Read the text about Agatha Christie. Decide which of the statements (1-10) are T (true), F (false) or NS (not stated). Justify your answers.
Agatha Christie was a famous English crime writer who is best known for her detective stories featuring Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. Agatha was born in 1890 in the seaside town of Torquay in Devon, England to an American father and an English mother. Her family was well-to-do and conservative and she was the youngest of three children.
Although Agatha never attended school she didn’t lack education. She taught herself how to read when she was only four and later her parents hired tutors to provide lessons in subjects such as music, dance, mathematics, and French. Agatha was a shy child and, having problems expressing herself verbally, she first turned to music and later to writing and became very good at making up stories. When she was eleven, her father died and she became very close to her mother with whom she started to travel a lot.
During the First World War, Agatha worked as a nurse in a hospital and it was during this time that Agatha Christie got the idea of writing a detective novel. Although she finished the story in a year it wasn’t published until five years later. The Mysterious Affair at Styles introduced the retired Belgian police officer, Hercule Poirot, to the world and was a great success.
Following this, Agatha would write more than 30 novels featuring Poirot. In all she wrote over
66 novels, the most famous being Murder on the Orient Express, and according to the Guinness Book of records, Agatha Christie is the best-selling writer of her time with over four billion books sold throughout the world. In 1971, she was awarded the high honour of Dame of the British Empire before passing away peacefully on 21st January 1976
1. Agatha Christie is famous for her detective books about Sherlock Holmes.
2. Agatha Christie was born into an American family.
3. Christie’s family was pretty wealthy.
4. Agatha had a brother and a sister.
5. Agatha started school at the age of four.
6. Her tutors were highly-qualified.
7. Agatha was a sociable and outgoing girl.
8. She never worked but only wrote books.
9. Agatha Christie is a worldwide popular author.
10. She is still writing her best-sellers.