MISS BRACEGIRDLE'S NIGHT OF FEAR

Stacey Aumonier

This was Miss Bracegirdle's first visit to France. She did not usually take holidays away from home.


Luckily she spoke a little French. 'It is not so difficult to live in France,' she thought. 'The thing to understand is that it is quite different from Easingstoke.'

She took her things one by one out of her bag and put them away carefully. She thought about her home in Easingstoke, with flowers in all the rooms and photographs of the family. She thought about her poor brother, working so hard. She felt a little sad, but only for a minute.

Her time in France was to be quite short. She was going to be home again soon. Now she must get a good night's sleep. But first that hot bath...

She took off her day things and put on her nightdress. Then she picked up her washing things and went to the bathroom, closing her bedroom door quietly. She lay in the hot water and thought about the nice young girl in the hotel getting her bath ready. People in this hotel were very friendly – always ready to help. There was so much she wanted to tell her brother when she got home.

She got out of the bath and put on her nightdress again. She cleaned the bath very carefully. She did not want French people to think that the English were dirty. Then she left the bathroom and went back to her bedroom. She went in quickly, put on the light and shut the door.

Then, one of those unlucky things happened: the door-handle came off in her hand. She tried to put the handle back on the door but she could not. 'How do I do it?' she thought. 'It is going to be very difficult to open the door now. Do I ask that nice girl to come and help me? Perhaps by now she is in bed.'

She turned away from the door, and suddenly, she saw something much, much worse than the door-handle. There was a man in her bed! She took one look at his thick black hair and his big black moustache and immediately felt quite ill with fear. For a minute or two, she could not think. Then her first thought was: 'I must not scream!' She stood there but she could not move. She just looked at the man's dark head and the big line of his back under the bedthings. She began to think very quickly.

Her next thought was: 'I am in the wrong room. It is the man's room.' She could see his jacket and trousers lying on a chair and his big black shoes on the floor. She must get out quickly. But how? She tried again to open the door with her fingers but she could not.

Here she was, shut in a hotel room with an unknown man – a Frenchman! She must think, she must think! She turned off the light.

'Perhaps with the light off, he is not going to wake up,' she thought.

'That gives me more time to do something. But if he does wake up, what do I do? He is not going to believe my story. Nobody is going to believe me.

In England perhaps but not here. How can they understand? So, I must get out of this room. By waking him? By screaming? By calling the young girl?

No, it is no good. If I scream or call out, people are going to come running immediately. And what do they find? Miss Bracegirdle from Easingstoke in a man's bedroom after twelve o'clock at night. Just think of all the talk back home when my friends hear about that!

And if I climb out of the window?' She thought of the big hairy man pulling her back by the legs as she tried to get out. He could wake up at any minute. She thought that she heard somebody going past outside the door. But it was too late to scream now.

Suddenly, she had an idea. It was now nearly one o'clock in the morning. Perhaps the sleeping man was not dangerous. At seven or eight o'clock, he must get up and go out to work. 'I can get under the bed and wait there until he goes. Men never look under the bed. When he sees the door-handle on the floor, he is going to open the door with something or call the girl to come. Later, I can come out from under the bed and go quietly back to my room. Nobody is going to know.'

She lay down on the floor and got under the bed. No sound came from the man above her, but from down here it was difficult to hear anything. She tried to think of her nice little bedroom in Easingstoke with its nice white bed but the floor was getting harder every minute. She tried to think what her room number was. One hundred and fifteen? Or was it one hundred and sixteen? She was always bad at remembering numbers.

She began to think of her schooldays and the interesting things she learned then. Suddenly, she felt that she was going to sneeze. She could not stop it. The sneeze came – a long, hard one. 'This is the end of me,' Miss Bracegirdle thought. 'Now this Frenchman is going to jump out of bed and turn on the light. Then he is going to look under the bed and pull me out.

And then...And then? What can I do then? I can scream if he puts his hands on me. Perhaps it is better to scream first, before that happens. If not, he can put his hand over my mouth and stop me from screaming.'

But no shout came out of her mouth. Her fear was much too strong. She stayed very quiet and listened. Was he going to hit her – with one of those heavy shoes, perhaps? But nothing happened. Miss Bracegirdle suddenly knew that she could not stay under that bed a minute longer. It was better to come out, wake up the man and tell him everything. With difficulty she got out from under the bed and stood up. She went over to the door and put on on the light. She turned to the bed and said, as strongly as she could, 'Monsieur!'

Nothing happened. She looked at the man and said again, 'Monsieur! Monsieur!'

But again there was no answer. She went closer to the bed. His hair and moustache were very black but his face had no colour in it. His mouth was open but his eyes were shut.

Then for the third time that night, Miss Bracegirdle nearly died of fear. Suddenly, her legs felt as weak as water. She nearly fell down. Because the man in the bed was dead! It was the first time that she stood face to face with a dead person, but there was no mistake. The man was dead. Miss Bracegirdle could only say, 'He's dead! He's dead!'

Her difficulties now were not important. She began to feel sorry for him, lying here dead in a hotel room. But a sudden sound broke into her thoughts. Somebody outside the door put down some shoes: the shoe-cleaning boy. She heard the sound of his feet die away and remembered where she was.

To be in an unknown man's bedroom was bad, but to be in a room with a dead man was much, much worse! If they found her here, people were going to think she killed him! A picture came into her head: the police taking her off to the police station, asking her questions, shutting her away... And her sister arriving in just a few hours' time too! She must get out of the room immediately. 'I cannot call for help now,' she thought, fighting back her fear. 'Do something, Millicent. It is now or never!'

But what? She went round the room, looking for something to open the door with. She could find nothing. Finally, she picked up the man's jacket. Inside it she found a small knife. She took the knife and put it in the side of the door. Very slowly she turned the knife and the door opened. She wanted to run out of the room immediately but she stopped first and listened. Nobody was there. Feeling very afraid, Miss Bracegirdle shut the door quickly behind her and ran as fast as she could to her bedroom.

She lay down on the bed and the fear slowly began to leave her. All was well!

But then she had another unhappy thought. The living fear came back.

Her washing things were in there. They were lying there in the dead man's room! And her name was on them. To go back again now was far worse than the first time but she had no choice. She could not leave her things lying there. 'If they find them, they are going to ask me how they got there,' she thought. She had to go back.

She went. She did not look at the bed. She quickly took her washing things and ran back again to her bedroom. Now that the danger was over, she suddenly felt very, very tired. She got into bed and put out the light. She lay in the dark, trying to forget her fears. Finally, she went to sleep.

It was eleven o'clock when she woke up. The sun was high in the sky and the fears of the night were far away. In the light of the day, it was all very difficult to believe. Miss Bracegirdle tried to think about other things.

Finally, the young girl arrived to wake her up. Her eyes showed that she was excited. 'Oh madame!' she said, 'a very bad thing happened here last night. The man in room one hundred and seventeen – he is dead!

Please do not say that I told you but the police were here, the doctor, everybody.'

Miss Bracegirdle said nothing. There was nothing to say. But the young woman was too excited to stop. 'And do you know who this dead man was, madame? They say that he was Boldhu, the famous killer, wanted by the police. Last year, he killed a woman and cut her up and threw her into the river. And last night, he died here in our hotel – in the room next door! We do not know how. Did you say coffee, madame?'

'No thank you, just a cup of tea – strong tea, please.'

'Very well, madame.'

Source: Simply Suspense (Penguin Readers)

READING ACTIVITY

THE FOLLOWING DAY, MISS BRACEGIRDLE WROTE A LETTER TO HIS BROTHER TELLING HIM ABOUT HER TERRIBLE NIGHT IN FRANCE. CHOOSE THE BEST ALTERNATIVES IN ORDER TO COMPLETE HER LETTER.

WORD BANK

Dead, Believe, Under, Scream, Sneezed, Tension, Wake up, Bath, Handle, Escape, Scream, People, Thinking, Wrong, Behave, Immediately.

My dear brother,

I am going to tell you a story that you will not ______________________. Are you sitting

down? I spent yesterday night ______________________________ a Frenchman's bed!

I came back to my room after a ______________. But when I saw a _______________


man in the bed, I knew I was in the ______________ room. I ____________________


tried to leave the room, but then the door ____________________ came off in my hand!

There was no ________________. ‘What can I do? What will ________________ think

of me? What will the man do to me? I mustn’t _________________________,’ I thought.

I didn't know how to ________________________ in a situation like this, so I lay quietly

under the bed ________________, when suddenly I ___________________. The man

did not ________________________. I couldn't stand the _________________. Finally,




I jumped up and put the light on, only to find that the man was _____________________.




Oh God, it was really a terrible experience, wasn't it?


A big kiss

ENFERMEDADES HEREDITARIAS
Para comenzar con este tema debemos hacer unas cuantas aclaraciones:
• Los ácidos nucleicos están formados por C, H, O, N, P, que se combinan formando un ácido fosfórico junto con una pentosa y unas bases nitrogenadas.
• Dependiendo del tipo de pentosa que tengamos nos encontraremos con ADN (desoxirribosa) o ARN (ribosa).
• Los descubridores de que el ADN se arrollaba en doble hélice fueron Watson y Crick, para ello se apoyaron en los estudios de Chargaff y de Wilkins. Aunque nunca se ha podido ver la cadena directamente se tiene la certeza de que es así porque explica fenómenos como la replicación y la biosíntesis de proteínas.
• Ya hemos hablado del ARN pero no hemos dicho que hay tres tipos: ARNm (mensajero), ARNr (ribosómico) y ARNt (transferente). Y los tres toman parte en la biosíntesis de proteínas.

GENÉTICA
Se podría considerar como padre de la genética a Gregor Mendel que estudió la herencia de ciertos caracteres en los guisantes y sacó tres leyes de las que no hablaremos ahora. Pero para seguir adelante es necesario que aclaremos algunos términos:
• Fenotipo: Se le llama así a los caracteres visibles. Es decir, los que se manifiestan. Ej.: el color del pelo.
• Genotipo: Se le llama así al conjunto de genes que dan lugar al fenotipo.
• Alelo: En cromosomas homólogos los genes que determinan un carácter se sitúan en el mismo sitio (alelo).
• Homocigótico: Los genes de los cromosomas homólogos tienen la misma información para un carácter determinado.
• Heterocigótico: Los genes de los cromosomas homólogos no tienen la misma información para un carácter determinado.
• Herencia:
• Dominante: Sólo se expresa uno de los caracteres (“tapa” al carácter que hay en el otro cromosoma (homólogo) y no lo deja expresarse.)
• Codominancia: Los dos son dominantes (sale un híbrido)
• Recesivo: Se expresa sólo cuando los dos alelos tienen la misma información. Se pueden “tapar” con un dominante.
ENFERMEDADES HEREDITARIAS
A continuación procederemos a enumerar una serie de enfermedades, sus síntomas y sus causas.
• Anemia falciforme: Se produce por una baja concentración de hemoglobina, esto tiene como consecuencia el tener pocos glóbulos rojos y por lo tanto una menor concentración de oxígeno. Si la anemia es hereditaria la causa es el cambio de los aminoácidos valina por ácido glutámico. Esto le da a los eritrocitos un aspecto extraño que no sirve para su función. Es muy grave y puede causar anomalías en el hígado, el aparato respiratorio y ceguera.
• Mucoviscilosis: Viene dada por un gen recesivo. Se trata de una anomalía por la que las secreciones normales del cuerpo se alteran haciéndose viscosas. Puede producir tos, gastroenteritis, esterilidad en hombres y poca fertilidad en mujeres.
• Huntington, Corea de: Enfermedad bastante rara caracterizada por la aparición de movimientos espasmódicos, retraso mental y casi siempre causa la muerte. Esta enfermedad es la popularmente conocida como “baile de San Vito” y cuando se convierte en crónica se le llama Corea de Huntington.
• Galactosemia: Se trata de una acumulación de galactosa provocando cataratas, cirrosis hepática, retraso mental, anemia...
• Albinismo: Viene dado por un gen recesivo; se debe a la falta de melanina. Como consecuencia de esta falta tanto el pelo y los ojos como toda la piel y esto hace correr graves riesgos de contraer cánceres de piel y ceguera.
• Diabetes mellitus: No se fabrica insulina por lo que la concentración de glucosa en la sangre sube, provocando ceguera, anomalías renales y posibles parálisis. Los síntomas más comunes son sed, cansancio y pérdida de peso entre otras.
• Sordomudez: En cuento a la sordera es hereditaria, pero la mudez viene dad porque la persona, en cuestión, al no oír no aprende a hablar. Las causas pueden ser muchas; las más corrientes son la toma de drogas durante el embarazo, o hemorragias en el parto. De todas formas se debe cuidar el oído al bebé.
• Polidactilia: consiste en una malformación esquelética en la que la persona nace con más de cinco dedos ya sea en pies o manos. Las causas pueden ser radiaciones durante el embarazo (rayos X) o por enfermedades en la madre.
• Daltonismo: Es muy conocida: El sujeto no diferencia colores.
• Hemofilia: Se da sobre todo en hombres (si se diera en mujeres morirían). Viene dado por el cromosoma X. La enfermedad consiste en una falta de los elementos coagulantes en la sangre. Así cualquier pequeño corte se convierte en hemorragia.

Globalización y medio ambiente: Lecciones desde las Américas
Kevin P. Gallagher, Luciana Togeiro de Almeida
y Hernán Blanco

Con la llegada de este nuevo milenio hemos sido testigos de una apertura sin precedentes del mercado global. El aumento de los flujos de comercio e inversión internacionales está impulsando el fenómeno de la “globalización”: el rápido crecimiento e integración de mercados, instituciones y culturas. La velocidad con que ocurre el cambio es tan alta que muchas personas están temerosas de las consecuencias. Una serie de protestas –cuya intensidad ha venido aumentando desde la reunión de la Organización Mundial del Comercio (OMC) en Seattle en 1999, las reuniones del FMI y el Banco Mundial en Washington el año 2000, la reunión de julio de 2001 del G-8 en Génova y la
reunión de la Cumbre de las Américas en Québec en abril de 2001– son ejemplos de la amplitud y profundidad de los cuestionamientos con que un creciente grupo de actores critican los potenciales impactos que puede generar un mercado global libre de obstáculos. Al finalizar la década, el proceso liberalizador se detuvo por un momento. Los intentos por extender los ámbitos
del comercio global hacia los movimientos de capital, a través de un Acuerdo Multilateral sobre Inversión y por ampliar aún más el rol de la OMC, encontraron resistencia y finalmente fracasaron. Se han planteado interrogantes fundamentales y aún se está a la espera de las respuestas.

Enfoques teóricos

Para muchos ambientalistas, cada nueva iniciativa por promover la liberalización de la economía genera interrogantes en torno al posible impacto en los ecosistemas de la Tierra y en las opciones de desarrollo de los gobiernos. Ellos perciben la liberalización como un proceso que impulsa la demanda de mayor consumo de recursos naturales y que genera presiones con miras a debilitar
la regulación ambiental. Últimamente ha surgido una nutrida literatura, tanto científica como de difusión, que intenta buscar respuesta a estas preguntas.
Se ha venido generando un consenso entre los economistas en torno a la relación entre liberalización del comercio y la inversión, por una parte, y desarrollo sustentable, por la otra. En ausencia de políticas sociales y ambientales apropiadas, la integración económica puede crear nuevos problemas para las naciones que intentan desarrollar sus economías de manera sustentable y, también, puede agravar problemas previos.
Lamentablemente, ante las innumerables prioridades que exige el proceso de liberalización, muchos países en desarrollo carecen de la capacidad necesaria para generar las políticas sociales y ambientales necesarias para facilitar y equilibrar la integración económica.

Los economistas y especialistas en desarrollo y medio ambiente han comenzado a elaborar marcos teóricos para analizar la relación comerciodesarrollo sustentable. La integración económica tiene efectos directos e indirectos en el medio ambiente y el desarrollo. Los efectos indirectos son
aquellos que requieren mayor atención y en que los economistas se han enfocado mayoritariamente. Como ejemplo de los primeros, en un estudio reciente sobre el sostenido aumento en los flujos de transporte producto del Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Nor te (NAFTA, por sus iniciales en inglés), se descubrió que el comercio derivado del acuerdo ha
contribuido directamente a la contaminación del aire en cinco corredores de transporte fundamentales para unir el comercio de América del Norte.
Se estima que esta contaminación fluctúa entre un 3 y un 11 por ciento del total de las emisiones de óxido nitroso de fuentes móviles en las respectivas áreas, y entre un 5 y un 16 por ciento de todas las emisiones de material particulado. Un segundo efecto directo es la introducción de especies foráneas e invasivas a través del comercio. Nuevamente, el ejemplo del NAFTA es revelador, ya que se ha descubierto que el aumento en el comercio de especies invasivas genera una disminución de la diversidad biológica que a América del Norte le cuesta millones de dólares

La integración económica también puede tener efectos indirectos en el desarrollo sustentable. Los economistas han propuesto cuatro mecanismos mediante los cuales es posible observar los efectos indirectos que la liberalización del comercio y la inversión tienen en el medio ambiente y el
desarrollo: efectos de escala, de composición, de técnica y regulatorios. Los efectos de escala se dan cuando la liberalización genera una expansión de la actividad económica. Si las características de dicha actividad se mantienen sin modificaciones, pero la escala o magnitud aumenta, entonces la contaminación y el agotamiento de los recursos aumentará a la par de la producción. El aumento sostenido en los niveles de emisiones de dióxido de carbono, producto de la expansión de la economía mundial en la década de los ‘90, es citado frecuentemente como ejemplo de los efectos de escala.
Los efectos de composición se producen cuando el aumento en los niveles de comercio lleva a las naciones a especializarse en los sectores donde tienen una ventaja comparativa. Cuando esta ventaja es el resultado de diferencias en las exigencias regulatorias (por ejemplo, el efecto de “paraíso para la contaminación”), entonces el efecto de composición en el comercio agravará los problemas ambientales y sociales vigentes en los países con regulaciones más flexibles. Si las industrias “sucias” o “sin responsabilidad social” comienzan a concentrarse en las naciones con normas comparativamente débiles, se teme el inicio de una relajación de la determinación de regulaciones ambientales.

En general, no se ha producido el cambio hacia la producción sucia que muchos habían anticipado. Sin embargo, existe una gran cantidad de evidencias empíricas recientes –algunas solo son casos aislados– que respaldan esta hipótesis, con lo cual, por ende, no se descarta que puedan producirse los paraísos para la contaminación. Diversos autores describen estrategias para diseñar estrategias preventivas que permitan evitar los paraísos para la contaminación.
Los efectos de técnica, o cambios en las tecnologías de extracción de recursos y de producción, pueden llevar a una disminución de la contaminación por unidad de producción. La liberalización del comercio y la inversión puede estimular la transferencia de tecnologías más limpias hacia los países en desarrollo. Se sostiene que estos inversionistas extranjeros generalmente instalan operaciones con tecnologías y sistemas de gestión modernos, los cuales son más avanzados y menos contaminantes que los que existen en el plano local.

El cuarto mecanismo mediante el cual la liberalización del comercio y la inversión afectan el medio ambiente y el desarrollo es conocido como el efecto regulación.
En el caso de los países en desarrollo, las exigencias de la integración económica, y su dinámica, pueden distraer a las autoridades en su tarea de crear políticas e instituciones apropiadas para el desarrollo. Michael Finger, del Banco Mundial, estima que en promedio los países en desarrollo tienen que gastar 150 millones de dólares para implementar las exigencias requeridas por solo tres acuerdos de la OMC, el equivalente al presupuesto anual de desarrollo de las naciones más pobres del mundo. En una discusión de estos resultados, Dani Rodrik señala que estos compromisos implican costosas compensaciones en el ámbito de los recursos fiscales y humanos.
Grossman y Krueger sostienen que estos efectos (escala, composición y técnica) podrían combinarse para formar una relación con forma de U-invertida entre comercio, medio ambiente y desarrollo, la denominada curva ambiental de Kuznets, en la cual al principio las cosas empeoran, para luego mejorar y producir una relación positiva entre estos aspectos. Los estudios empíricos iniciales sostenían que el “punto de inflexión” en el cual las economías comenzarían a tener una conducta más positiva hacia el medio ambiente se situaba en un ingreso per cápita aproximado de US$ 5.000. Estos estudios dieron pie a generalizaciones erradas de los encargados de la formulación de políticas, quienes planteaban que el medio ambiente podía esperar, mientras el crecimiento económico en base al comercio con el tiempo y de manera natural se traducía en mejores condiciones ambientales.

Otros estudios más recientes han cuestionado tanto los hallazgos específicos como las generalizaciones más amplias de los primeros análisis. Entre las diversas limitaciones que identifica, Stern demuestra que la mencionada relación solo se pudo corroborar para un número limitado de agentes contaminantes y países, específicamente para contaminantes del aire en países de la OCDE.
En segundo término, actualmente se estima un “punto de inflexión” entre US$ 5.000 y US$ 10.000, dependiendo del agente contaminante, lo que indica que la degradación del medio ambiente podría durar décadas antes de que se produzca un giro, si acaso este efectivamente ocurre.
Martínez-Zarzoso y Bengochea-Morancho (2003), en un estudio aplicado a diecinueve países de América Latina y el Caribe, en el período 1975-1998 y tomando en cuenta bases de datos de emisiones de dióxido de carbono (CO2), concluyen que las evidencias empíricas no corroboran la hipótesis de la Curva ambiental de Kuznets. En efecto, ningún país estudiado presenta un curva con forma de U inver tida, y lo que se observa es una gran heterogeneidad en los diagramas que presentan las relaciones entre niveles de ingresos y emisiones. Una tendencia general que se observa en este estudio es un sostenido aumento en los niveles de emisiones de CO2 en la Región a contar de 1975, lo que resalta la importancia de que los gobiernos asuman la responsabilidad de poner en vigencia los compromisos del Protocolo de Kyoto.

CIEN AÑOS DE SOLEDAD
José Arcadio, el mayor de los niños, había cumplido catorce años. Tenía la cabeza cuadrada, el pelo hirsuto y el carácter voluntarioso de su padre. Aunque llevaba el mismo impulso de crecimiento y fortaleza física, ya desde entonces era evidente que carecía de imaginación. Fue concebido y dado a luz durante la penosa travesía de la sierra, antes de la fundación de Macondo, y sus padres dieron gracias al cielo al comprobar que no tenía ningún órgano de animal. Aureliano, el primer ser humano que nació en Macondo, iba a cumplir seis años en marzo. Era silencioso y retraído. Había llorado en el vientre de su madre y nació con los ojos abiertos. Mientras le cortaban el ombligo movía la cabeza de un lado a otro reconociendo las cosas del cuarto, y examinaba el rostro de la gente con una curiosidad sin asombro. Luego, indiferente a quienes se acercaban a conocerlo, mantuvo la atención concentrada en el techo de palma, que parecía a punto de derrumbarse bajo la tremenda presión de la lluvia. Úrsula no volvió a acordarse de la intensidad de esa mirada hasta un día en que el pequeño Aureliano, a la edad de tres años, entró a la cocina en el momento en que ella retiraba del fogón y ponía en la mesa una olla de caldo hirviendo. El niño, perplejo en la puerta, dijo: "Se va a caer. La olla estaba bien puesta en el centro de la mesa, pero tan pronto como el niño hizo el anuncio, inició un movimiento irrevocable hacia el borde, como impulsada por un dinamismo interior, y se despedazó en el suelo. Úrsula, alarmada, le contó el episodio a su marido, pero éste lo interpretó como un fenómeno natural. Así fue siempre, ajeno a la existencia de sus hijos, en parte porque consideraba la infancia como un período de insuficiencia mental, y en parte porque siempre estaba demasiado absorto en sus propias especulaciones quiméricas.
Pero desde la tarde en que llamó a los niños para que lo ayudaran a desempacar las cosas del laboratorio, les dedicó sus horas mejores. En el cuartito apartado, cuyas paredes se fueron llenando poco a poco de mapas inverosímiles y gráficos fabulosos, les enseñó a leer y escribir y a sacar cuentas, y les habló de las maravillas del mundo no sólo hasta donde le alcanzaban sus conocimientos, sino forzando a extremos increíbles los límites de su imaginación. Fue así como los niños terminaron por aprender que en el extremo meridional del África había hombres tan inteligentes y pacíficos que su único entretenimiento era sentarse a pensar, y que era posible atravesar a pie el mar Egeo saltando de isla en isla hasta el puerto de Salónica. Aquellas alucinantes sesiones quedaron de tal modo impresas en la memoria de los niños, que muchos años más tarde, un segundo antes de que el oficial de los ejércitos regulares diera la orden de fuego al pelotón de fusilamiento, el coronel Aureliano Buendía volvió a vivir la tibia tarde de marzo en que su padre interrumpió la lección de física, y se quedó fascinado, con la mano en el aire y los ojos inmóviles, oyendo a la distancia los pífanos y tambores y sonajas de los gitanos que una vez más llegaban a la aldea, pregonando el último y asombroso descubrimiento de los sabios de Memphis.
Eran gitanos nuevos. Hombres y mujeres jóvenes que sólo conocían su propia lengua, ejemplares hermosos de piel aceitada y manos inteligentes, cuyos bailes y músicas sembraron en las calles un pánico de alborotada alegría, con sus loros pintados de todos los colores que recitaban romanzas italianas, y la gallina que ponía un centenar de huevos de oro al son de la pandereta, y el mono amaestrado que adivinaba el pensamiento, y la máquina múltiple que servía al mismo tiempo para pegar botones y bajar la fiebre, y el aparato para olvidar los malos recuerdos, y el emplasto para perder el tiempo, y un millar de invenciones más, tan ingeniosas e insólitas, que José Arcadio Buendía hubiera querido inventar la máquina de la memoria para poder acordarse de todas. En un instante transformaron la aldea. Los habitantes de Macando se encontraron de pronto perdidos en sus propias calles, aturdidos por la feria multitudinaria.

COMENTARIO

Cien años de soledad es una obra clave del canon literario latinoamericano del siglo veinte. La novela fue publicada en 1967, y representa un momento muy importante en el “boom” latinoamericano de los años sesenta. Si bien, Cien años de soledad se considera la obra maestra de Gabriel García Márquez, no constituye una expresión aislada, desconectada, del resto de su producción literaria. Si observamos su obra completa, descubriremos que se teje una fina red de relaciones intertextuales tanto hacia atrás, como hacia delante. Encontramos, por ejemplo, varios elementos en su producción literaria anterior que luego reaparecerán en Cien años de soledad. Tanto en La Hojarasca (1955), como en La mala Hora (1962), y en El Coronel no tiene quien le escriba, los eventos narrados toman lugar en Macondo, este espacio literario y mítico en que García Márquez después inscribiría la crónica de la familia Buendía. También en su producción posterior, encontramos ecos de las historias narradas en Cien años de soledad, como por ejemplo en La increíble y triste historia de la candida Eréndira y su abuela desalmada (1972). Reconocemos en este relato dos personajes que en el Macondo de Cien años de soledad sólo están “de paso”. El texto extiende entonces la historia de la abuela que prostituye a su nieta, bosquejada en la novela.

http://anubix.net/testpark4/modules.php?op=modload&name=PagEd&file=index&topictoview=1

Title: The Story Of The Bad Little Boy
Author: Mark Twain [More Titles by Twain]

[Written about 1865]

Once there was a bad little boy whose name was Jim--though, if you will notice, you will find that bad little boys are nearly always called James in your Sunday-school books. It was strange, but still it was true, that this one was called Jim.

He didn't have any sick mother, either--a sick mother who was pious and had the consumption, and would be glad to lie down in the grave and be at rest but for the strong love she bore her boy, and the anxiety she felt that the world might be harsh and cold toward him when she was gone. Most bad boys in the Sunday books are named James, and have sick mothers, who teach them to say, "Now, I lay me down," etc., and sing them to sleep with sweet, plaintive voices, and then kiss them good night, and kneel down by the bedside and weep. But it was different with this fellow. He was named Jim, and there wasn't anything the matter with his mother --no consumption, nor anything of that kind. She was rather stout than otherwise, and she was not pious; moreover, she was not anxious on Jim's account. She said if he were to break his neck it wouldn't be much loss. She always spanked Jim to sleep, and she never kissed him good night; on the contrary, she boxed his ears when she was ready to leave him.

Once this little bad boy stole the key of the pantry, and slipped in there and helped himself to some jam, and filled up the vessel with tar, so that his mother would never know the difference; but all at once a terrible feeling didn't come over him, and something didn't seem to whisper to him, "Is it right to disobey my mother? Isn't it sinful to do this? Where do bad little boys go who gobble up their good kind mother's jam?" and then he didn't kneel down all alone and promise never to be wicked any more, and rise up with a light, happy heart, and go and tell his mother all about it, and beg her forgiveness, and be blessed by her with tears of pride and thankfulness in her eyes. No; that is the way with all other bad boys in the books; but it happened otherwise with this Jim, strangely enough. He ate that jam, and said it was bully, in his sinful, vulgar way; and he put in the tar, and said that was bully also, and laughed, and observed "that the old woman would get up and snort" when she found it out; and when she did find it out, he denied knowing anything about it, and she whipped him severely, and he did the crying himself. Everything about this boy was curious--everything turned out differently with him from the way it does to the bad Jameses in the books.

Once he climbed up in Farmer Acorn's apple tree to steal apples, and the limb didn't break, and he didn't fall and break his arm, and get torn by the farmer's great dog, and then languish on a sickbed for weeks, and repent and become good. Oh, no; he stole as many apples as he wanted and came down all right; and he was all ready for the dog, too, and knocked him endways with a brick when he came to tear him. It was very strange --nothing like it ever happened in those mild little books with marbled backs, and with pictures in them of men with swallow-tailed coats and bell-crowned hats, and pantaloons that are short in the legs, and women with the waists of their dresses under their arms, and no hoops on. Nothing like it in any of the Sunday-school books.

Once he stole the teacher's penknife, and, when he was afraid it would be found out and he would get whipped, he slipped it into George Wilson's cap poor Widow Wilson's son, the moral boy, the good little boy of the village, who always obeyed his mother, and never told an untruth, and was fond of his lessons, and infatuated with Sunday-school. And when the knife dropped from the cap, and poor George hung his head and blushed, as if in conscious guilt, and the grieved teacher charged the theft upon him, and was just in the very act of bringing the switch down upon his trembling shoulders, a white-haired, improbable justice of the peace did not suddenly appear in their midst, and strike an attitude and say, "Spare this noble boy--there stands the cowering culprit! I was passing the school door at recess, and, unseen myself, I saw the theft committed!" And then Jim didn't get whaled, and the venerable justice didn't read the tearful school a homily, and take George by the hand and say such boy deserved to be exalted, and then tell him come and make his home with him, and sweep out the office, and make fires, and run errands, and chop wood, and study law, and help his wife do household labors, and have all the balance of the time to play and get forty cents a month, and be happy. No it would have happened that way in the books, but didn't happen that way to Jim. No meddling old clam of a justice dropped in to make trouble, and so the model boy George got thrashed, and Jim was glad of it because, you know, Jim hated moral boys. Jim said he was "down on them milksops." Such was the coarse language of this bad, neglected boy.

But the strangest thing that ever happened to Jim was the time he went boating on Sunday, and didn't get drowned, and that other time that he got caught out in the storm when he was fishing on Sunday and didn't get struck by lightning. Why, you might look, and look, all through the Sunday-school books from now till next Christmas, and you would never come across anything like this. Oh, no; you would find that all the bad boys who go boating on Sunday invariably get drowned; and all the bad boys who get caught out in storms when they are fishing on Sunday infallibly get struck by lightning. Boats with bad boys in them always upset on Sunday, and it always storms when bad boys go fishing on the Sabbath. How this Jim ever escaped is a mystery to me.

This Jim bore a charmed life--that must have been the way of it. Nothing could hurt him. He even gave the elephant in the menagerie a plug of tobacco, and the elephant didn't knock the top of his head off with his trunk. He browsed around the cupboard after essence-of peppermint, and didn't make a mistake and drink aqua fortis. He stole his father's gun and went hunting on the Sabbath, and didn't shoot three or four of his fingers off. He struck his little sister on the temple with his fist when he was angry, and she didn't linger in pain through long summer days, and die with sweet words of forgiveness upon her lips that redoubled the anguish of his breaking heart. No; she got over it. He ran off and went to sea at last, and didn't come back and find himself sad and alone in the world, his loved ones sleeping in the quiet churchyard, and the vine-embowered home of his boyhood tumbled down and gone to decay. Ah, no; he came home as drunk as a piper, and got into the station-house the first thing.

And he grew up and married, and raised a large family, and brained them all with an ax one night, and got wealthy by all manner of cheating and rascality; and now he is the infernalest wickedest scoundrel in his native village, and is universally respected, and belongs to the legislature.

So you see there never was a bad James in the Sunday-school books that had such a streak of luck as this sinful Jim with the charmed life.

-THE END-
Clemens] Mark Twain's short story: The Story Of The Bad Little Boy



1. What was the name of the main character in ‘The Story of the Bad Little Boy’?
Bobby
Joe
Jim
Johnny


2. In what activity is the bad little boy’s nefarious behavior in stark contrast to most other boys?
Little League Baseball
Boy Scouts
Choir
Sunday School


3. What was different about this bad little boy in regards to his mother that was usually not the case with bad little boys?
She was terminally ill.
She was not his true biological mother.
She was blind and deaf.
She was not sick.


4. One day the bad little boy stole the key to his mother’s pantry. What bad little deed did he commit after doing this?
He ate all of his mother’s jam and then filled the empty bottle with tar.
He emptied the honey jar into his mother’s shampoo bottle and replaced the empty bottle with corn starch.
He stole all of the food in the pantry, sold it to his friends, and then used the money to buy comic books.
He put dog food in his mother’s cereal.


5. What did the bad little boy steal when he went on Farmer Acorn’s property?
Oranges
A dog
Apples
A pig


6. Another example of the bad little boy’s evil actions came when he stole a teacher’s penknife and slipped it onto another boy to get him in trouble. Of course he picked ‘the good little boy of the village,’ George Wilson, to do this to. Where did the bad little boy place the penknife on George so that it’d fall out and he’d get in trouble?
Into his cap
In his shoe
In his shirt pocket
On his belt


7. The bad little boy hated moral boys. What coarse language did the bad little boy use to describe his opinions about moral boys?
I’d rather be a flobberworm than one of dem moral kind.
I’m down on them milksops.
If I had littleuns that always followed dem rules I’d knock of sense into ‘em.
I’ve grown to hate two things in life: good little boys and okra.


8. The bad little boy habitually went out boating and fishing when he was not supposed to. Why was the bad boy not supposed to go fishing or boating when he did?
He did not own a life jacket, lights on his boat, a boating license, or a fishing license.
He could not swim.
He boated and fished on the Sabbath.
The lake where he went fishing and boating contained alligators.

9. Which of the following statements about the bad little boy’s later life is false?
He married and raised a large family whom he ‘brained with an axe one night.’
He introduced foreign species like Tasmanian devils and piranhas to his village.
He got wealthy by all manner of cheating and rascality.
He became a universally respected member of the legislature.

10. Consistently throughout the story the bad little boy is described as being unique from other bad little boys for a particular reason. What distinguishes the titular character from other young miscreants?
The bad little boy rarely got caught for committing wicked deeds.
The bad little boy was shunned and hated wherever he went.
People came to respect the bad little boy because he was the best at pulling off dangerous and mischievous stunts.
Bad things did not happen to the bad little boy after he committed his wrongful exploits that typically happen to boys that engaged in those activities.

• Dominio
• Reino
• Filo (también conocido como tipo y como phylum; el plural de phylum es phyla)
• Clase
• Orden
• Familia
• Género
• Especie