A Tangled Web

張貼日期：Feb 07, 2010 12:7:26 PM

A Tangled Web

Recommended by Ms. Li-Wen Chang

Cambridge English Readers is one of the best choices for students interested in extensive reading. Here is a quotation from Cambridge University ELT website:

Original stories at seven levels from starter to advanced, written specially for learners of English. With gripping plots and a range of genres to satisfy every taste, Cambridge English Readers offer high-quality original fiction that students will love! The highest quality of writing and storytelling is combined with the greatest sensitivity to the learner's language level, to ensure an enjoyable and successful learning experience, with learners eager to finish one book and start the next.

http://www.cambridge.org/elt/elt_projectpage.asp?id=2500560#Level+5+Upper+Intermediate

      One of the books in Cambridge English Readers-Level 5, A Tangled Web is written by Alan Maley, a scholar who has been working in the field of TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) for almost half a century and a productive writer who has published over thirty books and numerous articles about English Language Education. Categorized as a thriller, A Tangled Web centers on Dan Combes’s journey of initiation from which he learns to face his past: a tangled web of pretense and lies. The novella includes themes of violence, murder, sex, smuggling, and treachery, but under Maley’s careful control of language, it appears a detective story suitable for English learners in high schools and colleges. It is easy to read, and so is it well within the linguistic and language competence of the students.  

      After being attacked by a former colleague, Dan begins an examination of his relationship with the British Secret Service and an inspection on his last mission, “The San Cristobal Operation.” What Dan originally hopes to find out is the reason for the attack, but through the process of investigation, he digs out some ugly truth about the dominant figures in different organizations, and meanwhile, he learns to face his personal problems with his family members, particularly with his daughter. The story is open-ended, but from Dan’s psychological development, the wise readers can make predictions about what he is going to do next.