Item 5
Read the excerpt from “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.”

I called upon my friend, Sherlock Holmes, on the second morning after Christmas, to wish him a happy holiday. He was lounging upon the sofa in a purple dressing gown among a pile of crumpled morning newspapers. He was peering through a magnifying glass at an old, shabby black hat, cracked in several places.

“Am I interrupting you?” I asked.

“Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss my findings.”

I sat down in his armchair and warmed my hands before his crackling fire. A sharp frost had set in, and the windows were thick with the ice crystals. “I suppose,” I remarked, “that, homely as it looks, that hat has some deadly story linked on to it. Is it the clue that will guide you to the solution of a mystery, or the punishment of a crime?”

“No, no. No crime,” said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. “Only one of those odd little events that happen when you have four million people crowded together within the space of a few square miles.”

Question 1
Part A

What can readers conclude based on the details in the text?


Dr. Watson mostly takes the lead on solving crimes.

City life has become tiresome for Holmes.

Holmes values talking with Dr. Watson about his cases.

Holmes can be lazy about doing detective work.
Question 2
Part B

Which evidence from the text best supports the answer to Part A?


“’Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss my findings.’”

“’Only one of those odd little events that happen when you have four million people crowded together within the space of a few square miles.’”

“He was lounging upon the sofa in a purple dressing gown among a pile of crumpled morning newspapers.”

“’I suppose,’ I remarked, ‘that, homely as it looks, that hat has some deadly story linked on to it.’”