Case Study2

Task I. This is a plan of the country house of Major and Lady McTavish: Study the plan before reading a story.

Task II. This is the story of the murder:

At 10 pm, Lucy the maid went into the study to close the windows and found the Reverend Makepeace dead on the floor. He had been stabbed with a kitchen knife. Lucy recognised the knife, and said it had been lying on the kitchen table earlier that evening.

The police were very puzzled by the case. The only doors to the study are from the kitchen and the billiard room, and these rooms were full of people all the time that the Reverend Makepeace was in the study. The people in the billiard room and the kitchen saw no one go in or out of the rooms during this time.

Colonel Smythe, Major McTavish, and the Reverend were playing billiards in the billiard room. The first game ended at about 8.45, and the Reverend Makepeace excused himself from the second game, saying he had to finish off a sermon for the next day. He went into the study.

Lucy the maid and Parkin the butler were in the kitchen from 8 pm to 10 pm. At 8.30 Lucy took coffee to the ladies in the drawing room, and Parkin took port to the gentlemen in the billiard room. They returned to the kitchen about five minutes later.

Lady McTavish and Dame Maverick were talking in the drawing room from 8 pm to 10 pm. Mrs Hodge and Pamala stayed in the dining room to watch television. Mrs Hodge went through to the drawing room to join the others for coffee at 8.30 but Pamela said she would stay to see the end of the programme. Angela Dumondo-Balcombe was walking alone in the grounds. She came in at 8.45. She changed her muddy shoes in the hall, poured herself a cup of coffee in the drawing room, and went on into the dining room where Pamela was still watching television.

Task III. An assumption made on the basis of partial evidence is called a hypothesis. For each of the six hypotheses below, circle the appropriate letter according to whether the hypotheses is true or false. If you circle all the letters correctly you will find an important clue.

	True	False
(i) Colonel Symthe could not have done it, because Major McTavish would have seen him leave the billiard room.	W	B
(ii) Lucy could have killed the Reverend Makepeace in the study at 8.30 pm.	A	I
(iii) Lady McTavish could not have left the drawing room between 8.30 pm and 9 pm.	N	L
(iv) Mrs Hodge could have gone to the study on her way to the drawing room.	C	D
(v) Angela could have entered the study at any time while she was alone outside.	O	O
(vi) Parkin could have waited for the Reverend Makepeace in the study after he had served port in the billiard room.	N	W

LANGUAGE SUMMARY

A hypothesis is a provisional explanation based on partial evidence. Because a hypothesis is only a temporary explanation, we cannot always be certain that it is correct.

Sometimes we will be absolutely sure that the hypothesis is correct (there is plenty of evidence, and nothing seems to contradict it).

Sometimes we will be less certain about our hypothesis (there is not enough evidence and a few puzzling facts). When you write hypotheses, therefore, you will have to do two things: (i) say how likely your hypothesis is, and (ii) produce evidence to support your hypothesis.

The following tables summarise some ways of expressing likelihood (or unlikelihood) and some ways of linking hypothesis and evidence.

1. Expressing degrees of likelihood

You can express likelihood by using a phrase like “it is possible” or a verb like “must” or “may”. The expressions in the first table are more than those in the second table overleaf.

most likely least likely

It is

certain probable likely possible

that

the murder is/is not a young man. the man committed the crime. the man did not commit the crime

most likely	The murder	must/cannot could/could not	be a young woman.
least likely	Pamela	may/may not might/might not	have brown hair. have committed the crime.

2. Linking words for hypothesis and evidence

The evidence can come before the hypothesis, like this:

Evidence Hypothesis
The study window was open	so therefore	someone could have entered the study from outside.

Or the hypothesis can come before the evidence, like this:

Hypothesis Evidence
Someone could have entered the study from outside	because since as	the study window was open.

Task I. Match suspect and hypothesis in the following exercise. Use an expression from the language summary to connect the two.

Major McTavish Lucy Parkin Dame Maverick Mrs Hodge Angela

……been in the drawing room when the crime was commited. ……entered the study between 8 pm and 8.45 pm. ……left the billiard room. ……left the kitchen between 8.35 pm and 10 pm.

Find evidence in the text to support the hypotheses and then connect evidence and hypothesis using language from the language summary.

Task II. Here is a conversation between Detective Inspector Harvey and Sergeant Holmes, his assistant. Fill in the blanks. The first letters of blanks 1, 5, 6, 8, 13 and 16 (but not in that order) will give you the name of the murderer.

Harvey: ____1____ could have done it. She could have climbed in through the _____2____ ____3____ and stabbed Makepeace as he sat at the desk.

Holmes: No, how could she have taken the ____4____?

Harvey: Well, she could have gone into the kitchen while ____5____ and ____6____ were out, and taken the knife, and then waited in the ____7_____ till ____8____ came in.

Holmes: No, she wouldn't have had time to get back to the _____9____ ___10____. She was coming into the house at the same ____11____ as Makepeace was going into the study. And besides her shoes were ___12___. If she had ____13____ the study she would have left ____14_____ on the floor, and there were no traces of ____15____.

Harvey: Yes, you're right, ____16____ couldn't have done it. But who could it have been?

Holmes: Ah, I think I've got it, Sir!

Use the language in the language summaries to fill in the blanks in this police report.

WEST WILLOW CONSTABULARY Ref. No. 624/5AC

One possibility is that Angela committed the crime. The study was empty until 8.45 _________ she _________ climbed through the window before Makepeace came in. Lucy and Parkin were out of the kitchen between 8.30 and 8.35 _________ she __________ __________ entered the kitchen and taken the knife then. The study was still empty __________ she _________ __________ hidden there until 8.45 when Makepeace came in. However, she _________ _________ ___________ had time to do this, ___________ she was seen returning to the front door at 8.45. Moreover, the ground outside was very muddy, __________ if she had entered the study she ________ __________ left traces of mud on the floor. ____________ Angela ________ ____________ _________ committed the crime.

PARAGRAPH OUTLINE: The information in the police report is organised like this:

Topic Sentence

Statement of hypothesis

Conclusion

Evidence supporting the hypothesis

Evidence against the hypothesis

Development

Hypothesis proved true or false

Task III. Use the organisation given in the paragraph outline to write a similar report on Pamela. The following notes from Detective Inspector Harvey's notebook will help you.

TIME	EVIDENCE	HYPOTHESIS
8.30	Mrs Hodge left the dining room and Pamela was alone.	 could have opened the dining room window.
8.30-8.35	Lucy and Parkin were out of the kitchen.	 could have gone through the kitchen into study, taking the knife from the table.
8.35-8.45	There was no one in the study.	 could have hidden in the study.
8.45	Makepeace came into the study and sat at his desk.	 could have stabbed him in the back.
8.45-8.50?	Angela came in, but spent some time changing her shoes and getting a cup of coffee before she went into the dining room.	…………………?

Task IV. Unfortunately, while Harvey and Holmes were discussing the case, Pamela slipped out of the house and got away. Here are some of the clues the police found.

1. Her wardrobe was bare, and a small suitcase was gone.

2. No one saw her leave the house, but the drawing room window was open, and there were footprints in the flower bed.

3. Her bicycle was found at the station.

4. A train left the station for Dover at 11 pm.

5. Boats leave Dover for France and Belgium.

Task V. Write a police report summarising the evidence and making hypotheses about Pamela's departure.

Task VI. Invent five or sixe more clues to help the police solve the mystery of Pamela's disappearance and write them down.

When you have finished, exchange your list of clues with someone else and write a hypothesis on their evidence.

Check with them to see if your hypotheses match their original intentions.