• 1. Change to reported speech
• 2. Report the questions
• 3. Report the commands
• 4. Translate. You can use a dictionary to look up words you don't know.
• 5. Reading comprehension (comentario de texto)
  • Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (Alí Babá y los cuarenta ladrones)
  • Questions (preguntas)

1. Change to reported speech

🔹 Cambiar a estilo indirecto.

1. "I am very happy." => She said __________.
2. "I went to the cinema." => He told me __________.
3. "I will call you tomorrow." => She said __________.
4. "I can't come to the party." => He said __________.
5. "I have been waiting for an hour." => She told me __________.
6. "We are going to move." => They said __________.

2. Report the questions

🔹 Transforma las preguntas a estilo indirecto.

1. "Do you like coffee?" => She asked me __________.
2. "Where do you live?" => He asked me __________.
3. "Have you ever been to Japan?" => She asked me __________.
4. "What time does the train leave?" => He asked __________.
5. "Are you coming tonight?" => She asked me __________.
6. "When did you arrive?" => He asked me __________.

3. Report the commands

🔹 Transforma las órdenes a estilo indirecto.

1. "Open the window." => She told me __________.
2. "Don't touch that!" => He told the children __________.
3. "Please sit down." => She asked me __________.
4. "Be quiet!" => The teacher told the students __________.

4. Translate. You can use a dictionary to look up words you don't know.

🔹 Traducir. Puedes usar un diccionario para buscar las palabras que no conoces.

1. Ella dijo que estaba cansada.
2. Él me dijo que había ido a París.
3. Ella me preguntó si quería ir al cine.
4. Él preguntó dónde vivía yo.
5. Ella me dijo que me sentara.
6. Él dijo que me llamaría al día siguiente.
7. Ella me contó que había encontrado un trabajo nuevo.
8. Él me preguntó si había estado alguna vez en Japón.

5. Reading comprehension (comentario de texto)

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (Alí Babá y los cuarenta ladrones)

Ali Baba lived in Persia and had a brother called Kassim. Ali Baba was a woodcutter.[1] He worked hard every day, but he was poor. Kassim was the opposite: dishonest, lazy,[2] and mean.[3] Kassim had married a very rich woman. Ali Baba's wife was poor, like him.

One day Ali Baba was working in the mountains. He saw a group of men on horses approaching.[4] He was afraid and climbed a tree. They were clearly thieves.[5] The men arrived at a large rock. Ali Baba watched as one of them spoke to the rock.

"Open, Sesame!" said the thief.

The rock opened like a door. The forty thieves went inside. Ali Baba waited in the tree for an hour, and finally, the thieves came out.

"Close, Sesame!" said one of them.

The rock closed. Ali Baba, very excited, climbed down from the tree and walked to the mysterious rock.

"Open, Sesame!" he said.

The rock opened. Ali Baba thought the inside would be very small. On the contrary,[6] when he entered he found an enormous[7] cave.[8] There were thousands of gold coins[9] and thousands of rubies[10] and diamonds.[11] Ali Baba put a small amount of coins in his bag, left the cave, and said:

"Close, Sesame."

The rock closed.

Ali Baba arrived home with his bag full of gold coins. He told his wife the story of the thieves, the rock, and the coins. She was very nervous. She thought they should bury[12] the coins in the garden, but first she wanted to count them. Ali Baba told her it would take too long to count them all. So she decided to borrow[13] a set of scales[14] to weigh[15] the coins, so they could know, more or less, how long they could live on them.

Ali Baba's wife made an important mistake: she borrowed the scales from Kassim's wife. Kassim's wife was very surprised — she knew that Ali Baba and his wife were very poor, and she could not understand why they needed scales. Ali Baba's wife explained that the scales were for weighing some grains[16] of corn. Kassim's wife secretly put a little grease[17] on the bottom of the scales. That way, the "grains" would stick[18] to it, and she would finally know what they were really doing.

When Ali Baba finished weighing the coins, he did not see that one coin had stuck to the bottom of the scales. When they returned the scales, Kassim's wife saw the coin and understood everything.

Kassim went to Ali Baba's house.

"Where did you get so many gold coins?" Kassim asked.

"It's none of your business,"[19] Ali Baba replied.

"Then perhaps it's the business of the authorities,"[20] said Kassim.

Ali Baba saw that his brother could cause him serious problems. He decided to share the treasure[21] with Kassim and tell him the whole story. But Kassim, greedy[22] by nature, wanted more gold. He decided to go to the cave the next morning and take everything.

Kassim arrived at the rock and said the magic words. He entered the cave and spent more than four hours filling bags with gold. He dreamed about all the things he would buy. Finally, he walked to the door.

"Open, Barley!"[23] said Kassim.

The rock did not open. Kassim had forgotten the exact word. He tried to remember the correct grain, but he could not.

"Open, Wheat![24] Open, Corn! Open, Mint!"[25]

Nothing. The rock did not open.

The forty thieves arrived at the cave, said the correct words, and found Kassim inside. They killed him.

When Kassim did not return, Ali Baba went to the cave to look for him. He found his brother's body and brought it home. Morgiana, the family's servant,[26] arranged a funeral.[27] She paid a cobbler[28] called Mustafa to sew[29] the body together so that everyone would think Kassim had died naturally.

When the thieves returned to the cave and found the body gone, they understood that someone else knew their secret. They investigated in the city and found Mustafa, who proudly told them about his work. They paid him to lead[30] them to the house, and one of the thieves marked Ali Baba's door with an X.

The thieves made a plan. One of them disguised[31] himself as an oil merchant[32] and went to Ali Baba's house with twenty horses and forty barrels.[33] One barrel contained oil. The other thirty-nine contained the thirty-nine other thieves. The disguised thief asked Ali Baba if he could spend the night. Ali Baba accepted. The plan was simple: during the night, the thieves would come out of the barrels and kill Ali Baba.

Morgiana was in the kitchen and needed oil for her lamp. She went to take some from the merchant's barrels. When she opened a barrel, she found a man inside.

"Is it time?" whispered[34] the thief.

"Not yet," Morgiana replied, and closed the barrel.

She checked every barrel. All of them had a man inside except one. She heated[35] the oil from the one real barrel and poured[36] boiling[37] oil into the other thirty-nine. When the disguised thief went to wake his men, he found them all dead. Terrified, he ran away and never returned.

Ali Baba buried the thieves in his garden. He never went back to the cave. He never said the words "Open, Sesame" again.

From "One Thousand and One Nights." Traditional

[1] woodcutter ['wʊdkʌtər] - leñador

[2] lazy ['leɪzi] - perezoso

[3] mean [mi:n] - mezquino / malo

[4] approach [ə'proʊtʃ] - acercarse

[5] thieves [θi:vz] - ladrones (singular: thief)

[6] on the contrary [ɑn ðə 'kɑntrɛri] - por el contrario

[7] enormous [ɪ'nɔrməs] - enorme

[8] cave [keɪv] - cueva

[9] coins [kɔɪnz] - monedas

[10] rubies ['ru:bi:z] - rubíes

[11] diamonds ['daɪməndz] - diamantes

[12] bury ['bɛri] - enterrar

[13] borrow ['bɑroʊ] - pedir prestado

[14] scales [skeɪlz] - balanza

[15] weigh [weɪ] - pesar

[16] grains [greɪnz] - granos

[17] grease [gri:s] - grasa

[18] stick [stɪk] - pegarse (past: stuck)

[19] none of your business - no es asunto tuyo

[20] authorities [ə'θɔrɪtiz] - autoridades

[21] treasure ['trɛʒər] - tesoro

[22] greedy ['gri:di] - codicioso / avaricioso

[23] barley ['bɑrli] - cebada

[24] wheat [wi:t] - trigo

[25] mint [mɪnt] - menta

[26] servant ['sɜrvənt] - criada / sirviente

[27] funeral ['fju:nərəl] - funeral

[28] cobbler ['kɑblər] - zapatero

[29] sew [soʊ] - coser

[30] lead [li:d] - guiar / llevar

[31] disguise [dɪs'gaɪz] - disfrazar

[32] merchant ['mɜrtʃənt] - comerciante / mercader

[33] barrels ['bærəlz] - barriles

[34] whisper ['wɪspər] - susurrar

[35] heat [hi:t] - calentar

[36] pour [pɔr] - verter / echar

[37] boiling ['bɔɪlɪŋ] - hirviendo

Questions (preguntas)

1. What was Ali Baba's job?
2. How did Ali Baba discover the cave?
3. How did Kassim's wife discover the gold coins?
4. Why couldn't Kassim get out of the cave?
5. Who was Morgiana, and what did she do to save Ali Baba?
6. Does the story end well or badly?
7. What do you think the moral of the story is?