Below you will find a short retelling of one of Roald Dahl’s most famous stories. Rewrite it into the Past Simple Tense. Read and translate it. LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER
Mary Maloney is a devoted wife and expectant mother. She waits happily each night for the arrival of her husband Patrick, who works at the police station. On this particular night, though, she feels that something is wrong. In disbelief, she listens as Patrick tells her that he wants to leave her for another woman. (Actually Dahl never really says this; the details are left up to the reader’s imagination.) Dazed, she goes into the kitchen to prepare their supper and pulls a large frozen leg of lamb from the deep freeze. She carries it into the living room and without warning hits her husband on the head with it. As she looks at Patrick lying dead on the floor, she slowly begins to come back to her senses. Immediately she realizes the consequences of her act. As she doesn’t want her unborn child to suffer as a result of her crime, she begins planning her alibi. She places the leg of lamb in a pan in the oven and goes down to the corner grocery to get some food for ‘Patrick’s dinner’ (making sure the grocer sees her normal and cheerful state of mind). She returns home and screams when she finds Patrick lying on the floor. She calls the police and informs them that her husband is dead. Officers search the house and conduct an investigation. They believe Mary’s story of coming home from the grocer’s and finding him dead. They search the house for the murder weapon but they don’t find anything. Mary offers them some lamb that is ready in the oven. They are happy to have dinner. While they rest in the kitchen and discuss the case, Mary Maloney sits in the living room and giggles softly to herself.
