2. Anecdotes

En esta sección leeras textos y te familiarizarás con los siguientes temas:

Whispering

Fotografía en Flickr de jin.thai bajo CC

  • Past Perfect
  • Anécdotas
  • Conectores

Actividad de lectura

Los periódicos ingleses son una fuente inagotable de noticias insólitas. Aquí tienes una de ellas. Léela.

 

Car crash

Fotografía en Flickr de Ian Hampton bajo CC

A suspected hit and run driver told police she hadn´t stopped because she feared her ice cream would melt.  Flora Burkhart was driving home around 6pm on Sunday night when she crashed into the back of a pick-up truck. But instead of stopping at the scene, on state highway 59 in Van Buren, a city in the Ozark Mountain foothills in Arkansas, the 58-year-old continued driving.

Quick thinking victim, Derek Parker,  dialled 911. Before that, he had followed the suspect home.Officers from Van Buren Police Department later confronted Burkhart and asked why she had fled the scene of the accident. According to a police report, she told them: “I left because I did not want my ice cream to melt.”


The accused also claimed that she “didn’t think there was enough damage to the vehicles to call police. ”In fact, cops estimated that each car sustained $500 worth of damage in the crash. Burkhart was issued a citation for leaving the scene of an accident and driving too closely to Parker’s vehicle.

Texto de Natalie Evans para Mirror

Importante

En el texto anterior, has leído sobre una noticia peculiar. Fíjate en los tiempos verbales que se utilizan. Reconocerás el pasado simple en verbos como hit o feared. Hay otro tiempo verbal que es nuevo para nosotros, es el Past Perfect como en hadn't stopped. Para ver cómo se forma y cuándo se usa, mira la siguiente presentación. Este tiempo se traduce y corresponde al Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto (había terminado) en español.
 

 

Caso de estudio

Lee la siguiente noticia sorprendente y tradúcela poniendo en práctica todo lo que has visto en esta sección. Más abajo podrás comprobar el resultado.

 

Surfer

Fotografía en Flickr de Hani Amir bajo CC

A British professional surfer flying to Biarritz in the South of France ended up in the slightly less popular surfing destination of Malmo in Sweden because Ryanair had let him board the wrong plane.

Toby Donachie, 19, got on the flight by accident due to a last-minute gate change at Stansted. Cabin crew checked his ticket twice, but failed to spot it was for Biarritz. Toby only realised he was flying to the wrong country when the Ryanair pilot announced they were cruising over Denmark.


Toby said: “Halfway there, there was a call saying 'we’re flying over Denmark'. The cabin crew just felt really bad for me when I told them. They were superhelpful.” The crew said they had not realised an extra passenger was on board because a child had been hiding when they did the head count.Toby, from St Merryn, Cornwall, was flying to Biarritz for a training camp. Ryanair flew him back to the UK and paid for a hotel before flying him on to France the next day.


A Ryanair spokesman said: “While the primary responsibility for boarding the correct aircraft lies with each passenger, we have asked our handling agent in ­Stansted to investigate.”

Texto de Richard Smith para Mirror

Aquí tienes ejercicios para practicar con el Past Perfect y su contraste con otros tiempos:

 Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3

Importante

Cuando queremos expresar algo que sucedió o sucederá, o algo que se debe hacer en pasos o en un determinado orden, usamos los adverbios de secuencia para ordenar los hechos o el proceso. Estas palabras ayudan a entender las relaciones de tiempo entre frases o ideas. Hay dos grupos, expresiones de tiempo de más de una palabra que introducen una frase y están seguidas por una coma:

Two-word adverbs of sequence
Imagen de elaboración propia. Haz clic en la imagen para ampliar

También podemos usar adverbios de una sola palabra separados del resto de la frase por una coma. Aquí tienes los más importantes:

One-word adverbs of sequence
Imagen de elaboración propia

Caso de estudio

Traduce las siguientes frases. Fíjate en los adverbios de secuencia.

1. By ten o'clock the cinema was full of people. The film was a great success.

2. Please, come home soon. Don't arrive after midnight.

3. Jack took a shower after breakfast.

4. First, put some ice in the bowl.

5. Take the second on the left, after that, take the third on the right.

6. Finally, the got the money they needed.