The Mystery of the Shattered Ice, Part 3
An Intermediate Level Lesson to Practice Winter Vocabulary
This lesson is for intermediate students (see our chart of English levels). It practices reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar, comprehension, essay writing, sentence structure, and role play.
Follow these steps:
- Before reading: go over the story's glossary. It contains winter words and other more advanced words.
- Reading: read the story. It has 3 parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (this page).
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After reading: do the exercises. The exercises section has several parts:
- vocabulary questions 1 (winter words)
- vocabulary questions 2 (non-winter words)
- grammar questions
- comprehension and essay writing
- sentence jumbles and role play - Answers: check your answers using the answer key.
Reading
The Mystery of the Shattered Ice, Part 3
Suddenly, his cell phone buzzes. He unlocks it and sees he has a text message from a number he doesn't recognize. It says, "I saw this last night. Please don't tell anyone I told you. My parents can't know I was out." Several pictures are attached to it. Roger can't believe what he sees. They are dark and kind of blurry, but they definitely show Charlotte and her assistant attacking the ice with sledgehammers.
He looks up to see Emma wave and smile at him through the window. He smiles back, torn between being thankful for her help and shocked by Charlotte.
* * *
Roger walks straight to Charlotte's office, shaking the slush off his boots, and slams down prints of the pictures on her desk. Charlotte looks at the pictures, then back at him.
"How did you—" she starts.
"It's like you said, people in this town watch the ice."
"But you're barely even a real cop. All you do is play with kids all day," she says angrily. Roger laughs. "Look, I did it for the town. You can't tell anyone, all right?"
"You did it for the town?" Roger asks in disbelief.
"Do you know how much free publicity we'll get from this story? Everybody will report on it. Everyone will hear about us. It's the best ad campaign ever!"
"We don't need other people's pity," Roger says. "You're under arrest for destruction of city property."
Charlotte tries to argue, but Roger just handcuffs her and leads her to his car. He takes her to the station and locks her in a cell, then leaves to find and arrest her assistant.
* * *
The next day at the festival, Roger listens as everyone gossips about Charlotte between sips from steaming cups of hot chocolate. Roger tries to ignore them. He just wants to enjoy the nice, brisk weather and maybe get a glass of eggnog. Jess walks up to him, holding a clipboard. He hands it to Roger and says, "It's a petition to get Charlotte fired."
"That's a cause I can support," Roger says, removing his glove so he can sign his name on the sheet. He's relieved that the rest of the town is as upset about it as him. "Who's going to replace her?"
"We don't know yet. The treasurer will take over until we have an election. Some of us were thinking maybe you'd run."
A child screams behind them. Roger spins around just in time to see him throw a snowball at his nearby friend. "Hey," Roger shouts, "I'm going to have to take you two down to the station." The kids burst out in laughter. "Thanks, but I think I'll stick to this job," he says, smiling widely.
The End
