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And Then There’s This



A framed copy of an old rhyme hangs in every guest's room, and on the dining room table sit ten figurines. After supper, a phonograph record is played; the recording accuses each visitor and Mr and Mrs Rogers of having committed murder, then asks if any of the "prisoners at the bar" wishes to offer a defence.




And Then There’s This




The guests discover that none of them know the Owenses, and Mr Justice Wargrave suggests that the name "U N Owen" is a play on "Unknown". Marston finishes his drink and promptly dies of cyanide poisoning. Dr Armstrong confirms that there was no cyanide in the other drinks and suggests that Marston must have dosed himself.


That night, Lombard's gun is returned, and Blore sees someone leaving the house. Armstrong is absent from his room. Vera, Blore, and Lombard decide to stick together and leave the house. When Blore returns for food, he is killed by a marble clock shaped like a bear that is pushed from Vera's window sill. Vera and Lombard find Armstrong's body washed up on the beach, and each concludes the other must be responsible. Vera suggests moving the body from the shore as a mark of respect, but this is a pretext to acquire Lombard's gun. When Lombard lunges for it, she shoots him dead.


Ten little Soldier Boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine.Nine little Soldier Boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight.Eight little Soldier Boys travelling in Devon; One said he'd stay there and then there were seven.[10]Seven little Soldier Boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.Six little Soldier Boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.Five little Soldier Boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four.Four little Soldier Boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.Three little Soldier Boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two.Two little Soldier Boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one.One little Soldier Boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none.


Writing for The Times Literary Supplement of 11 November 1939, Maurice Percy Ashley stated, "If her latest story has scarcely any detection in it there is no scarcity of murders... There is a certain feeling of monotony inescapable in the regularity of the deaths which is better suited to a serialized newspaper story than a full-length novel. Yet there is an ingenious problem to solve in naming the murderer", he continued. "It will be an extremely astute reader who guesses correctly."[13]


For The New York Times Book Review (25 February 1940), Isaac Anderson has arrived to the point where "the voice" accuses the ten "guests" of their past crimes, which have all resulted in the deaths of humans, and then said, "When you read what happens after that you will not believe it, but you will keep on reading, and as one incredible event is followed by another even more incredible you will still keep on reading. The whole thing is utterly impossible and utterly fascinating. It is the most baffling mystery that Agatha Christie has ever written, and if any other writer has ever surpassed it for sheer puzzlement the name escapes our memory. We are referring, of course, to mysteries that have logical explanations, as this one has. It is a tall story, to be sure, but it could have happened."[14]


The 1933 K.B.S. Productions Sherlock Holmes film A Study in Scarlet follows a strikingly similar plot;[42] it includes a scene where Holmes is shown a card with the hint: "Six little Indians...bee stung one and then there were five". In this case, the rhyme refers to "Ten Little Fat Boys". (The film's plot bears no resemblance to Arthur Conan Doyle's original story of the same name.) The author of the movie's screenplay, Robert Florey, "doubted that [Christie] had seen A Study in Scarlet, but he regarded it as a compliment if it had helped inspire her".[43]


And Then There Were None (1943 play) is Christie's adaptation of the story for the stage. She and the producers agreed that audiences might not flock to a tale with such a grim ending as the novel, nor would it work well dramatically as there would be no one left to tell the story. Christie reworked the ending for Lombard and Vera to be innocent of the crimes of which they were accused, survive, and fall in love with each other. Some of the names were also changed, e.g., General MacArthur became General McKenzie in both the New York and London productions.[49][50] By 1943, General Douglas MacArthur was playing a prominent role in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, which may explain the change of the character's name.


And Then There Were None (2005 play): On 14 October 2005, a new version of the play, written by Kevin Elyot and directed by Steven Pimlott, opened at the Gielgud Theatre in London. For this version, Elyot returned to the original story in the novel, restoring the nihilism of the original.[53]


Several variations of the original novel were adapted for television, three of which were British adaptations. The first of these, in 1949, was produced by the BBC.[54] The second was produced in 1959,[55] by ITV. Both of those productions aired with Christie's original title. The third and most recent British adaptation aired as And Then There Were None on BBC One in December 2015, as a drama serial broadcast on three consecutive nights, produced in cooperation with Acorn Media and Agatha Christie Productions. The 2015 production adhered more closely to the original plot, though there were several differences to backstories and actual murders on the island, and was the first English language live-action adaptation to feature an ending similar to that of the novel. It was directed by Craig Viveiros and adapted for television by Sarah Phelps.[56]


Obama's comments came during an appearance on Fox News Sunday, his first as president. Obama said he continues to believe Clinton didn't jeopardize America's national security with her private email server, but he added that "there's a carelessness in terms of managing emails" that she has recognized.


"What I also know, because I handle a lot of classified information, is that there are -- there's classified, and then there's classified," Obama told Fox News. "There's stuff that is really top-secret, top-secret, and there's stuff that is being presented to the president or the secretary of state, that you might not want on the transom, or going out over the wire, but is basically stuff that you could get in open-source."


"I guarantee that there is no political influence in any investigation conducted by the Justice Department, or the FBI, not just in this case, but in any case," Obama said during an interview that was taped during his visit to the University of Chicago School of Law, where he taught.


"There isn't a president who's taken more terrorists off the field than me, over the last seven-and-a-half years," Obama explained to Fox News. "I'm the guy who calls the families, or meets with them, or hugs them, or tries to comfort a mom, or a dad, or a husband, or a kid, after a terrorist attack. So let's be very clear about how much I prioritize this: this is my number one job."


(TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)


After a period of time, that research showed, students reading on their instructional level learned less than those reading two levels above, according to Shanahan. Future studies, mostly with elementary students, backed up this finding.


Articles like this show that the researchers are not in the classroom. From my years of teaching reading, teachers use the levels as a tool and certainly allow students to read from higher-level books. Lower-level books too. Most teachers use a balanced approach. I am not going to tell a student they cannot read a book either above or below their level if it's a book of interest to them. I will, however, monitor them and make sure they are also reading other books closer to their level. Also, a balanced literacy approach allows teachers to include higher-level texts in an appropriate manner, with guidance. I'm wondering why we don't take some lessons from successful countries like Finland, instead of trying to race our children to the top. Reading is not a race or a level. It's a guided process with a human being. On another note, the school that has students wearing tags to the library stating what level book they can check out is NOT the norm and that is a problem with the school, not reading instruction itself.


I work in a public library system and the local school system uses the Accelerated Reader program. So I get many parents coming in looking for books at specific levels because they have been told by their child's teacher to look for that level. The kids read the books and then take the tests at school that check comprehension. So the teachers may not be intending to limit the variety of what a child is reading, but nevertheless many well intentioned parents come in a don't want to 'waste time' reading something that is outside the level they were told to look for. Additionally, they are often annoyed that we don't have an easy way for them to find the level they want ("Where are your 4th grade books?"). I try to persuade parents that letting children have a say in what they are reading for fun is important but I can tell I am often disregarded.


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