I. La banda de lunares: una visita de madrugada
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An A2 adaptation of three Holmes cases
Sherlock Holmes: The Speckled Band and Other Cases Sherlock Holmes: La banda de lunares y otros casos
Arthur Conan Doyle
This is a retelling of three stories from Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) in simple Spanish, not the original text: a MovaReader adaptation for readers who already know the past tenses and want a short mystery. In the catalog it is A2: about 5,500 words, 10 words per sentence on average. 10 chapters, told by Dr. Watson in the first person, cover three cases: The Speckled Band, The Red-Headed League and The Blue Carbuncle.
- A2
- 5 497 words
- 1-2 hours
Will this text hold?
A1
Earlier
At A1 the longer sentences will stop you: the story runs in the pretérito indefinido and imperfecto (dijo, llegó, vivía, había), at 10 words per sentence on average, while the catalog’s A1 books average 5-7.
A1A2
This text
You can manage it at A2: the sentences are short, each of the three cases has a clear line from clue to solution, and the speech of Holmes and his visitors is easy to follow.
Check this passageB1
With room to spare
At B1 the adaptation reads with room to spare, and the same author’s B1 adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles, about 14,500 words, is the natural next step before the full Spanish texts, which start at B2 in the catalog.
Start readingThe average sentence has 10 words, and each of the 10 chapters stays within 9-10: the story is told in the past, with events in the pretérito indefinido and background in the imperfecto, and about two thirds of the text is the characters’ speech in quotation marks, in short turns. A word of 9 letters or more comes up about once in 34 words, and padrastro, pelirrojos and carbunclo make up about a ninth of those. The catalog’s Spanish A1 books average 5-7 words per sentence, so this one is a clear step longer; its B1 books average 11-12, like the adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles, which has 12 words per sentence and about 14,500 words. This book is shorter and plainer than that, hence A2. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 5 497
- words
- 10
- words in an average sentence
- 1-2
- hours of reading
MovaReader. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
A young woman comes to Baker Street at dawn, afraid of the old house where she lives and of the words her sister cried out two years ago: the speckled band. Next, a pawnbroker with flaming red hair is paid four pounds a week to copy an encyclopedia, until the office that employs him vanishes overnight. Last, a battered hat and a Christmas goose lead Holmes to a famous stolen jewel. Dr. Watson tells each case as he lived it, and Holmes explains his reasoning only at the end. How each case ends is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Sherlock Holmes: La banda de lunares y otros casos
III. La banda de lunares: Stoke Moran
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Choose an underlined word.
Holmes reads a stranger
Holmes reads the visitor from small signs. Ha viajado: “you have travelled”, the pretérito perfecto for something that has just happened. Anduvo is the indefinido of andar: “you went, you walked”. Mire su manga is a polite command with usted: “look at your sleeve”. No tenga miedo means “do not be afraid”, and todo va a arreglarse, “everything is going to be fine”, uses ir a + infinitive for the near future.
Polite words, rude man
Roylott is rude, and Holmes answers with exact politeness: Tenga la bondad de sentarse, “be so kind as to sit”, a polite request with usted. Mi hijastra ha estado aquí: the pretérito perfecto again, for a visit that has just ended. ¿Qué le ha dicho?: here le means “to you”, so “what has she told you?”. Cierre la puerta, que hay corriente: que here means “because”.
Chapters
- ILa banda de lunares: una visita de madrugada
- IILa banda de lunares: el silbido en la noche
- IIILa banda de lunares: Stoke Moran
- IVLa banda de lunares: la luz en el agujero
- VLa Liga de los Pelirrojos: un anuncio extraño
- VILa Liga de los Pelirrojos: la plaza Saxe-Coburg
- VIILa Liga de los Pelirrojos: el oro del sótano
- VIIIEl carbunclo azul: un sombrero y un ganso
- IXEl carbunclo azul: el ganso de la posada
- XEl carbunclo azul: lo que Ryder escondía
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 translates whole sentences, and here that helps most where Holmes draws a conclusion from a small detail, as when he says why a visitor has come so early: Una mujer no sale de casa a estas horas sin una buena razón.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
Spanish books A1 Earlier The Hound of the Baskervilles El sabueso de los Baskerville Another book by the same author B1
All books at this level
Before you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
A learner adaptation, not the original: MovaReader retold in simple Spanish three stories from Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which came out in 1892: The Adventure of the Speckled Band, The Red-Headed League and The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle. The English text on Project Gutenberg is its source. The language and length have changed: modern Spanish in the past tenses, 10 words per sentence on average, 10 chapters and about 5,500 words, with Dr. Watson still telling each case in the first person. The clues and the solution of every case remain; minor scenes and many long explanations are left out, and the speech is shortened. The catalog has another book by the same author: The Hound of the Baskervilles, an adaptation at level B1 of about 14,500 words.
Is there an audiobook?
There is no audio version of this adaptation: MovaReader gives you the text, not a recording. Tap an unfamiliar word and its translation appears next to it; here that will mostly be words of the cases themselves, such as látigo, ganso or sótano.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
The Reader plan translates whole sentences. They are short here, 10 words on average, so you will seldom need one translated: mostly Holmes’s deductions, like Usted trabajó con las manos, porque su mano derecha es más grande que la izquierda, or si el sombrero está sucio y su mujer lo deja salir así, ella ya no lo quiere. The free plan also translates single words, up to a daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole adaptation takes 1-2 hours at the pace of someone who still translates new words. A chapter averages about 550 words, or 5-9 minutes of reading, so one evening easily covers a whole case.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is even: each of the 10 chapters averages 9-10 words per sentence, so there is no easier stretch. Only long words vary: in chapter I, where Helen Stoner visits Baker Street, one word in 50 has 9 letters or more, and in chapter V, about the advertisement of the League, one in 28.
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 next time you carry on from there. The contents on this page also take you straight to any chapter, say VII, “El oro del sótano”, where the night in the bank cellar begins.