6°. Activity N° 6. “Spain”

1-      Follow the steps. (Seguir los pasos)

2-      Read the titles. (Leer los títulos. ¿conocen las palabras? ¿qué información esperan encontrar bajo cada uno de estos títulos?)

3-      Read between numbers. (Leer entre los números. Leo la información debajo de cada número y marco o escribo las palabras que conozco).

4-      Word detective. (Detective de palabras. Busco palabras “transparentes”, que son similares en inglés y castellano).

5-      General idea. (Luego de leer un número completo trato de identificar las ideas generales).

6-      Complete the chart. (Completo el cuadro. Sólo palabras o frases cortas, no oraciones).

Name of the country
1-Location	NE: S: W: SE/E: NW/SW:
2-Food	·         Bar food: ·         Galicia: ·         Catalonia: ·         Valencia: ·         Andalucía: ·         Castile: ·         Spices: ·         Drinks:
3-Festivals and Holidays	·         Pamplona: _____ __ _______ ·         Sevilla: ________ ·         Valencia: __________
4-Arts	·         Writers: ·         Painters: ·         Dance:
5-Sports (10)

Spain

1-     1- Location.

Spain is bordered to the west by Portugal; to the northeast it borders France, from which it is separated by the tiny principality of Andorra and by the great wall of the Pyrenees Mountains. Spain’s only other land border is in the far south with Gibraltar. Elsewhere the country is bounded by water: by the Mediterranean Sea to the east and southeast, by the Atlantic Ocean to the northwest and southwest.

2-     2- Food.

-  The most well-known bar food, known as tapas. There are hundreds of different tapas, but a few typical ones are mushrooms in garlic sauce, marinated seafood.

-       Spanish cooking varies greatly from region to region, linked to local products and traditions. Galicia, for example, is famed for its seafood, including dishes of baby eels and Vizcayan-style codfish; Catalonia is renowned for meat and vegetable casseroles; and Valencia is the homeland of paella, a rice dish made with seafood, meats, and vegetables. From Andalusia comes gazpacho, a delicious cold soup made of tomatoes, garlic, and cucumber, while the cattle-producing region of Castile boasts succulent roasts and air-dried hams.

-      Spanish food is frequently thought to be very spicy, but, apart from a few dishes that contain small amounts of a mild chili pepper, the most piquant ingredient in general use is paprika. 

-        Spaniards frequently drink wine and beer with their meals. They also commonly drink bottled mineral water. At breakfast and after meals, strong coffee is the almost universal drink. Few people drink tea.

3- Festivals and holidays.

These holidays are religious in origin, honouring the local patron saint or the Virgin Mary. Some of these celebrations, such as the Fiesta de San Fermín in Pamplona (with its famous running of the bulls), the Sevilla fair, and the Fallas of Valencia, have become internationally famous and have turned into major tourist attractions. 

4-     4- Arts: writing, dancing.

Spain has a long, varied, and distinguished artistic heritage. A partial list would include novelists Miguel de Cervantes (the most important figure of Spanish literature) and Benito Pérez Galdós, dramatists Pedro Calderón de la Barca and Lope de Vega, painters Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Goya, and Pablo Picasso, and filmmaker Luis Buñuel.The most famous writer of the century, however, was poet and playwright Federico García Lorca. 

The flamenco tradition, derived from a marriage of Arabic and Spanish folk songs. In the 1990s Ibiza, a popular holiday destination in the Balearic Islands, emerged as a global capital of electronic music.

5-     5- Sports.

Sports play an important part in the daily life of the Spanish people, and each region has its favourite forms of play. In mountainous Catalonia, skiing and other winter sports are popular; along the Valencia coast, windsurfing, scuba diving, and surfing have countless enthusiasts.

Despite the international controversy over bullfighting, the corrida de toros (“running of bulls”) is still fairly popular in Spain. Football was introduced into Spain by the British at the end of the 19th century.

Other popular spectator sports include hockey on roller skates, motorcycle racing, and tennis. Cycling also has a large following.