LA WEB DE READING COMPREHENSION PREFERIDA POR LOS HISPANOHABLANTES

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FAR AWAY AND LONG AGO

William Henry Hudson

Naturalist William Henry Hudson (1841-1922), the author of the piece you are going to read, was born in Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Argentina to American parents. He spent his youth on the pampas before emigrating to England in 1870. In Far Away and Long Ago (1918), he shows how a sensitive observer of nature he was, describing plants and animals in a highly personal manner with great force and beauty.

 

The house where I was born on the South American pampas, was named Los Veinticinco Ombúes, which means "The Twenty-five Ombú Trees", because there were just twenty-five of these trees standing in a line about four hundred yards long. Our trees were about one hundred years old and very large, and, as they stood on an elevation, they could be seen at a distance of ten miles. At noon in summer the cattle and sheep of which we had a large number, came to rest in their shade.

The Ombú is a very singular tree indeed, and being the only representative of tree-vegetation natural to the soil, on those great level plains (the pampas), and having also many curious superstitions connected with it, it is a romance in itself.

It belongs to the rare Phytolacca family, and has an immense girth - forty or fifty feet in some cases; at the same time the wood is so soft and spongy that it can be cut into with a knife, and is utterly unfit for firewood, for when cut up it refuses to dry, but simply rots away like a ripe water melon. It also grows slowly, and its leaves, which are large, glossy, and green, like laurel leaves, are poisonous; and because of its uselessness it will probably become extinct.

But before other trees had been planted, the antiquated and grand-looking ombú had its uses; it served as gigantic landmark to the traveller on the great monotonous plains, and also afforded refreshing shade to man and horse in summer.

 

GLOSSARY

pampas: extensive treeless and grassy plains in Argentina (Pampas Argentinas)
aboutt
: approximately (aproximadamente)
stood: were standing (se alzaban, se levantaban)
cattle and sheep: cows and sheep (ganado y ovejas)
a large number:
many (gran cantidad)
soil:
land (suelo)
level: horizontal (horizontal)
girth: circumference (circunferencia)
spongy: like a sponge (esponjosa)
utterly: completely, absolutely (completamente)
unfit: not fit, inappropriate, inadequate (inadecuada)

to rot away: become putrid (pudrirse)
ripe:
mature, not green (madura)
water melon:
large oblong melon (sandía)
glossy: bright (
brillante)
poisonous:
venomous (tóxicas, venenosas)
grand-looking:
majestic (majestuoso)
uses: utility (utilidad)
landmark: the position of a prominent object in a particular landscape (hito, punto de referencia)
afforded:
gave, provided, supplied (proveía)
shade:
relative darkness caused by light rays being intercepted by the ombú branches (sombra)

 

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