Sherlock Holmes（（夏洛克·福尔摩斯））is a fictional ______ created by Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes is good at observation and logical reasoning（观察和推理），and this helps him solve many ______ . Holmes first appeared in 1887 in the book called A Study in Scarlet，and became popular ______ a series of short stories.

Conan Doyle altogether wrote four novels and 56 short ______ on Holmes. Most of the stories are told by Dr. Watson，a friend ______ shares the flat at 221B Baker Street，London with Holmes，and often helps Holmes when he is searching for clues.

____ Holmes may not be the first fictional detective，he is probably the most famous one in history. Holmes is ______ that many people believe he is not a fictional detective but a real person. He is widely ______ a British cultural icon.

Sherlock Holmes stories have had a great ______ on detective story writing and popular culture, and his stories have been made into many ______ , films and plays for more than a hundred years.