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The Inspector Calls

A Speaking

In pairs, ask each other these question:

Where were you at 7pm last night?

What did you do before going to bed last night?

How may friends did you meet yesterday?

What time did you arrive home last night?

What did you wear yesterday evening?

Was it difficult to remember some of the information? Now imagine a

policeman asked you the same questions!

B Vocabulary

Here are some words connected with the police and their investigations. Match
the words with a definition on the right.

Word Definition
Arrest 12 people who decide if you are guilty or innocent
Fingerprint You did something wrong!
Alibi Something to hurt someone: gun, knife, bat
Bail Person who the police think is guilty
Interrogate Money you pay to be released before your trial
Suspect Ask someone a lot of questions
Weapon You didn’t do anything wrong!
Innocent Story you tell the police to prove where you were
Guilty When the police are looking for someone
Manhunt The event where a jury decides if you are guilty or not
Trial When the police take you to the police station
Jury Sign from your finger which is different for every person

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C Listening

You are going to listen to a conversation between a senior

policeman, an inspector, and a woman, Mrs. Wilson. Something
terrible has happened in Mrs. Wilson’s home!

Part One

Listen to the inspector and Mrs. Wilson talking and answer the following
questions by writing either true or false after each sentence.

1. Mrs. Wilson arrived home at about six o'clock. _______

2. Mrs. Wilson thought the house was empty. _______
3. Mrs. Wilson doesn’t like her sister-in-law. _______
4. Mrs. Wilson’s husband’s name is Trevor. _______
5. Mrs. Wilson didn’t go into the bathroom. _______
6. Mrs. Wilson tried to wake her husband. _______
7. Mrs. Wilson waited a long time for the police to arrive. _______
Part Two

Now you will hear the conversation again. Use the map below the mark the
path that Mrs. Wilson takes through the house:

Ground Floor

First Floor

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D Speaking

Now you are going to speak to your partner again about what he/she/you did
yesterday afternoon and yesterday evening.

One of you is the “suspect” and the other one is the police officer.

Read your roles below:

Suspect

The police officer will ask you a lot of questions about what you did yesterday
afternoon and evening.

Try and remember as many details as possible.

Don’t tell lies! The police officer will discover them and arrest you!

Police Officer

You need to find out as much information as possible about what the other
student did yesterday afternoon and evening.

Ask about:

Food
Friends
Places
Clothes
Weather
Exact times

Remember to use different question words:

Why
How
When
Who
What time
How long
Which ____?

After

Was it difficult to remember all the details? Were there any questions you
weren’t able to answer?

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Teacher Notes
Target Language: Past Simple, Police vocabulary, Listening
Duration: 50 minutes
Listening File Required: 2L5

1 Structure and Timing (all times approximate)

A. Speaking (10 minutes)

B. Vocabulary (10 minutes)
C. Listening (15 minutes)
D. Speaking (15 minutes)

Total: 50 minutes.

2 Procedure

A. Warm Up

This first part of the lesson is to get students into the idea of speaking about police
investigations and, in particular, giving an alibi. It is something we return to in the
last part of the exam and goes together well with the subject of the listening later on.

Put students into pairs and let them work their way through the provided questions.
Stronger students who finish first can be encouraged to think of some other similar
questions. Ensure all students are using the past simple in their answers, a major part
of today’s lesson.

B. Vocabulary

A few of these words might be a little tough and is one reason this is at pre-
intermediate level and not elementary. Put students into pairs or small groups to work
through this exercise. Further examples can be given at the end of the exercise if
some of the words are continuing to create difficulty.

Word Definition
Arrest When the police take you to the police station
Fingerprint Sign from your finger which is different for every person
Alibi Story you tell the police to prove where you were
Bail Money you pay to be released before your trial
Interrogate Ask someone a lot of questions
Suspect Person who the police think is guilty
Weapon Something to hurt someone: gun, knife, bat
Innocent You didn’t do anything wrong!
Guilty You did something wrong!
Manhunt When the police are looking for someone
Trial The event where a jury decides if you are guilty or not
Jury 12 people who decide if you are guilty or innocent

As always, make sure students are doing their best to keep good vocabulary records
at all times. Just having this worksheet is NOT sufficient. A good vocabulary entry
should include at least its pronunciation (through phonetics), definition and an
example.
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C. Listening

For this listening, you will need the mp3 file 2L5 found in the Listening Bank of the
Premium site. The PDF of the transcript can also be found there.

The difficulty level of the listening shouldn’t be too hard for your students as it is
primarily a series of past simple sentences talking about a sequence of past events.

Answer Keys

Part One

1. Mrs. Wilson arrived home at about six o'clock. FALSE

2. Mrs. Wilson thought the house was empty. FALSE
3. Mrs. Wilson doesn’t like her sister-in-law. TRUE
4. Mrs. Wilson’s husband’s name is Trevor. TRUE
5. Mrs. Wilson didn’t go into the bathroom. FALSE
6. Mrs. Wilson tried to wake her husband. FALSE
7. Mrs. Wilson waited a long time for the police to arrive. FALSE

Part Two

Just follow the green lines and the numbers. Students will mark Mrs. Wilson’s path in
many different ways. Just ensure they haven’t misunderstood anything important. The
phone, for example, is not marked on the map so it has not been included in the path.

D. Speaking

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This is a sort of mini-role play, which is a less controlled speaking activity than that
with which we opened up the lesson. Only a general guide is given to the “police”
students concerning the questions they should ask.

Be quite strict about their use of past simple as this is the target structure for the
lesson.

3 Extra

As a possible extra writing activity, ask the students to write up the inspector’s report.

This will involve your students putting into prose what Mrs. Wilson told the inspector.

Mrs. Wilson said that she arrived home at about ten past six. She
entered the library first, where she thought her husband was. She
was surprised to see that he wasn’t in the library so she then
went to look….

As can be seen from this excerpt, students can write up the report using the
past simple: there’s no need for them to have to use the past perfect which
would be too difficult at this level.

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