A.

Carefully read the following story:

The little village where we stopped with our cars, after traveling for a long time
time a measurement in the wasteland, had a singular madman, whose madness consisted of
to believe oneself dead.
He had arrived there several months earlier, not wanting to refer to his origin, and asking for
desperate longing to be considered deceased.
It goes without saying that no one could defer their desire; no matter how many, in the face of their
desperation, they would simulate and that only multiplied their suffering.
He did not stop presenting himself before us, as soon as we had arrived, to
we implored with a desolate resignation, which was positively pitiful, the impossible
belief. This is how he treated the travelers who, from time to time, passed through the little place.
He was an extraordinarily thin guy, with a yellowish beard, wrapped in rags, a
anyone insane; but the surveyor turned out to be fond of alienism, and did not waste the opportunity
interrogated the curious character. He immediately realized what my friend was
he proposed, and he shortened preambles with a clarity of expression, in every way discordant with
sucatadura.
-But I am not crazy -he said with a notable calmness, which poorly veiled, however, his
painful pessimism-. I am not crazy, and I am dead, indeed, thirty years ago. Of course.
Why did I die?
My friend covertly winked at me. That was promising.
I am native to such a place, my name is Fulano de Tal, I have family there...
(For my part, I keep these references to myself, as I do not want to bother living people and
next.
-I suffered from fainting spells, so similar to death, that after alarming even the
fear, they ended up instilling in everyone the conviction that I would not die from that. Some
Doctors certified him with all their science. It seems he had it solitary.
One time, however, during one of those fainting spells, I stayed. And here begins the
history of my torment; of my madness...
The unanimous disbelief of everyone regarding my death wouldn't allow me to die. Faced with the
nature, I was and am dead. But for this to be humanly effective, I need a
will that differs. Just one.
"I returned from my fainting due to the material habit of returning; but I, as a thinking being, I
As an entity, I do not exist. And there is no human language that can describe this torture. The thirst for
nothing is a horrible thing.
He said that so simply, with such a tone of truth, that it was frightening.
-The thirst for nothingness! And the worst part is that I can't sleep. Thirty years awake! Thirty
years in eternal presence before things and before me not being!
In the village, they had come to know that by heart. It became commonplace for them.
repeated attempts to force them to believe in his death. He had the habit of sleeping between
four candles. He spent long hours motionless in the middle of the field, with his face covered in dirt.
Such narratives interested us greatly; but when we were about to methodize
our observation, an unexpected outcome occurred.
Two peons who were supposed to catch up with us at that point arrived on the night of the third day with
several lagging mules.
We didn't feel them arrive, as we were asleep, when suddenly they woke us up.
his screams. Here is what had happened.
The crazy man slept in the kitchen of our hostel, or pretended to sleep among his candles.
usual - the only alms that he had accepted from us.
Two meters did not separate them from the door where they stopped, inhibited by that.
show, and the simulator. A blanket covered him up to the chest. His feet appeared on the other side.
extreme.

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 -One dead! -they stammered almost at the same time. They had believed in reality.
They heard something similar to the wheeze of a deflating wineskin. The blanket was flattened.
as if there were nothing underneath, as the visible parts - head and feet - were transformed
brusquely into skeleton.
The shout they let out made us jump twice in front of the mattress.
We pulled the blanket with a deadly prickliness.
There, among the rags, they lay without the slightest trace of moisture, without the slightest
particle of meat, very old bones to which a dry skin adhered.

Leopoldo Lugones
Argentine poet. A man of vast culture, he was the highest representative of Argentine modernism and
one of the most influential figures in Hispanic American literature. Among his poetic work are
they find books like Secular Odes (1910) and Romances of Río Seco (1938) among others. In their
As a narrator, Lugones stood out mainly for his stories, collected in The Forces.
strange (1906), The Tower of Cassandra (1919), Fatal Tales (1924) and The Strong Homeland (1933). In
many of these short narratives, Lugones experimented with different fantastic approaches that
they can be considered precursors to the best stories of some of the greatest cultivators
of this difficult genre, such as Horacio Quiroga, Jorge Luis Borges, and Julio Cortázar. He also published
dos novelas:La guerra gaucha(1905) yEl ángel de la sombra(1926).
Unable to access external content.

B. Solve:
1. Read carefully the brief biography of the author and mark:
First and last name
Date of birth and death
Examples of published works
Nationality
2. Read the title and reflect. What do you think this text will contain? At the end of the reading.
compare if your hypotheses were met.
3. Mark the words that you do not know. Infer them from context or look them up.
meaning with the dictionary. We advance the meanings of some words
complex

Surveyor: a person responsible for measuring land

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4. Who are the characters in the story? How are they described?
5. Where do the events take place?
6. Taking into account the descriptions and after reading the brief biography of the author, what about
What time period do you think the story is set in?
7. Reread this sentence:
"My friend winked at me discreetly. That was promising."
Deducepor cotexto: ¿Qué significa “aquello prometía”? ¿Cuál es la actitud de losagrimensores
towards the vagabond?
8. Why is the name given to the vagabond 'So-and-so'? Is that his real name?
9. What explanation does the interviewee give about their state of being alive-dead? Why did they suffer this?
destination?
10. Relate the ending. What happens when the pawns see the wanderer? Why? What is the
description made of the remains? What does it mean that they had no trace of moisture or
meat? Explain in your own words the strange element.
11. Mark in the story phrases or words that produce doubt or fear.
12. Briefly summarize the argument of the story in a short paragraph.