The mystery(悬疑) stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are famous all over the world.

    The detective in his stories is called Sherlock Holmes. He solves mysteries in a most surprising way. Through it all, his assistant, Dr Watson, watches with admiration(钦佩). Watson then writes up the story of the mystery afterwards.

    This is a useful story writing skill. Because Watson is not very clever, the story remains a mystery until the end. The readers can sometimes pick up some clues before he does! Then, to make Watson understand the mystery, Holmes has to explain it all, step by step. So we, the readers, get to see it step by step too. Watson is almost as good a character in the story as Sherlock Holmes!

    The very first time they meet, Holmes greatly surprises Watson. When they are first introduced, Holmes says to Watson, "How do you do? I see you have been to Afghanistan.”

    Watson is too amazed by this to ask Holmes how he knows this. Watson has, indeed, been to Afghanistan. Later, he asks Holmes about it. Holmes explains that there is nothing magical about what he does. He gets to know it all by very, very careful observation (观察).

Observation One

    Watson was introduced to Holmes as a doctor. Yet Holmes thought that the way he stood and walked made him seem like a soldier. So, this meant he was probably an army doctor.

Observation Two

    Watson's face was quite dark skinned. But his wrists(手腕) were pale. So his dark face was probably sunburnt. This meant that he had been to a hot, sunny country. As he was a working doctor, this was not a holiday. He must have gone with the army.

Observation Three

    At the time, the British army had soldiers at bases in many parts of the world. So there were still a lot of places to choose from. However, Holmes saw that Watson looked very tired and he was always holding his left arm, as if it was painful. So, he had probably been with the army to a place where they were fighting. There was only one place where the British army was fighting at that time: Afghanistan.

    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a Scottish doctor who was born in 1859. He began writing detective stories in his spare time because he nmore money.

    Conan Doyle's first story was called A Study in Scarlet. It was published in 1887. It featured a brilliant detective called Sherlock Holmes and his close friend Doctor Watson. It was a great success, and in 1891 Conan Doyle gave up medicine to write more. He didn't have enough time to do b!

    It was in 1892, when Conan Doyle became bored with detective stories, that he decided to stop writing. He dHolmes's death in a story called The Final Problem.

    Many fans of Sherlock Holmes were shocked when they learned that their hero was dead. They begged Conan Doyle for astory. The result was The Hound of the Baskervilles: a story about mysterious murders and a terrifying dog. It is the most fSherlock Holmes story. The Hound of the Baskervilles was first published in 1902, and it is still read today.

    After the success of this book, Conan Doyle continued writing stories and novels uhe died in 1930. These stories are now films, TV programmes and cartoons so you can “see" Sherlock Holmes as well. There are also clubs which study the great detective and his adventures. Today, more than 100 years later, Sherlock Holmes is still the mpopular detective in the world.

Jane doesn't know improve her Chinese.

She was weak take care of her baby.