Búsqueda personalizada
 

EL BOLETIN QUINCENAL DE INGLES PREFERIDO POR EL HISPANOHABLANTE

 

LOS RECURSOS DE NUESTRO PORTAL

CURSOS GRATIS

 

Prueba de nivel

Niños y Principiantes

HABLA INGLES
EN
52 LECCIONES

 

Básico Elemental

Intermedio Bajo

Intermedio

Intermedio Alto

Avanzado

 

 

First Certificate

Toefl Test

Avanzado de Negocios

Curso de Vocabulario

Curso de Conversación

Curso de Redacción

GRAMATICA

 

Gramática Bilingüe

Tiempos Verbales

Verbos Regulares

Verbos Irregulares

Phrasal Verbs

Fonética Inglesa

Pronunciación

Errores Comunes

PRACTICA

 

Diccionarios Sonoros

Test de Ubicación

Tests Autoevaluación

Exámenes Imprimibles

Ejercitación FCE

Ejercicios Interactivos

Informes del Tiempo

LISTENING 1

 

Videos por Niveles

Dictados por Niveles

Diálogos por Niveles

Listening con Práctica

Mesa de Comentarios

Conversación a Bordo

Acentos del Inglés

Preguntas de Examen

Historias de Misterio

Historias de Humor

LISTENING 2

 

Canciones de Sinatra

Canciones del Cine

Canciones de Navidad

Café Nostalgia

Comedias Musicales

The Beatles Videos

Teatro en Inglés

Diálogos de Películas

Canción Gramatical

LECTURA 1

 

Descarga de Libros

Libros Imprimibles

Cuentos Cortos

Poesía Inglesa

Guía de Buenos Aires

Cruceros Virtuales

LECTURA 2

 

Negocios

Trabajo y Empleo

Secretarias

Humor y Chistes

Estrellas del Cine

Viajes y Ocio

Artículos Destacados

Ecología

Mundo de la Mujer

Salud y Bienestar

Palabras Nuevas

Compositores

Operas

ENTRETENIMIENTO

 

Juegos en Inglés

Chiste del Dia

Galerías de Fotos

Entrevistas (Español)

CURSOS EN CD

 

Nuestro Catálogo

SERVICIOS

 

Chat Inglés Intermedio

Minichat Inglés Básico

Boletín Gratuito

Sorteos Gratuitos

Mapa del Sitio

Opinan los estudiantes

Buscador del Portal

Traductores

Convertir Tiempo

Convertir Moneda

Enlaces

Solidaridad OM

Premios Recibidos

Prensa y Entrevistas

Nuestras Oficinas

Términos Legales

 

EL BOLETIN DE INGLES AMERICANO PREFERIDO POR LOS HISPANOPARLANTES

OM News # 80 - Delivered to 35178 subscribers

ISSN 1668-4877 - May 15, 2004

Hello everybody !! This fortnight we bring an interesting short story together with a bilingual glossary. Written in 1882 by American writer Frank R. Stockton, it is about a man sentenced to an unusual punishment for having a romance with the king's beloved daughter. The final outcome has been debated in literature classes for years. Enjoy it ... and THANKS again for RATING our efforts by CLICKING HERE. See you on June 1.
Hola todas/os !! Esta quincena traemos un interesante cuento corto y su glosario bilingüe. Escrito en 1882 por el norteamericano Frank R. Stockton, trata de un hombre sentenciado a un insólito castigo por cortejar a la hija favorita del rey. El final de esta historia ha sido discutido en clases de literatura durante años. Disfrútala ... y  MUCHAS GRACIAS nuevamente por CALIFICARNOS haciendo CLIC AQUI. Nos vemos el 1° de junio.

THIS ISSUE:

SHORT STORIES
Fiction and Humor
in Lady or Tiger?
(a real must for ESL students and teachers)

ANSWERS
OM NEWS # 79

reading comprehension

THE LADY OR THE TIGER? A semi-barbaric king devises an entirely fair method of criminal trial involving two doors, a beautiful lady and a very hungry tiger. Try to solve this fiction and humor piece by Frank Stockton

¿LA DAMA O EL TIGRE? Un rey bastante cruel inventa un método totalmente imparcial de prueba criminal que incluye dos puertas, una bella dama y una tigre famélico. Intenta resolver esta obra de ficción y humor de Frank Stockton.

Many, many years ago there was a king in a far country. He was famous, he was strong and he was very clever. But in his country he had many wrongdoers. The King was unhappy about this, but how can you stop people from doing wrong? It is not easy. He thought about this difficult question for a long time but he could not find the answer.

Suddenly, one day, he had a good idea. He spoke to his people and told them to build a big stadium in the centre of the city.
‘It must be very big and very beautiful,’ he told them.
So the people worked hard for many months.
One day, the building was finished. The stadium was ready. Inside it, there were places for five thousand people. Everyone was very excited about this beautiful new building. Some wanted to watch games in the stadium. Others wanted to have dancing and singing. But what did the King want? No one knew.
The day of the opening came. Everyone ran to the stadium to get a place inside. The people got more excited when the King arrived. They were all quiet, waiting. First, he took his place. Then, he stood up and spoke.
‘My people, my friends,’ he said. ‘Firstly I want to thank all the workers for their good work. We now have a beautiful stadium and it is very well built. Secondly, I know that many of you want to see games and dancing here. But this stadium is going to be different. It is not going to be a place for having a good time. It is going to be a place for wrongdoers. If one of you does something wrong, we are going to bring him to this place. Then he must stand in the middle of this stadium in front of us all.
‘Now, do you all see those two doors, coloured blue, at the far end of the stadium? They look the same, perhaps. But they are not. Behind one door, I am going to put a dangerous animal, a tiger. Behind the other door, there is going to be a beautiful lady. The wrongdoer must choose one of these doors. If he opens the wrong door, he finds the tiger. It jumps out and kills him. If he opens the other door, he finds the beautiful young woman. She is to be his wife. They must marry immediately, right here in the stadium before our eyes. After that, they can live happily with us as husband and wife. So each wrongdoer must choose very carefully. Before he chooses, he - and we - cannot know if he is going to live or die. As soon as he opens one of those two doors, we all know immediately. That is my idea. So tell me, my friends, is it a good idea or is it not?’
‘It is good, O King, it is very good,’ the people answered. But they were quiet. They were afraid.
‘Thank you, ‘ said the King. ‘Now go home. Come to the stadium again at the same time next week. Then you can watch the first wrongdoer make his choice. Every week from now on, a different man is going to choose: to live, if he is lucky, or to die if he is not.
From that day, the people came every week to the stadium to watch a different wrongdoer. Sometimes, he opened the right blue door and the beautiful lady came out. Then there was singing and dancing. Everyone threw flowers down to the lucky people and went home happily. But at other times, the wrongdoer opened the wrong door. Immediately a big tiger ran out into the stadium and jumped on the unlucky man. In a few minutes, the tiger killed him in front of all the watching people. When he lay dead in the centre of the stadium, the people went home sadly. They took their flowers with them. It is interesting that in a short time the number of wrongdoers in the country got much smaller. No one wanted to stand in the middle of the stadium and make that difficult choice.
Now, there is another important person in this story. The King had only one child, a daughter. She was very beautiful. She had green eyes and long red hair and she moved as quickly as a cat. She too was strong and clever - as strong and clever as her father. She did not smile often. But when she smiled, people were happy. When she was angry, everyone was afraid. They knew that at those times she was a very dangerous young woman. Her picture was in every home. Men, women and children followed her when she went walking in the streets of the city. They waited to see her famous smile and sometimes they were lucky.
One day, she was out walking in a city park when she saw a young man. He was a gardener and the park was where he worked. He was very good-looking. He was tall and strong. He had dark blue-black hair and a dark moustache. When he laughed, you could see his beautiful white teeth. The King’s daughter stopped and looked at him closely. She thought that he was the most beautiful man in the world. She began to talk with him and liked him more and more. The young man could not understand. Why did the King’s daughter want to talk to him? He was not important. He was only the King’s gardener. But he could not take his eyes off her. As soon as he looked into her big green eyes and saw her smile, he was in love. But he knew that this love was very dangerous. He was not a rich man, not from a rich family. He could never marry the daughter of the King.
But the two young lovers knew that they must meet again. They started to meet every day, at times when no one could see them. Every day, their love was stronger and stronger. They were very happy. Then one day the King found them together, there in the city gardens. His daughter was in the young man’s arms. The King was very, very angry. He called his men. Immediately, they took the young man away and shut him in a dark, dirty room. They gave him only bread and water to eat. Now the King’s daughter could not see her lover any more. The young man lay in the dark. He knew that he was a wrongdoer and in much danger from the King.
Now, we know that the King’s daughter was a strong young woman and that she was very clever. When her father’s men took her lover away, she too saw the danger immediately. She knew very well what was going to happen next. So, early in the morning, she went to the stadium. No one saw her go. She spoke to the workers there and gave them some money.
‘Which room is the tiger in?’ she asked.
They told her.
‘And which girl is going to be behind the other door?’
The workers did not want to answer. They were afraid.
‘I must know,’ said the King’s daughter. ‘Who is she?’
‘She is the daughter of your father’s driver’, the workers answered.
The King’s daughter knew her well: a young and beautiful girl with rich brown hair. But the King’s daughter did not like her. She began to think hard. ‘If my lover chooses the wrong door, he dies. But if he chooses the right door, he marries this cheap little thing, this driver’s child. And I lose him - to her! So I too must choose...’
That afternoon, the King called all his people back to the stadium again. His men brought the young man from the dark room. There he stood, in the middle of the stadium, tired, hungry and afraid. The King sat in his place above the people and his daughter sat next to him. She did not move. Her face showed nothing.
Then the King stood and spoke to his people. ‘You all know this gardener, my friends
. And you know why he is here. He was the lover of my daughter. For many weeks, I did not know that; but I know it now. What happens to a wrongdoer in our country? That too we know. He must choose: the lady or the tiger. If he opens the right door, he must marry the lady. So now choose, young man. Choose very carefully if you want to live and not die.’
The young man stood quietly and listened to the King’s words. But his eyes were not on the King. They were on the face of the King’s daughter. She had no smile for him today. But he looked at her eyes. Her eyes told him something. She looked down quickly at her hand. Then she looked up again. He saw her smallest finger move a little to the left. And immediately he knew: the door to open was the door on the left! He turned and walked very slowly to the left-hand door. All the people watched him, without a sound. He put out his hand and opened the door...
But here the story ends. Remember that the King’s daughter was a clever young woman. She was in love but she was angry too. Did she want her lover to meet the tiger - a fight that he must lose? Did she want him to die? Or did she want him to live and have another beautiful woman for his wife? To give him this other woman, in place of her? We do not know what ideas were at work inside her beautiful head.
Tell me, what do you think? Which did she choose? What was behind that door: the lady or the tiger?

GLOSSARY
wrongdoers: someone who transgresses moral or civil law (transgresores); opening: a ceremony accompanying the start of some enterprise (inauguración); he stood up: he rose to his feet (se puso de pie); secondly: in the second place (en segundo lugar); coloured: painted (pintadas de color); look: seem (parecen); jumps out: leaps out (salta; da un salto); she is to be: she must become (tendrá que ser);  lay dead (lie/lay/lain/lying): was lying in a horizontal position no longer alive (yacía); good-looking: handsome (guapo); moustache: unshaved growth of hair on the upper lip (bigote); closely: in an attentive manner and position (de cerca y con atención); take his eyes off her: stop watching her (dejar de mirarla; quitarle la vista de encima); they must meet again: they had to see each other (tenían que verse de nuevo); cheap little thing: someone unimportant (baratija);  put out: extended (extendió); at work inside her beautiful head: influencing her mind (moviéndose en su hermosa cabeza). 

RESPUESTAS ACTIVIDAD DE READING COMPREHENSION - OM NEWS # 79
(Haz clic en el título si necesitas ver el boletín anterior)

Are you a MOUSE POTATO, someone who practically lives in front of the computer? Or are you a TECHNOPHOBE, someone nervous about new technology?
Luckily, most computer words are easy to learn because many of them are so colourful. They are words that often make us smile when we first hear them such as SNAIL MAIL (traditional post rather than Internet-based mail). To get a feeling for computer words, it helps to understand the world that created them, CYBERCULTURE, as it is often called.
Computer words often give the impression of certain playfulness, even humour. Take EMOTICON¸ for example, formed from emotion and icon, which are also called SMILEYS. They are combinations of symbols such as :) that people attach to their messages in order to express feelings.
To be fair, cyberculture also laughs at itself. Those who spend all their time in front of their computers are called COMPUTER GEEKS and, for the younger generation, SCREENAGERS.
Internet communication has a definite style of its own and it is often highly colloquial. To make their Internet writing seem more informal, people use abbreviations, such as B4 meaning "before" or GR8 meaning "Great!!".

UN MOMENTO DE RELAX. Cuando sientas cansancio o pocas ganas de seguir, OM Personal te ofrece hacer un alto en tus prácticas. Relájate ingresando a OM ART & PHOTO GALLERY donde podrás distraerte con dibujos y fotografias de artistas argentinos poco divulgados. También encontrarás, en español, una serie de relatos de Eddie Jörgendorf (haz clic en la imagen) que te recomendamos. Ese breve intervalo hará que regreses con energías renovadas al estudio de nuestros cursos.

om shopping

¿HAS PENSADO EN CD-ROMs REALMENTE UTILES?

APRENDE INGLES AMERICANO RAPIDA Y EFICAZMENTE

CD-ROM # 1: CURSO BASICO MULTIMEDIA EN 20 LECCIONES
+ 3 exitosas secciones de nuestro portal (CLIC en la imagen)

CD-ROM # 2: CURSO INTERMEDIO MULTIMEDIA EN 20 LECCIONES
+ 3 exitosas secciones de nuestro portal (CLIC en la imagen)

next update: june 1, 2004

OM NEWS es una publicación quincenal de distribución gratuita perteneciente al portal OM Personal Multimedia English www.ompersonal.com.ar. Responsable: Orlando Moure, Borges 2485, Piso 12, Dto. A, CP C1425FFI, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, República Argentina.