3. Remarkable lives
En estas primeras unidades has leído textos sobre experiencias personales y biográficas, en ellos te has encontrado con los tiempos del pasado y expresiones temporales asociadas a ellos. En esta sección los vamos a repasar. Para empezar, te ofrecemos un texto sobre la biografía de Rosa Parks, una de las principales activistas por los derechos civiles de los Estados Unidos. Léelo con atención e intenta traducirlo.

Actividad de lectura
![]() Fotografía en Flickr de Chris Green bajo CC |
Until the 1960s, black people in many parts of the United States did not have the same civil rights as white people. Laws in the American South kept the two races separate and black people attended separate schools, lived in separate areas of a city and sat in separate areas on a bus.
On December 1st, 1955, in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama, a 42- year- old black woman got on a city bus. The law at that time required black people seated in one area of the bus to give up their seats to white people who wanted them. The woman refused to do so and the police arrested her.
This act of peaceful disobedience started protests in Montgomery that led to legal changes in minority rights in the United States. Rosa Parks started it all. She was born in 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She attended local schools until she was 11 years old. Then she was sent to school in Montgomery. She left high school early to care for her sick grandmother, then to care for her mother. She did not finish high school until she was 21.
Rosa married Raymond Parks in 1932. He was a barber and a civil rights activist. Together, they worked for the local group of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1943, Mrs. Parks became an officer in the group and later its youth leader.
On December 1st, 1955, in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama, a 42- year- old black woman got on a city bus. The law at that time required black people seated in one area of the bus to give up their seats to white people who wanted them. The woman refused to do so and the police arrested her.
This act of peaceful disobedience started protests in Montgomery that led to legal changes in minority rights in the United States. Rosa Parks started it all. She was born in 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She attended local schools until she was 11 years old. Then she was sent to school in Montgomery. She left high school early to care for her sick grandmother, then to care for her mother. She did not finish high school until she was 21.
Rosa married Raymond Parks in 1932. He was a barber and a civil rights activist. Together, they worked for the local group of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1943, Mrs. Parks became an officer in the group and later its youth leader.
In much of the American South in the 1950s, the first rows of seats on city buses were for white people only. Black people sat in the back of the bus. Both groups could sit in a middle area. However, black people sitting in that part of the bus were expected to leave their seats if a white person wanted to sit there. Rosa Parks and three other black people were seated in the middle area of the bus when a white person got on the bus and wanted a seat. The bus driver demanded that all four black people leave their seats so the white person would not have to sit next to any of them. The three other blacks got up, but Mrs. Parks refused. All the blacks in the city refused to ride on city buses on the day of Mrs. Parks's trial, Monday, December 5th. The result was that 40,000 people walked and used other transportation on that day. That night, at meetings throughout the city, blacks in Montgomery agreed to continue to boycott the city buses until their mistreatment stopped.
They also demanded the bus company hire black bus drivers and permit anyone to sit in the middle of the bus and not have to get up for anyone else. The Montgomery bus boycott continued for 381 days. Similar protests were held in other southern cities. Finally, the Supreme Court of the United States made racial separation illegal on city buses.
Through the years, Rosa Parks continued to work for the NAACP and appeared at civil rights events and in nineteen ninety-six, President Clinton honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1999, she received the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor. Rosa Parks died on October 24th,2005. She was 92 years old. Her body lay in state in the United States Capitol building in Washington. She was the first American woman to be so honoured. Thirty thousand people walked silently past her body to show their respect.
Texto adaptado de learningenglish

Importante
El texto anterior te muestra la biografía de Rosa Parks, en él puedes encontrar los principales tiempos verbales que se refieren al pasado. Aquí tienes las principales formas y enlaces a ejercicios de repaso:
![]() |
![]() |
¡Recuerda!
- Past Simple
Started, wrote
Didn't start, didn't write
Did you start?, did you write?
- Present Perfect
Have/ has written
Haven't/ hasn't written
Have/has she written?
- Past Perfect
Had written
Hadn't written
Had he written?
- Present Perfect Continuous
Have/has been writing
Haven't/hasn't been writing
Have you written?/has she written?
- Past Continuous
Was/were painting
Wasn't/ weren't painting
Was he painting?/were you painting?