约2120字。
　　Unit 2 DETECTIVE STORIES
　　Period 1
　　Teaching Aims
　　1) to let the students master some important words in this unit
　　2) to let the students know more about American and English literature
　　Bacnd Information
　　Arthur Conan Doyle, the son of Charles Doyle and Mary Foley, was born in Edinburgh on 22nd May 1859. Arthur’s father was an alcoholic and the family was always short of money. At school, Arthur developed a strong interest in the books written by sir Walter Scottand Edgar Allan Poe.
　　Conan Doyle studied at Edinburgh University and helped to fund his course by working as a surgeon on Hope, a 400 ton whaler on a seven month voyage to the Arctic. The following year he worked on Mayumba, a passenger ship bound for West Africa. On this voyage Conan Doyle nearly died of typhoid.
　　On his return, Conan Doyle set up as a doctor in Southsea, a suburb of Porthmouth. With very few patients, Conan Doyle attempted to make money by writing detective stories. His main character, Sherlock Holmes, was based on Dr. Joseph Bell, a surgeon and inal psychologist, who lectured at Edinburgh Infirmary.
　　In 1891 Conan Doyle published six Sherlock Holmes stories in the Strand Magazine. The following year he was paid £1,000 for a whole series on Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle really wanted to write historical novels like his hero, Sir Walter Scott, and in 1893 decided to kill off Sherlock Holmes in the story, The Final Problem. However, after ing under considerable pressure from his fans, he returned to write his best known detective story, The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902).
　　Conan Doyle served as a doctor in the Boer War (1899-1902) and wrote The War in South Africa (1902), where he attempted to justify Britain’s actions during the war.
　　On 2nd September, 1914, soon after the start of the First World War, the Liberal politician, Charles Masterman, the head of the War Propaganda, organised a seeeting of Britain’s leading writers. to discuss ways of best promoting Britain’s interests during the war. Those who attended to discuss the best way of promoting Britain’s interests during the war included Conan Do