IV. El loro pelado: Pedrito y el tigre
, . . :
«¡! ¡ , !».
. . . ¡ ! .
Six Quiroga jungle tales, adapted for A2
Jungle Tales Cuentos de la selva
Horacio Quiroga
This is a retelling of Horacio Quiroga’s Jungle Tales (Cuentos de la selva, 1918) in simple Spanish, not the original text: the MovaReader adaptation takes 6 of the 8 tales and tells each one to the end. They are “La tortuga gigante” (The Giant Turtle), “Las medias de los flamencos” (The Flamingos’ Stockings), “El loro pelado” (The Plucked Parrot), “La gama ciega” (The Blind Doe), “Historia de dos cachorros de coatí y de dos cachorros de hombre” (The Story of Two Coati Cubs and Two Human Cubs) and “La abeja haragana” (The Lazy Bee); “La guerra de los yacarés” and “El Paso del Yabebirí” are not included. If you were looking for Cuentos de la selva in Spanish and the full B2 collection is still too hard, these are the same stories of the animals of the Misiones jungle, in a form you can actually finish at A2: about 8,000 words, 9 words per sentence on average, 1-2 hours of reading.
- A2
- 7 956 words
- 1-2 hours
Will this text hold?
A1
Earlier
At A1 the past tenses and longer sentences will stop you: the story runs in the pretérito indefinido and imperfecto (se enfermó, vivía, cazaba), with 9 words per sentence on average, against 5-7 in A1 adaptations. An easier way into animal tales is Aesop’s Fables at A1: 6 words per sentence and almost no long words.
A1A2
This text
Just right for A2: each tale takes one or two chapters, the dialogue is short and lively, and the new words are mostly about animals and the forest, like escopeta, colmena or avispas.
Check this passageB1
With room to spare
At B1 it is an easy evening’s read; next you can take on Quiroga’s full collection, which is in the catalog: all eight tales, about 17,700 words, 15 words per sentence, Río de la Plata Spanish in the spelling of 1918, level B2.
Start readingThe average sentence has 9 words, as in the Spanish A2 adaptation of Pinocchio, against 5-7 in A1 adaptations such as Aesop’s Fables and 11-12 in B1 retellings. A word of 9 letters or more comes up about once in 45 words (2.2%): the same as in Pinocchio (2.2%) and clearly less often than in Quiroga’s other A2 retelling, Stories of Love, Madness and Death (3.9%, once in 26). Most of those long words are simple ones, too, like flamencos, cachorros or siguiente. The story runs in the pretérito indefinido and imperfecto, there is plenty of dialogue, requests are made with usted (Cace animales del monte, Muéstrele esto al cazador, Póngale esta crema), and the subjunctive is rare, after para que and quería que (para que no se cayera). The original’s Río de la Plata voseo (querés, acercáte) becomes tú, and regional words (choclo, pollerita, plata) become common ones; the animals of Misiones stay: yacaré, tatú, coatí, víbora de coral. The original in the catalog is B2: 15 words per sentence and one long word in eighteen (5.6%). The difficulty is even: each of the 11 chapters has 9 to 10.5 words per sentence. Hence A2. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 7 956
- words
- 9
- words in an average sentence
- 1-2
- hours of reading
MovaReader. Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
A sick hunter from Buenos Aires goes to live in a distant forest, the only place where he can get well, and one hungry day, instead of eating a huge wounded turtle, he nurses it. The flamingos envy the bright dresses of the coral snakes at a great ball by the river and go looking for red, white and black stockings of their own. Pedrito, a tame parrot who loves tea with milk more than anything, flies far into the forest and invites a tiger to tea. A little doe who knows the deer’s prayer by heart ignores her mother and goes looking for honey. The youngest of three coati cubs wants hens’ eggs and sets off at night for a farmhouse, although his mother has forbidden it. And a lazy bee who spends her days drinking nectar from the flowers gets a third warning from the hive’s guards. What happens to each of them, the book tells.
Compare two places
Cuentos de la selva
VI. La gama ciega: Las avispas
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¡ ! . : , , . , .
Choose an underlined word.
Why the tiger talks in syllables
The tiger pretends to be deaf and drags out each syllable: ¡A-cér-ca-te un po-co, que soy sor-do! reads as Acércate un poco, que soy sordo, “come a bit closer, I am deaf”, where que means “because”. Then quería que Pedrito se acercara: after quería que, another person’s action takes the imperfect subjunctive, “he wanted Pedrito to come closer”. ¡Qué contentos iban a estar todos! is an exclamation, “how happy everyone was going to be!”, with iban a plus the infinitive.
How to read «¡Nunca debió hacerlo!»
Hizo justo lo contrario means “she did just the opposite”. In ¡Nunca debió hacerlo! the verb deber is in the pretérito indefinido and, with an infinitive, says something should not have been done: “She should never have done it!”. Creyó que su mamá exageraba, como exageran siempre las madres: the imperfect exageraba is what the fawn thought at that moment, while the present exageran makes a joking rule about all mothers.
Chapters
- ILa tortuga gigante: El cazador y la tortuga
- IILa tortuga gigante: El largo viaje
- IIILas medias de los flamencos: El baile de las víboras
- IVEl loro pelado: Pedrito y el tigre
- VEl loro pelado: La venganza de Pedrito
- VILa gama ciega: Las avispas
- VIILa gama ciega: El cazador y la gamita
- VIIIHistoria de dos cachorros de coatí y de dos cachorros de hombre: La trampa
- IXHistoria de dos cachorros de coatí y de dos cachorros de hombre: El nuevo coatí
- XLa abeja haragana: Sin casa en la noche
- XILa abeja haragana: La culebra y la plantita
Translation while you read
The book stays free on every plan. Reader, €1 a month, removes the daily limit on words and sentences.
Reader
€1 a month
Reader helps in chapter V, where Pedrito walks back to the table como si no hubiera pasado nada: translating the whole sentence shows this is how Spanish says “as if nothing had happened”.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
Spanish books A1 Earlier Stories of Love, Madness and Death Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte Another book by the same author B2 Jungle Tales Cuentos de la selva Quiroga’s complete collection this retelling comes from: all eight tales, including the two left out here, B2, about 17,700 words. Its sentences are longer, 15 words, one word in eighteen is long, and the Spanish is that of the Río de la Plata in the spelling of 1918; once you know the plots, the original is easier to follow. B2 Stories of Love, Madness and Death Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte The other side of Quiroga, also retold by MovaReader at A2: five stories for adults about love, madness and death, about 8,000 words, 8 words per sentence. The sentences are shorter, but long words come more often, one in 26, and the mood is darker than in these tales. A2
All books at this level
Before you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
This is a MovaReader adaptation, not the original text: Horacio Quiroga’s collection Jungle Tales (Cuentos de la selva), first published in Buenos Aires in 1918, retold in simple Spanish. Six of the eight tales remain, each one complete: “La tortuga gigante”, “Las medias de los flamencos”, “El loro pelado”, “La gama ciega”, “Historia de dos cachorros de coatí y de dos cachorros de hombre” and “La abeja haragana”; the two longest, “La guerra de los yacarés” and “El Paso del Yabebirí”, are left out so that the rest fits into 8,000 words. A few side scenes are shortened (the flamingos visit two shops instead of three, and the doe has no twin), the Río de la Plata voseo becomes tú, and words like choclo, pollerita or plata become common ones. Quiroga’s complete collection is in the catalog as a separate book, at B2.
Is there an audiobook?
There is no audiobook of this adaptation in MovaReader; the text is read on screen. Tap an unfamiliar word to see its translation, here mostly words about the forest and its animals, like escopeta, colmena or avispas.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. Sentences here are short, 9 words on average, so you will rarely need a whole one translated, except where the subjunctive turns up, as in chapter II: Lo ató bien con las plantas para que no se cayera. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
About 1-2 hours, reading with translations of new words rather than at a native speaker’s pace. The tales run from about 900 words (“Las medias de los flamencos”, one chapter) to about 1,600 (“Historia de dos cachorros de coatí...”, two chapters), so one tale easily fits into an evening.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is even: each of the 11 chapters has 9 to 10.5 words per sentence, so no harder or easier parts are marked. Only the long words vary a little: in chapter IX, the second half of the coati tale, every 25th word is a long one, and in chapter II, about the turtle’s journey, just one in 140.
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes, once you sign in, the reader remembers your place and the words you opened, so you can read one tale a night. Any chapter also opens from the contents on this page, for example III, where the whole flamingo tale fits into a single chapter.