� � � � � �� MYSTERIOUS� DISAPPEARANCE
���� Agatha Christie wrote some of the best detective stories in English. Her own life also contains a mystery that has only recently been solved.
���� The story began like this. At 9.45 pm on December 3rd 1926, Agatha Christie left her home in the south of England, saying that she was going out for a drive in her car. The next morning, her car was found quite far away crashed. The front end of the car was in some bushes, the headlights2 were still on. Inside, there were only some women's clothes and Agatha Christie's driving license.
���� The detective in charge of the case, William Kenward immediately organized a big search of the area. Policemen came from different parts of the country to help in the search, even some famous detective writers were asked to help.
���� Archie Christie, Agatha's husband, told everyone that his wife was suffering from amnesia3. However, soon the police discovered that the marriage between Archie and Agatha Christie was not a happy one, and that Archie and Agatha were having problems. But he could not admit that his marriage was in trouble because people might have thought that he had had something to do with her disappearance.
���� At this point, the police received a letter. In the letter, Agatha told Archie's brother that she was going away to rest in Yorkshire, Harrogate. The police now went there and looked for her at all the hotels. But they did not find Agatha Christie as she had not checked in using her real name. Instead, she had introduced herself as Neele, a visitor from South Africa.
���� The situation was very upsetting for the police as they didn't find her. Instead, the musicians in the dance band at the hotel recognized her.
����� It was not an easy story to believe and most people did not in fact believe it. But all what we know now is that she did not do it for publicity. She did it as she was going through an unhappy time with her husband. Later, in fact, their marriage broke up and they got divorced. However, her disappearance did make Agatha Christie the most popular crime writer in the country.
1 mysterious [mis'tisriasl
2 headlights f'hedlaits] ����
3 amnesia [aem'niizis]
�1. Read the article and say in 2-3 sentences what it is about.
The text is about a mysterious episode of Agatha Christie's dissappearance, a famous English detective writer. The author gives the details of the police investigation.
�
2. How did the story begin? Read aloud the extract which says about it.
The number of the paragraph to read is .
�
3. What are the details of the police investigation?
�
After that the police received a letter in which Agatha informed her husband�s brother that she was going away to rest in Yorkshire, Harrogate.
Firstly, the detective in charge of the case immediately organized a big search of the area where Agatha�s car was found crashed.
Finaly, the police went there and looked for her at all the hotels but didn�t find her. �
�
