Озвученный английский онлайн текст Could This Really Have Happened.
Practically everybody once read The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Dr. W. T. Williams, a British naturalist, made a detailed study of the animals, which Holmes came across in his various cases. His findings about the snake from the story are among the most interesting.
Holmes describes this snake as, “… a swamp adder, the deadliest snake in India.” Naturalists today know nothing about such an animal. So they tried to classify it by the descriptions of its behaviour: response to its master’s low whistle, fondness of milk, and climbing up and down the bell-rope. From the scientific point of view these actions seem quite impossible. In the first place, snakes are deaf, and in the second, they are not fond of milk. Therefore, responses to these two stimuli are improbable. The bell-rope incident is even more improbable. If a snake is made to climb down the rope, it can hardl climb up again even after a lot of training.
Dr. Williams decided that this snake was an ordinary Indian cobra. It is active, one of the most intelligent snakes, and could possibly climb up a bell-rope. The bite of the cobra is also deadly.
So not all the questions have been answered as yet. The mystery of the speckled band still exists!
