forming a detective club. They will call themselves Tenth Street Yard, after the London Scotland Yard, and Betty will be Superintendent.
    At first, the two boys do not think girls can do good detecting, so they laugh at them and refuse to join the club. But after they have solved several cases successfully, the boys begin to admire the girls and want to join the club. After that, they succeed in solving a number of cases.
    The original stories are written by Ellis Parker Butler (1869-1937), famous American humorist, author of more than 30 books and more than 2,000 stories and essays.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherQiliang Feng
    Release dateDec 22, 2015
    ISBN9781310595462
    The Detective Club (ESL/EFL Version with Audio)
    Author

    Qiliang Feng

    Qiliang Feng has been a teacher of English in senior high schools since 1983. He is a keen supporter of reading in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and is expert at rewriting graded/simplified ESL(English as a Second Language) and EFL (English as a Foreign Language) readers. He has published several series of English reading course books and is promoting a reading project called Million-Word Reading Project (MWRP), in which ESL/EFL learners at the elementary level (with a basic vocabulary of 1,500 words) are expected to read one million words within two or three years, and reach the upper-intermediate level easily.

    Read more from Qiliang Feng

    Related to The Detective Club (ESL/EFL Version with Audio)

    Related ebooks

    YA Mysteries & Detective Stories For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Beaks Eat

      May 1, 2022

      Beaks Eat
      1 min read

    • Article

      THE NEXT CHAPTER: Chapter Book Prize winners

      Apr 6, 2023

      Congratulations and thank you to everyone who entered the Writing Magazine Children’s Book Prize 2022. In the Chapter Book category, we had 72 entries, with all kinds of genres being represented, including fantasy, adventure, humour, spy, spooky, con

      7 min read

    • Article

      Al Murray

      Oct 23, 2023

      Al Murray
      5 min read

    • Article

      The plot THICKENS

      Aug 3, 2022

      The plot THICKENS
      8 min read

    • Article

      BIG Laughs

      Feb 13, 2022

      BIG Laughs
      2 min read

    • Article

      Great Dane

      Oct 23, 2022

      Great Dane
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Letterbox

      Mar 1, 2019

      Dear Cricket, I like the way everybody says “Hey, every-buggy,” but I think I just want to say “Howdy!” I started reading Cricket about a year ago, so I’m still just a bit of a beginner and I don’t know Ladybug, Cricket, or all of the other bugs in t

      7 min read

    • Article

      Opening Chapters

      Mar 4, 2021

      Opening Chapters
      8 min read

    • Article

      Dawn Neesom Mind Of My Own

      Jan 11, 2022

      Dawn Neesom Mind Of My Own
      3 min read

    • Article

      Pet Rescue!

      Aug 6, 2020

      Pet Rescue!
      4 min read

    • Article

      Enter The Confessional

      Feb 14, 2022

      Enter The Confessional
      3 min read

    • Article

      Victoria Secrets

      Feb 24, 2021

      Victoria Secrets
      4 min read

    • Article

      Our Christmas Puppy

      Nov 26, 2019

      Our Christmas Puppy
      6 min read

    • Article

      CONGRATULATIONS! TO THE WINNER OF 2021! And To All Our Worthy Word Warriors!

      Mar 3, 2022

      Your enthusiasm and love for reading and writing is appreciated. ✍ Setting the scene with a very good description that summarises what happened before the dialogue. ✍ An interesting dialogue with oomph! ✍ The introduction of captivating characters; f

      2 min read

    • Article

      Mutts About each Other

      Jun 29, 2023

      Mutts About each Other
      3 min read

    • Article

      Heartstopper

      Apr 19, 2022

      Heartstopper
      10 min read

    • Article

      Home Horror Stories

      Aug 21, 2020

      Home Horror Stories
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Letter box

      Jan 1, 2020

      Dear Cricket, I have read your magazine many times and I love it! It makes me happy when it comes in the mail. I am legally blind and cannot see as well as others, but that’s OK, because I am still very smart. My type of blindness is caused by albini

      7 min read

    • Article

      A Global Romance

      Jan 26, 2022

      A Global Romance
      2 min read

    • Article

      Welcome!

      May 26, 2021

      Welcome!
      1 min read

    • Article

      On My Radar: Charlie Brooker’s Cultural Highlights

      Jul 8, 2023

      Born in Reading in 1971, Charlton “Charlie” Brooker started to write TV reviews for the Guardian in 2000, winning the British Press award for columnist of the year in 2009. He has written for television programmes including Brass Eye, The Eleven O’Cl

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Detective Club (ESL/EFL Version with Audio)

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Detective Club (ESL/EFL Version with Audio) - Qiliang Feng

      The Detective Club

      (ESL/EFL Version with Audio)

      Original by: Ellis Parker Butler

      Rewritten by: Qiliang Feng

      Million-Word Reading Project Workshop

      Copyright 2022 Qiliang Feng

      License Notes

      This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      About This Book

      This is Book 9, Collection I, of the Million-Word Reading Project (MWRP) readers. It is suitable for learners with a basic vocabulary of 1,500 words.

      Million-Word Reading Project (MWRP) is a reading project for ESL/EFL learners at the elementary level (with a basic vocabulary of 1,500 words). In two years, for about fifteen minutes each day, an ESL/EFL learner can read one million words, and reach the upper-intermediate level, gaining a vocabulary of about 3,500 words and a large number of expressions.

      Text Information

      Readability | 85.3

      Total word count | 31945

      Words beyond 1500 | 1802

      Unknown word percentage (%) | 5.64

      Unknown headword occurrence | 4.53

      Unknown words that occur 5 times or more | 76

      Unknown words that occur 2 times or more | 208

      Notes:

      1. About readability: This is Flesch Reading Ease Readability calculated with MS WORD. The higher the score, the easier the text is to read.

      Score | Level

      0-29 | Very difficult

      30-49 | Difficult

      50-59 | Fairly difficult

      60-69 | Standard

      70-79 | Fairly easy

      80-89 | Easy

      90-100 | Very easy

      2. This e-version does not give the meanings of unknown words. You can look them up with the dictionary on your e-reader. For words with different meanings and some expressions, we give their meanings at the end of the passages. We also provide some necessary background information.

      3. To get the audio or video of this book, GO>>>

      Synopsis

      Three girls and two boys who live in Tenth Street have formed the Tenth Street Reading Circle. They read detective mystery stories together. One day, Betty Bliss suggests forming a detective club. They will call themselves Tenth Street Yard, after the London Scotland Yard, and Betty will be Superintendent.

      At first, the two boys do not think girls can do good detecting, so they laugh at them and refuse to join the club. But after they have solved several cases successfully, the boys begin to admire the girls and want to join the club. After that, they succeed in solving a number of cases.

      The original stories are written by Ellis Parker Butler (1869-1937), famous American humorist, author of more than 30 books and more than 2,000 stories and essays.

      1. The Detective Club

      Now, I am going to tell this exactly as it happened and then you can decide whether you think Betty Bliss was a clever detective or not.

      It began in Betty’s living room right here in Westcote, and there were five of us in it. I was there - my name is Madge - and of course Betty was there, and so was Dorothy Carver. The two boys were Dick Prince who lives next door to Betty, and Arthur Dane who lives next beyond Dick. We all live in the same neighborhood and in Tenth Street, so we had formed the Tenth Street Reading Circle, and we were reading detective mystery stories together. One of us read a chapter, and then another read a chapter, and so on.

      So this evening we were reading the last of The Mystery of the Golden Puffin. This is a pretty good story, and Betty Bliss said, I’d love to be a detective. All my life I’ve wanted to be a detective.

      This was so. I remembered when Betty persuaded me to go with her to see Mr. Cassidy, the Chief of Detectives in Westcote. He told us a lot of things about detecting, and Betty said then she wished she could be a detective.

      Yes, I said, and I remember when Mr. Cassidy put the handcuffs on us. I was glad when he took them off again.

      But he did say girls could be detectives - when they grew up, Betty said. There are lots of women detectives.

      Women, maybe, said Dick Prince coldly. But I’ve never heard of girl detectives!

      Just because there never have been any girl detectives, Betty Bliss said. I’ll tell you what would be fun. We’ll form a Detective Club, to do real detecting. Just the five of us.

      Not for me, said Dick Prince, who thinks he is smart. I don’t go into any detective club with girls.

      All right, then, said Betty Bliss, "you boys needn’t come in! We girls will be the Detective Club. We’ll make it a sort of Scotland Yard, Madge, like the one in London. I’ll be Superintendent, and you and Dot[1] can be Inspectors."

      We’d better not call it Scotland Yard, Dot said. If we solve a lot of cases and become famous all over the world, we wouldn’t want anybody to think we were the London Scotland Yard, would we?

      Listen to them! laughed Dick Prince. Famous! Wow!

      We can call ourselves Tenth Street Yard, said Betty, paying no attention to Dick. That’s where we are - on Tenth Street.

      So that was what we decided to call our detective club, and we made Betty Bliss the Superintendent, and Dot and me Inspectors, while the boys joked about it. But Betty was serious.

      You wait, she said. One of these days there’ll be a crime in Westcote, and Tenth Street Yard will do some detecting, and maybe you’ll be surprised.

      And the next morning, a crime was discovered. Betty had asked Dot and me to go over to her house and play croquet. We got there as she was finishing breakfast and we went out of the house together. But as soon as we got to the lawn, we saw Silas, the man-of-all-work for the block, getting ready to cut the grass.

      Oh, well, we’ll do something else now, Betty said. Let’s go over and play at Dick’s - shall we?

      So we went around through the gates into Dick Prince’s yard, and there, we saw Dick and Arthur.

      Betty, Dick said, we were just going to get you. If you want to be a detective, here’s your chance. Woof is gone. Someone stole him.

      Arthur Dane pointed to the big doghouse, to which Woof was always chained.

      He’s gone all right, he said. We came out to feed him and he was gone. Stolen. And more than one man was needed to steal him - I say it would take three or four men to get away with Woof.

      Betty was already on her way to the doghouse, and Dot and I were close behind her. Betty stopped before she reached the doghouse and looked at Dick.

      What have you done about it? she asked. You weren’t coming for me first, were you? Didn’t you tell the police?

      Yes, Dick said. I did that the very first thing. I went in and asked them to send up a policeman and one is on the way now. He’ll be here any minute. But you talk so much about wanting to be a detective that I thought I’d give you a chance.

      The big doghouse stood at the side of the Prince garage. Now, the splendid Belgian police dog was gone. When he was in the doghouse, he always came out to greet Betty and Dot and me because he liked us. He would jump to meet us, pulling at the chain that fastened him and barking with joy, but now there was only the empty doghouse. A tin plate with a dog biscuit and some dog food was on the smooth ground. The biscuit and the food were untouched, showing that Woof had been gone when Dick and Arthur put the plate there.

      Before Betty could make any closer inspection, the policeman came and Dick’s mother came from the house. She spoke to the policeman, and he touched his cap and said, Good morning, Mrs. Prince.

      He was the pleasant red-faced officer who patrolled our part of town and we all knew him to speak to. He drew his notebook from his pocket, pushed his cap to the back of his head, and began asking questions, writing down the answers in the notebook.

      Name of owner? asked Officer Murphy. What kind of dog? What color? Any special marks on him? What is the value of the dog?

      He asked a couple of dozen such questions, and Dick answered them. He said that Woof had cost fifty dollars when they bought him, and that he was now full grown and worth over a hundred dollars.

      And that’s important, said Officer Murphy. A hundred-dollar dog is a serious matter. And I shouldn’t wonder if the whole detective force would be after the thief.

      I hope you find him. He’s a good dog, said Dick Prince.

      We’ll do our best, said Officer Murphy, putting his notebook in his pocket, but these dog stealers are very professional. You see how it is - they come in a car and put the dog into it by night, and by morning they can be a couple of hundred miles away - and who knows where to look for the dog?

      Isn’t there anything else we can do? Dick asked, and Officer Murphy turned to Mrs. Prince.

      You might advertise, ma’am, he said. "Like ‘Fifty dollars reward will be paid for the return of a Belgian police dog,’ and so on. Dog thieves steal dogs for the money they can get, and they don’t care whose. Often, if ‘No questions asked’ is put into the advertisement, they would return the animal. That’s often the best way to get a

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1