I. Reading Comprehension Quiz

1. Where you right in your predictions? In what were you right/wrong?

2. Was it possible for the Inspector to guess who the murderer was earlier? What were the clues?

3. Why didn’t the Inspector tell his real name and position to the Professor? Would it somehow change the attitude of the latter?

4. How did the Professor guess that the Inspector was at the door?

5. What was a necessity for and educated and rich man as the Professor to live in such a shabby neighbourhood?

6. Do you think that the money the Clairvoyant asked for was a significant amount for the Inspector? How much is it in the Euros? How much do you think the Inspector earned?

7. Was it really magic that linked the Inspector to Volona? Were these just words used as a reason for the Professor to be able to increase his price?

8. Why do you think was it necessary to kill people to make magic work? Why did the killed people look so much the same as Volona and the Inspector’s wife?

9. Did the Professor really have a talent or his clients were simply too frightened to go to the police?

10. While stating the price the Professor remarked that everyone pays according to his means, do you believe that the Professor was helping even people who “have little to offer”?

11. Why do women ore often come with such problems to the Professor as the Inspector did? “Yet it is rare indeed for men to come to me with problems such as yours.”

12. How did the Professor know that the Inspector was not actually going to pay the second half of the ‘token’?

13. If the client cannot actually witness the ceremony why was it an imperative for the one to be present at the day of it?

14. Did the time matter anything in reality for the ceremony, or was the Professor just using people’s superstitions about such things?

15. What do you think will happen to the Inspector next? How would Volona and his wife behave? Are there any chances for him to stay in the police?

16. How would you explain the main idea of this text?

IV. The strategy employed by the Professor is a brilliantly learnt techniques of a good manger: you talk a lot not to let your client stop at a potentially difficult moment (price), you state not the money but the result, you try to make person believe that he is unique as well as his problem and thus it’s only such an expert as you are who can help. The feeling of being different from the rest of the world will not let the client go away. Pick up the sentences from the dialogue between the Professor and the Inspector showing how the former uses this strategy. Turn these sentences into plain English; do they produce the same impression? Act out a dialogue between the professor and the Inspector, the task of ‘the Inspector’ is to make the price lower.