GRAMMAR COMMENT. Use a/ an with singular countable nouns. -the first time you mention a thing /person; I saw an old man with a dog. -when
Articles [1.p138]
Complete with a/an, the, or- (=no article). E.g. Can you give me a lift to the station. I want to catch the 6.00 train.
How many famous detectives from crime novels can you name?What sort of work do you think a modern private detective does?What skills do you think a detective needs? Text “Private Eyes Italian Style” Elspeth Thompson watches the detectives who are exclusively female. There’s whiff of Chanel perfume in the air as well-dressed young women move from room to room along wide, cream-carpeted corridors. This could be mistaken for an executive job agency. In fact these are the offices of Holmes Investigazioni, Italy’s first and only detective agency staffed by women. A loud laugh announces the arrival of Carmelia Costa, in her mid-forties and dressed from top-to toe in Yves St Laurent couture clothes. Ms Costa is a director of the company. Fifteen women, aged between eighteen and thirty-five are employed by the agency. ‘I get them either before they’re married or after they’re divorced!’ Husbands and children are distractions and boyfriends have to be understanding because of the long and unpredictable hours. ‘Sooner or later a man will say: “You’ll have to choose. It’s either me or the job”, says Ms Costa. ‘That is what happened to me, and I chose my work’. She is in no doubt that women make the best detectives. ‘For a star it’s a job do with your brain not your muscles. My girls don’t lack physical strength, but they hardly ever have to use it because their thinking, their intuition, is so well developed’. What does she look for in a new recruit? ‘They must have good intuition, iron nerves, patience and 100 per cent dedication to the job. They don’t have to be beautiful, in fact they should preferably be average-looking, neither too pretty or nor too plain, and it’s better if they haven’t seen too many TV series about glamorous women detectives. I don’t want someone who thinks she’s going to be sitting around in a sports car all day in the sun.’ The bull of the agency’s work is divided between stopping industrial espionage and searching for missing people. The former can be tricky work. One case involves a firm who wants to know who leaked some plans. ‘I’ve sent women along to pose as employees-one as a secretary, the other in management. They have to watch and listen, take photographs, talk to people, find out how the place works.’ In a bar round the corner, veteran detective Nikka is teaching Barbara, an ex-medical student, how to follow someone. ‘You mustn’t make any jerky movements or change direction suddenly. Walk slowly and keep looking around you. If you’re in a car, you’ve got to try to keep at least one car between yours and the one you’re following. Don’t, whatever you do, fix your eyes on the back of someone’s neck. You might as well be wearing a big badge saying “I’m a detective”.
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Exercise 7 Read about a private detective agency and find out why some people might think it is unusual.
