Lección 1
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A real school reader from the 1910s, for A2
Second Reading Book Libro segundo de lectura
Ellen M. Cyr, 1917
The complete Spanish text of Ellen M. Cyr’s Libro segundo de lectura, a real school reader from the 1910s, not a MovaReader retelling. In the catalog it is A2: about 6,400 words and 8 words per sentence on average. It is 45 short lessons for children: dialogues, notes on nature and little scenes about dolls, bees, trains and farms. The language is everyday Spanish, with a few old forms such as V. for usted, fué and dió.
- A2
- 6 401 words
- 1-2 hours
Will this text hold?
A1
Earlier
At A1 the short lines will feel familiar, but the past tenses (llevó, trajimos, fué) and old forms like V. for usted will need taps; the dialogues of the first lessons are the easiest way in.
A1A2
This text
You can read it at A2: the lessons run from about 60 to 390 words, the lines are short, and most nouns name things you can see. Expect to tap old forms like V., dió and fué, and an occasional older subjunctive such as pudiese.
Check this passageB1
With room to spare
At B1 it reads quickly: the dialogues and nature notes make a warm-up, and the main work is the old spellings (dió, fué) and a few exercise headings left between lessons.
Start readingThe average sentence has 8 words, shorter than in the catalog’s A2 retellings (9-10) and a little longer than in the A1 ones (5-7). What lifts it above A1 is the tense: the lessons tell what has already happened (Mamá nos llevó al campo el sábado pasado, Trajimos nuestra merienda en una cesta), while every A1 book in the catalog stays in the present. One word in thirty has 9 letters or more (3.3%), within the range of the A2 retellings (1.1-3.6%): the long ones are nature and farm words such as primeramente or compañerita, and the lines around them are simple. The lessons are short, from about 60 to 390 words, so none is a long climb. Hence A2, at the easy end of the level. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 6 401
- words
- 8
- words in an average sentence
- 1-2
- hours of reading
- 1917
- Ginn and Company
Ginn and Company, 1917. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
There is no single plot: each of the 45 lessons is a small scene or a note. Luisa shows her grandfather her new doll, Elena feeds the birds and brings flowers to an old neighbour, Gilberto meets an Indian family in the West (the book uses the period word indios), Carlos takes the train to the sea, Jaime and Dolores leave an orphanage for a farm, and Juan looks after goats in the mountains. Between the scenes come short notes on bees, a hummingbird, a spider’s web, coral and rain, and one riddle. What happens to Juan’s goats on the last night is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Libro segundo de lectura
Lección 20
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Choose an underlined word.
V. and old spellings
V. is an old abbreviation of usted, the formal “you”: the girl uses it with her grandfather, and today it is written Ud. or Vd. Notice dió in me la dió: modern spelling drops the accent (dio), and the fué you will meet in other lessons is now fue. These are the same words as today’s, only spelled the old way. Also note the dashes that open each line: they mark who is speaking.
One line, one action
Each line holds one action: Metió, Cogió, Salió. If you tap a verb you do not know, the rest of the line still makes sense. Pepita se alegró de verlo huir means “Pepita was glad to see it run away”: alegrarse de plus an infinitive. The text prints La pobra Pepita, a misprint for pobre in the source, kept as it is.
Chapters
- ·Lección 1
- ·Lección 2
- ·Lección 3
- ·Lección 4
- ·Lección 5
- ·Lección 6
- ·Lección 7
- ·Lección 8
- ·Lección 9
- ·Lección 10
- ·Lección 11
- ·Lección 12
- ·Lección 13
- ·Lección 14
- ·Lección 15
- ·Lección 16
- ·Lección 17
- ·Lección 18
- ·Lección 19
- ·Lección 20
- ·Lección 21
- ·Lección 22
- ·Lección 23
- ·Lección 24
- ·Lección 25
- ·Lección 26
- ·Lección 27
- ·Lección 28
- ·Lección 29
- ·Lección 30
- ·Lección 31
- ·Lección 32
- ·Lección 33
- ·Lección 34
- ·Lección 35
- ·Lección 36
- ·Lección 37
- ·Lección 38
- ·Lección 39
- ·Lección 40
- ·Lección 41
- ·Lección 42
- ·Lección 43
- ·Lección 44
- ·Lección 45
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
Sentences are short, but old forms can trip a beginner: in “¿No lo sabía V.?” the V. stands for usted, and translating the whole sentence in Reader shows how the formal “you” works.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
All books at this levelBefore you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
It is the original, not a retelling: the Spanish half of Ellen M. Cyr’s bilingual Spanish-English school reader (Ginn and Company), taken from Project Gutenberg, with a letter in it dated 1917. The English half and the vocabulary lists are not included, though a few exercise headings (PREGUNTAS QUE EXIGEN RESPUESTA, PARA ADIVINAR) remain inside some lessons. The lesson headings “Lección 1” to “Lección 45” were added by MovaReader, because the lessons have no titles. The Spanish translator is not named.
Is there an audiobook?
There is no audio for this reader on MovaReader: the text is read on screen, and the translation appears when you tap a word. It helps most with old forms like V. and with animal and plant names such as colibrí or zacate.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. Sentences here are short, so you will use it mostly on formal or older turns, for example “¿No lo sabía V.?” (V. is usted) or “Quisiera que estuvieses aquí con nosotros” in Inés’s letter. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole book takes about 1-2 hours: the pace of someone reading with translation of new words, slower than a native speaker’s. Its 45 lessons are very short, from about 60 to 390 words, so you can read several at one sitting.
Where does the text get easier?
The level is nearly even from the first lesson. The early lessons lean on short dialogue and one-line sentences about dolls, bees and birds; later ones add a few longer stories (lesson 29 is the longest, at about 390 words) and short notes on nature, but nothing changes in kind.
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes. Once you sign in, the reader keeps your last place and the words you opened, so you can come back to the book where you left off. Any of the 45 lessons also opens from the contents on this page, for example Lección 34, with Inés’s letter to her father.