EXERCISE 14
READING CORNER
Before you read the text:
Talk with your classmates about the most important museums in Havana and specifically about the ones where important personalities lived.
EXERCISE 15
As you read the text:
Find three objects that belonged to Ernest Hemingway.
Infer the meaning of: hilltop, outskirts
Find answers to these questions:
Who was Ernest Hemingway?
a) Where did he write The Old Man and the Sea?
b) Why was this novel so important to his literary career?
c) What were some of Hemingway’s hobbies in Cuba and in other places?
TEXT
The Ernest Hemingway Memorial Museum
On December 27, 1939, Ernest Hemingway moved into the hilltop house at La Vigía, in San Francisco de Paula, on the outskirts of Havana. This remained his permanent residence for the rest of his life in Cuba.
After his death, his house became a memorial museum, so that Hemingway’s admirers could see how he lived and worked in Cuba.
On the second floor of the mansion’s tower, Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea. In the room, you can see a typewriter and other materials he used while writing the novel that won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.
Hemingway once found a pleasant, typically Cuban restaurant which became his second home in Cuba: El Floridita. Nearly every afternoon the U.S. writer would go there where the daiquiri, his favorite drink, was served to him as Papa’s Special, with a double shot of rum.
La Vigía looks just as it did when the writer lived there, with the books he liked to read, souvenirs of his adventures in Africa and mementos from the expeditions in the Gulf of Mexico. There you can also see his trophies, guns, belongings, and the family furniture. The decorations show Hemingway’s preferences in art, which go from a ceramic piece by Picasso to colorful posters of the Spanish bullfights he loved.
As a memorial museum, La Vigía pays homage to the universally recognized literature that is Ernest Hemingway’s legacy, as well as to the man who was always Cuba’s good friend.
EXERCISE 16
After you read the text:
.
1. Why is there a museum in his memory in Cuba?
2. Find information about the Nobel Prize.
Why is it awarded to someone?
Who has been awarded the Nobel Prize?
In what fields is the Nobel Prize awarded?
3. In one or two paragraphs, summarize the description of Hemingway’s house.
EXERCISE 15
PROJECT WORK
Famous men and women ( from our country)
List some famous men and women in your country’s history.
Divide into groups of five. Each group will do a project about a famous man or woman in your country’s history.
Make headings and notes about the famous person:
name dates (birth and death) nationality (country)
job achievements (logros)
Write a biography of your famous person. Include drawings, photos or pictures and other useful information, if necessary.