3. Biographies

En esta sección del tema, revisarás los siguientes puntos:

 

Biographies

Imagen en Flickr de *ierb bajo CC

  • Biografías
  • Revisión de tiempos del pasado
  • Present Perfect Continuous

Actividad de lectura

 

Lee la siguiente biografía sobre el boxeador norteamericano Muhammad Ali, toda una leyenda.

 

Early life

Muhammad Ali has been the only professional boxer to win the heavy-weight championship three times. He has provided leadership and is an example for African American men and women around the world with his political and religious views.

Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky.  His father was a sign painter who also loved to act, sing, and dance; his mother worked as a cleaning lady when money was tight. Ali began boxing at the age of twelve. His bicycle had been stolen, and he reported the theft to a policeman named Joe Martin, who gave boxing lessons in a local youth center. Martin invited Ali to try boxing and soon saw that he had talent. An African American trainer named Fred Stoner taught Ali the science of boxing.

"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee"

As a teenager Ali won both the national Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) and Golden Gloves championships. At the age of eighteen he competed in the 1960 Olympic games held in Rome, Italy, winning the gold medal in the lightheavyweight division.  Ali worked his way through a series of professional victories, using a style that combined speed with great punching power. He was described by one of his handlers as having the ability to "float like a butterfly, and sting like a bee. In February 1964, when he was only twenty-two years old, he fought and defeated Sonny Liston for the heavyweight championship of the world.

Religious change

Inspired by Muslim spokesman Malcolm X (1925–1965), Ali began to follow the Black Muslim faith (a group that supports a separate black nation) and announced that he had changed his name to Cassius X. This was at a time when the struggle for civil rights was at a peak and the Muslims had emerged as a controversial (causing disputes) but important force in the African American community. Later the Muslim leader Elijah Muhammad (1897–1975) gave him the name Muhammad Ali.  In his first title defense in May 1965 Ali defeated Sonny Liston with a first-round knockout.  Ali successfully defended his title eight more times.

In April 1967 Ali was drafted into military service during the Vietnam War (1964–75). He claimed that as a minister of the Black Muslim religion he was not obligated to serve. The press criticized him as unpatriotic, and the New York State Athletic Commission and World Boxing Association suspended his boxing license and stripped him of his heavyweight title. Ali was finally sentenced to five years in prison but was released on appeal, and his conviction was thrown out three years later by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Back in the ring

Ali returned to the ring and beat Jerry Quarry in 1970 and he regained his title as the world heavyweight champion in the 1970s. In 1975 Sports Illustrated magazine named Ali its "Sportsman of the Year. Ali successfully defended his title ten more times. At the end of his boxing career he was slowed by a condition related to Parkinson's disease. He retired  in 1981. Since Ali's boxing career ended, he has became involved in social causes and politics. He has campaigned for Jimmy Carter (1924–) and other Democratic political candidates and has been taking  part in the promotion of a variety of political causes addressing poverty and the needs of children. He even tried to win the release of four kidnapped Americans in Lebanon in 1985. As a result, his image changed and he became respected as a statesman. At the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, the world and his country honored Ali by choosing him to light the Olympic torch during the opening ceremonies.

Ali remains in the public eye even as he has been suffering from the effects of Parkinson's disease lately.

Texto adaptado de Encyclopedia of World Biography

Importante

En el texto anterior, encontramos un nuevo tiempo verbal en he has been suffering (ha estado sufriendo, lleva sufriendo). Es el Present Perfect Continuous y se usa para enfatizar la duración de una acción. En español se traduce por la perífrasis verbal "haber estado +gerundio" o por "llevar+gerundio". Para conocer cómo se construye y cuándo se usa, mira la siguiente presentación:

 

Caso de estudio

La biografía de Muhammad Ali, es un buen pretexto para seguir practicando la traducción de textos en pasado. ¿Te atreves a traducirlo? Como siempre, más abajo tienes la solución.