© Родина А.М., рукопись, 2025

© Оформление. ООО «Издательство «Эксмо», 2025

Do you believe in horoscopes?

Chapter 1

Alice is a young woman. She works in an office as an accountant. She likes her job.

Her friends at work call her “Miss Marple”. Alice loves detective books. Her favorite writer is Agatha Christie. She also likes puzzles, horoscopes, and coffee. Every morning, she drinks coffee with milk and reads her horoscope.

“Bad luck for Leo all day!” reads Alice.

Today, the office is noisy.

“What's wrong?” Alice asks her colleague Max.

“Boss's laptop is missing. He thinks someone stole it!” answers Max.

Max is a designer. Today he is sad as usual because his girlfriend left him last month.

The boss enters the room. He is angry.

“Alice, to my office! Now!”

In the office, there are two people: the HR manager and Tara, the cleaner.

“Yes, I think I saw her yesterday”, Tara says.

“Alice, you were the last to leave yesterday, right?” HR asks calmly.

“That's right”.

Alice is confused. Why are they asking her this?

“Do you think that I took the laptop?” she guesses.

“We do not know. But we need to check your desk,” HR continues dryly.

They go to her workplace and open Alice's desk drawer.

“This is the key to my office!” the boss exclaims. “Can you explain that?”

Полезные выражения

bad luck – невезение, неудача

to love horoscopes – увлекаться гороскопами

to be missing – пропасть, отсутствовать

to be angry – злиться, сердиться

to break up – расстаться

Упражнения

1. Соотнесите персонажа и его роль в истории:

1. Alice

2. Max

3. Tara

4. The boss

a. is a cleaner

b. is very angry

c. likes horoscopes

d. broke up with a girlfriend

2. Вставьте пропущенное слово:

a key, a laptop, a designer, a desk drawer, an accountant

1. Sarah keeps her pens and notebooks in _____.

2. You can work at home if you have ____.

3. Maria studies maths in college. She wants to become ___.

4. This is ___ from my apartment.

5. Coco Chanel was a famous fashion ___.

3. Ответьте на вопросы:

1. Who is the main character of the story?

2. Why is it noisy in the office today?

3. Why does the boss think that Alice took the laptop?

4. What do the boss, HR manager and Alice find in her desk drawer?

Chapter 2

Everyone in the office thinks that Alice is a thief.

Her boss wants her to leave her job. He says he won't call the police if Alice brings the laptop back. But Alice didn't take it!

“Did you really do it?" Max asks. He looks worried and pale.

“No! I'll prove I didn't do it!” Alice says.

Alice starts to think.

“What would a detective do? Look for clues!”

Alice checks the security cameras. She goes to a security guard. The security manager likes Alice. He is happy to help her. They watch the video from yesterday. The video shows Alice leaving the office and locking the entrance door. No one else is there.

But wait! Somebody unlocks the boss's office! This person probably left through the back door. There are no cameras there.

Alice is puzzled. She goes to the office kitchen for coffee. Who is this person in the video? Why did he or she take the laptop?

Suddenly she sees something bright in the trash. It's a paper from a shop that buys used things. It says:

“1 laptop – $200 – Must return by May 30”

Now Alice knows where the laptop is! And she understands something bad: the thief works with her.

Полезные выражения

to prove something – доказать что-то