The Case of the Fifth Word: NCERT Class 8 English Story (Poorvi)

etmantra3 Nov 20267 min read

A jewellery robbery, a dying man's will and four strange words on a calendar sheet: this is a mystery students can try to solve before the detective does. Encyclopedia Brown, an eighth grader who never forgets a fact, cracks the code at the dinner table. Along the way, students learn to look closely, think step by step and report what people asked.

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From NCERT’s new English book Poorvi for Class 8, unit “Mystery and Magic”. Unit 3.

What your child learns

Mystery words: hunch, loot, testify, will, code, suspicious, foreseen
Reporting questions: Mrs. Brown asked if he had searched Nolan's house
Phrasal verbs like figure out, turn up and get away with, and words that sound alike (week/weak, piece/peace)
Telling a fact from an opinion, and writing a report of a school event

What the story is about

Leroy Brown lives in Idaville, USA, and everyone except his parents and teachers calls him Encyclopedia, because his head is full of facts. His father, Chief Brown, is the Chief of Police. Whenever the Chief meets a case he cannot solve, he goes home to dinner, and Leroy solves it before the meal is over. Leroy never boasts about this, because he does not want to seem different from other boys. One Tuesday night, the Chief tells the family that Tim Nolan has died. Five years earlier, two masked men had robbed the Diamond Mart of a million dollars worth of jewellery. The police believed Nolan and his friend Daniel Davenport did it, but there was no proof, Davenport vanished, and the jewellery was never found. Before dying of a stroke, Nolan left a will giving everything, including his palm-tree nursery, to Davenport, with a calendar sheet clipped to it.

On the sheet were Davenport's name and address and four odd words: Nom Utes Sweden Hurts. Mrs. Brown, a former English teacher, explains what each word means on its own, but she cannot see the message. Leroy closes his eyes, thinks, and asks just one question: is there a young fir tree in the nursery? There is. The four words are the days Monday to Thursday with the letters d-a-y taken out and the rest rearranged. The fifth word, never written, is Friday, which becomes Fir. The jewellery is found buried in the earth of the jug in which the fir tree grows. The story, by Donald J. Sobol, shows how careful observation and clear thinking can solve what grown-ups miss.

New words, with Hindi meanings

nickname: a pet name that people call you instead of your real name (हिंदी: उपनाम, प्यार का नाम)
hold-up: a robbery in which the robbers use threats or weapons (हिंदी: डकैती)
nursery: a place where young plants and trees are grown and sold (हिंदी: पौधशाला, नर्सरी)
testify: to say in court what you know is true (हिंदी: गवाही देना)
hunch: a strong feeling that something is true, without proof (हिंदी: अंदाज़ा, आभास)
loot: things that have been stolen (हिंदी: लूट का माल)
will: a legal paper that says who gets a person's things after death (हिंदी: वसीयत)
suspicious: making you feel that something is wrong or hidden (हिंदी: संदिग्ध, शक वाला)
confessed: admitted something, often something you did not want to say (हिंदी: मान लिया, कबूल किया)
foreseen: known or guessed before it happened (हिंदी: पहले से अनुमान लगाया)

Talk about it

Ask these aloud after reading or watching. Let your child answer in English if they can, or mix in their home language. Both help.

Why did everyone call Leroy 'Encyclopedia'?
Why did Chief Brown suspect Nolan and Davenport, even without proof?
What was strange about the paper clipped to Nolan's will?
How did Leroy work out where the jewellery was hidden?
Have you ever solved a puzzle or found something lost by noticing a small clue? What happened?

Answers for parents

Because his head was full of facts, like an encyclopedia. He read more books than anyone in Idaville and never forgot a fact.
Nolan and Davenport had become friends in prison, Davenport came to live with Nolan a week before the robbery, a clerk thought she recognised Nolan when a robber's mask slipped, and Davenport vanished right after the hold-up.
It was a sheet from a desk calendar with Davenport's name and address and four odd words: Nom Utes Sweden Hurts. The words made no sense by themselves.
He saw that the words were Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with 'day' removed and the letters mixed up. The next day, Friday, gives 'Fir', so he guessed the jewellery was under a fir tree in Nolan's nursery.
For example: My mother could not find her keys. I noticed that her jacket was on the sofa, though she always hangs it up, so I checked its pocket and the keys were there.

Grammar corner: Reporting questions (direct to indirect speech)

When we report a question, we use a verb like asked or inquired and turn the question into a normal sentence: the subject comes before the verb and there is no question mark. A Wh- question keeps its question word (what, where, why), while a Yes/No question uses if or whether. The tense usually moves one step back, and words like I, you, today and here change to fit the new speaker.

"Where is the jewellery?" asked the officer. → The officer asked where the jewellery was.
"Did you check the garden?" Mom asked Leroy. → Mom asked Leroy if he had checked the garden.
"Will you help me tomorrow?" said Dad. → Dad asked whether I would help him the following day.

Practice at home

Report this question: "Why are you smiling?" Mrs. Brown asked Leroy. Begin: Mrs. Brown asked Leroy ___
Choose the right word: The thief tried to ___ (get away with / put on) the stolen bag, but the police caught him.
Fill in with week or weak: I had a fever last ___, so I still feel a little ___.

Answers: 1. Mrs. Brown asked Leroy why he was smiling. · 2. get away with · 3. week, weak

Try this

Make your own day code, like Nolan's. Take a day of the week, drop the letters d-a-y, and mix up the rest to make a word or two (for example, Saturday gives 'Rust a'). Give it to someone at home and see if they can guess the day. Then play 'Name the mystery object': one person thinks of a thing in the house and gives three clues, one at a time, and the others try to guess it with as few clues as possible.

Tip for parents

Ask your child to tell you the mystery in Hindi first, step by step: रॉबरी किसने की, गहने कहाँ छिपे थे, और लेरॉय ने चार शब्दों से कैसे पता लगाया. Then ask them to tell it again in English, and it is fine if some Hindi words come in. For reported questions, ask a question in Hindi (जैसे 'तुमने खाना खाया?') and let your child report it in English: 'You asked if I had eaten.' Praise every attempt.

Questions parents ask

What was the fifth word in The Case of the Fifth Word?

The fifth word was 'Fir', made from Friday. Nolan's four words, Nom Utes Sweden Hurts, were Monday to Thursday with 'day' dropped and the letters rearranged, so the unwritten fifth day pointed to the young fir tree under which the jewellery was hidden.

Who are the characters in The Case of the Fifth Word?

Leroy 'Encyclopedia' Brown, a boy detective; his father Chief Brown, the Chief of Police; his mother Mrs. Brown, a former English teacher; Tim Nolan, who has just died; and Daniel Davenport, Nolan's friend, who disappeared after the robbery. The story is by Donald J. Sobol.

Is The Case of the Fifth Word in the new NCERT book?

Yes. It is Chapter 7 of Poorvi, NCERT's new English book for Class 8, in Unit 3 (Mystery and Magic).

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Every chapter of Poorvi, NCERT’s new Class 8 book, with notes in English and Hindi, say-it-aloud practice with a score, listening, grammar, speaking and writing with feedback. ₹1,599 for the whole year.

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