Not everything is as it appears with a lost little girl on a train! This cuento by Ana Ruiz is designed not only to thrill... but to help C1 (Advanced) students with their tenses: pretérito indefinido, pretérito imperfecto, pretérito pluscuamperfecto, condicional y pretérito imperfecto de subjuntivo. This tale also comes with some helpful exercises and a translation at the end!

Image by Ana Ruiz

Ejercicios

1. Tiempos verbales que aparecen en el cuento:
   • Pretérito indefinido - me dirigí (dirigirse), me subí (subirse), encontré (encontrar), me quité (quitarse), me puse (ponerme), coloqué (colocar), me dispuse (disponerse), hizo (hacer), abrí (abrir), vi (ver), pregunté (preguntar), dijo (decir), me pareció (parecerme), decidí (decidir), recorrí (recorrer), ignoró (ignorar), decidí (decidir), giré (girar), encontré (encontrar), fue (ser)
   • Pretérito imperfecto de indicativo - partía (partir), iban (ir), estaba (estar), iba (ir), tenía (tener), provocaba (provocar), propiciaba (propiciar), miraba (mirar), colgaban (colgar), hacían (hacer), acompañaba (acompañar), agarraba (agarrar), estaban (estar), se dirigían (dirigirse), vivían (vivir), acompañaban (acompañar), había (haber), habían (haber), devolvían (devolver), eran (ser), rezaba (rezar)
   • Pretérito pluscuamperfecto - había decidido (decidir), había tomado (tomar), me había acostado (acostarse), había pedido (pedir)
   • Condicional - tocaría (tocar), ocuparían (ocupar), encargaría (encargar), lo pasarían (pasarlo), sería (ser)
   • Pretérito imperfecto de subjuntivo - pudiera (poder), molestara (molestar), se moviera (moverse), regresara (regresar)
2. Une la definición con el tiempo verbal que le corresponde (solución abajo): 

La historia

*Nicholas Winton, agente de bolsa británico y de origen judío, salvó en el año 1939 a 669 niños judíos checoslovacos. A lo largo de nueve meses ocho trenes partieron de Praga a Londres cargados con niños; el último, que debía partir el 1 de septiembre con 250, nunca salió ya que en ese mismo día el Reino Unido declaró la guerra a Alemania. Los niños nunca volvieron a ser vistos. 

Para más información sobre este excepcional ser humano, podéis ver el documental en youtube

The train's passenger…

I had decided to return that same night. I headed towards Prague railway station (Praha Hlavní Nadraži), and boarded the same train that I had taken on many occasions to go from Prague to London, always a round trip. On this occasion and because of the hour - the train departed at eight thirty-nine in the evening, a long trip during the night – the carriages were quite empty. The night before I had gone to bed late, and so was tired; with a bit of luck this trip would be one in which I could take a nap without anyone bothering me until my next connection at Cologne Central Station in Germany (Koeln HBF).

On the last carriage of the train I finally stumbled upon my compartment, the seat specified by my ticket; as I was hoping, it was empty. I took off my shoes, folded my coat as a pillow, placed my hand luggage in the rack above the seat and, stretching out comfortably across three seats, I got myself ready to sleep. I had a long journey ahead and, in addition to my exhaustion, the heating at forty degrees in the cold of Central Europe, for me, caused a state of lethargy that espoused heavy sleepiness at any time of day.

The sleep made me lose my sense of time. When I opened my eyes, I saw in front of me, standing in silence and without moving, a girl of about seven years staring at me. She was dressed in a costume of another era, a thick woollen cap hung with drawstrings tied under the chin, which matched her little brown, woollen coat. She had with her a small case of old leather, which she held tightly between her arms. Without delay I asked where her parents were and where they were headed for. She told me that she was going to England, that a family there would be responsible for her, that her parents were living in Prague but were not accompanying her and that she was going with many other children and that they were going to have a good time in their new country. The story, I thought, was so absurd that I decided to seek out the parents of this child in fancy dress. Could it be carnival and I had not heard?

I searched the train from one end to the other, asking the few travellers who were on board if they had lost a little girl dressed in attire from the beginning of the twentieth century. The glances that were returned were of astonishment, yet most ignored me, not even turning their heads to acknowledge me. Tired of wasting time, I decided to go back to the carriage and take the girl to the ticket inspector. I had asked her not to move from where she was until I returned, so it was a surprise that upon my return I found the cabin completely empty. I turned on my heels several times, yet the only thing I found of her presence was, lying on the floor, a train ticket dated September 1, 1939*, the route of which stated Prague to London.

*In 1939, Nicholas Winton, British stock broker of Jewish origin, saved 669 Czechoslovakian Jewish children. Over the course of nine months, eight trains departed from Prague to London loaded with children; the last, which was to leave on September 1 with 250 children on board, never departed because that same day, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany. The children were never seen again.

For more information on this exceptional human being, you can see the documentary on youtube (Above)

Solución de ejercicio 2: 1b, 2a, 3e, 4d, 5c