THE FINAL CHALLENGE

HERE you have the last game: all the knowledge combined, do you think you can win? You can play with your friends or whoever you want, will you win?

DIFFICULTY: VERY HARD

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Where to find them

If you are looking for some games to play, at the end of each blog entry you have some activities related to the topic you have selected; if you have done all of them, try THE FINAL CHALLENGE!

AUTHOR NOTE: These three books selected at first are a draft; in the future some books and new activities will be uplouded.

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No Words from Gurb

No words from Gurb is a book written by the Spanish writer Eduardo Mendoza.
It was originally published by El País in weekly deliveries, and later translated to English, German, French, Italian, Korean, Danish and Polish.

Mendoza wrote this book in 1991 as a critique of the Spanish and Barcelona's society, and it was well received by the critics.
The author recognized that it was an incomprehensable trend when it first came to light.

Eduardo Mendoza was born January 11th. 1943 in Barcelona (Spain).
He studied a Laws degree in the 1970's, and before enjoying a scholarship in London, he went to New York, where he worked as an interpreter for the UNO (United Nations Organization).

There his literary production received wide recognition -characterised by a good use of narrative language, ability to make humor of silly situations or by keeping the estructure- and the publication of his first book, La verdad sobre el caso Savolta (The truth about Savolta's case).

Since then, he has published books, theatres, essays and short stories such as La aventura del tocador de señoras, Restauraciò or Tres vidas de santos (Three lives of saints).

He is the winner of so many prizes: Ciudad de Barcelona Award (1987), Best Book of the Year by Lire (France, 1988), Elle Award (1992), Frank Kafka Award (2015) and the most recent, Cervantes Award (2016).

In a Pre-Olympic Bercelona (1991; Olympic Games were in 1992), an alien called Gurb desappears while he was supplanting Marta Sánchez' s identity.

The storyteller during all the story is a friend of him, an alien too, who starts looking for him. To comply the mission, he becomes other famous characters, changing his appearance to look like the King Alfonso V, Miguel de Unamuno or Isoroku Yamamoto in order to adapt himself to the world and the way of life there.

The story turns Barcelona to a place where the real face of human beings is showed and all kinds of funny, satirical situations are given place.

Narrator. He is the commander of the spaceship and the main character. He tells the story through his diary. His own shape is pure energy, but he can became any famous personality and it is often used to create funny results. At the end, he manages to adapt to the world and the traditions.

Gurb. This alien is the only one who can fix the spaceship and the first to explore Barcelona (and later he gets lost; the narrator doesn't meet again with him until the end). He is funny and dissobedient.

The neighbor. She is not an important character in the story; the narrator falls in love with her and tries to attract her attention, but it never works. She has a son from a previous relationship.

Mr Joaquín and Mrs Mercedes. They are the owners of a bar the narrator frequents. They have a trust relationship with him and in spite of all his wims, they think he is a nice person. This is the only relationship that lasts from the beginning to the end.

1. Time to show your creativity and artwork! Make a comic scene with all the information given; you create it by hand or online. If you choose this last option, I recommend that you use Pixton. INTRUCTIONS: Click here, login or register a new account if you don't have one. To start your piece of art, you can look for resources on the net. Here you can watch a video for beginners:

2. PUZZLE. (HARD)
100

3. GUESS THE SENTENCE! Click here to start.
4. GUESS THE WORD! Click here to start (ALPHABET SOUP)

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La aventura de Miguel Littín Clandestino en Chile

La aventura de Miguel Littín en Chile is a book written by the Colombian and well-known author Gabriel García Márquez.

This novel isn't very famous due to the shut down it suffered for a long time.
The book was published in 1986, and the Chilean Ministry of Interior recognized they had burned more than 15000 copies of the first edition November 28th, 1986 commanded by Augusto Pinochet (the leader of a military dictatorship in Chile from 1973 to 1990).


Gabriel García Márquez was born in Aracataca (Colombia) March 6th, 1927. He lived as an only child with his aunts and grandparents until their parents moved to Sucra, where the father opened a pharmacy and the mother gave birth to some of the other ten children of the marriage.

His grandparents were very particular and influenced in the literary journey of the Nobel; the grandfather was a coronel and a veteran that participated in the 1000-day war, the writer was told a lot of stories about his experiences in war and his youth. From the grandmother, he learned some fables and leyends (she was the source of supernatural and magic visions).

Later, he became a laws student in Bogota (even if this degree wasn't his passion) and he continued writing; he never graduated, but there he started working as a journalist.
García Márquez became famous after the publication of Cien años de soledad (One hundred years of Solitude) in 1967.
He also published books like Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1987) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). The most important prize he received is the Nobel Prize in 1982.

He finally died 17th April, 2014 in Mexico City (Mexico) of cancer.

The story describes the dangerous journey of Miguel Littín in Chile.
After 10 years of dictatorship, Pinochet releases a list of people banished that now are able to come back to Chile, but Miguel is notthere. 
As it is forbidden for him to come back, he feels forced to adopt a fake identity, profession and excuses in order to get in the country.

He impersonates a Uruguayan businessman and he film a documentary with three film crews about life in Chile during Pinochet's government. He films ordinary people but also some Resistance leaders that operated in secret. He also interviews a leader hidden in a secret hospital, where he is recovering from an attempted murder ordered by the government. 

Miguel Littín succees in his mission and leaves the country when Pinochet has discovered his real identity and the police is investigating him.
The purpose of the documentary is to bring to light violent repression Chile and its people was living, the eway the government was offending against the population's rights and how the Resistence were trying to take the dictatorship down.

The most important character is Miguel Littín, and in the story (fiction) it is the main character, all the responsibility falls on him.

The real Miguel Littín is a film director from Chile, nominated five times in the Cannes Festival. Gabriel García Márquez wrote the story from his documentary, Acta General de Chile.

1. Write the correct answer! Challenge your memory (write A WORD in CAPITAL LETTERS)

2. Can you PLACE IN ORDER these events?
3. PUZZLE! Put all parts in order to discover an image!
4. GUESS the RELATIONSHIP between images.

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Author's Images

ALL IMAGES BELONG TO THE AUTHOR AND HAVE BEEN USED FOR THIS BLOG

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Images

ALL RIGHTS TO THEIR RESPECTIVE AUTHORS

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Omoo: A narrative of Adventure in the South Seas

Omoo: A narrative of Adventure in the South Seas is the second book by Herman Melville, better known for writing Moby-Dick.
It was first published in England in 1847 by Harper & Brothers (New York) and John Murray (London) 
It is a wequel to his first narrative about South Sea, called Typee.

This is a book collection that Herman Melville wrote before publishing Moby-Dick and it was considered "a jewel of world literature".

Herman Melville was born August 1, 1819 in New Yok City (USA).
His youth and experiences in that age were a crucial for him and influenced his artistic vision.
He mainly wrote about his stories as a common sailor, philosophy, the American society or exploration of literature. His barroque style was characterized by a rich vocabulary, elaborated and complex sentences, a strong rhythm, ironies and many references to the Bible, myths, visual arts and literature.

He married with Elizabeth Knapp Shaw; the couple had four children: Malcolm, Stanwix, Elizabeth and Frances. 
During his last years, he wrote two volumes of poetry and left one unpublished. Also, his last novel, Billy Budd, was left unfinished at this death in September 28, 1981 at the age of 72 years old.

Finally rescued from the island of Typee by a British crew, Herman Melville agrees to stay on the ship Julia until it reaches the next port, where he will go ashore.

After Melville joins to the group, some of the members attempt to desert, but the misfortunes are quickly solved.

In the first weeks of cruising in the adventure, Melville spends his time playing chest and reading the doctor's books; but this is not time of pleasure. Two men from the crew suddenly die and all of them are living through terriblr conditions: the boat is rat-infested and rotten (it should have been condemned years ago) and the captain falls ill.

The course time force them to change the route and go to the nearest island: Tahiti.

When the captain leaves the boat because of the illness, they convince themselves that the agreements they had signed weeks before were no longer applicable and they try to leave it too upon the arrival to a harbor in Papeetee.

Only the doctor prevents the sailors from desert, and the consul in Papeetee tell them they are obliged to stay in the ship for three months under the command of a mate.

In this place, the acting consul has the men (including Melville and the doctor) imprisoned on a French frigate, and five days after they have they have one more opportunity to return to the ship; they refuse and a Tahitian native, Captain Bob, takes them to a oval-shaped house (their "jail").

This is where the real "adventure" of Melville begins. After the ship sails away with a new crew, Melville and the other sailors are freed by the Tahitian jailer. He and the doctor have several adventures in the island and Herman ships on a boat that will take him to Japan.

In the adventures, he is convinced that the natives have been corrupted by their contact with white missionaries.

Herman Melville. An American sailor who is rescued from a cannibal island by the crew of British whaler (the Julia) and stays in the ship as a deck hand*  when he is relieved of duty due to his lameness*. Before going home with the boat that goes to Japan, he lives a lot of adventures in the islands with his friend, Doctor Long Ghost.

Doctor Long Ghost. The ship's doctor rescues the main character. Doctor Long Ghost beomes the Melville's closest friend and companion. He tries to sign on the same ship with Melville when he leaves the islands, but the captain refuses to allow him so he is left behind.

Captain Bob. The jailer of Melville and the rest of the crew on the island of Tahiti. He is easy-going and after the whaler sails away, the old man frees all the crew.

*DECK HAND. Sailor who works in the deck, in a boat.

*LAMENESS. If a person has difficulties to walk straight (he has problems in the leg), they suffer lameness.

1. Here you can download and print an activity to join dots and create a boat (the original template to create is in this link!)

2. CROSSWORD: Click on the work to fill in the blank.




3. RIDDLE:
YOU ARE ON A SAIL BOAT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN... THE BOAT HAS FOUR BOARDS ON THE SIDE THAT ARE TWO FEET WIDE EACH. IF THE WATER LEVEL RISES 4 FEET, WHICH BOARD WILL THE WATER REACH?

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