Introduction

Up to now, we got acquainted with the letters and their pronunciation and how to place the stress on a word when you pronounce it. Right now we are prepared to read every Spanish text correctly!

In this chapter we are going to practice reading a complete text about the Republic of El Salvador, a country in Central America. The text comes together with many voice files which are read clearly and slowly in order to help you follow the reading, word by word.

It is important to notice that our goal is to read well (and not to understand), since the level of the text is too high. The texts level is high because we want to show you that even now you are able to read out loud well very complex texts, and as I said, every single text in the Spanish language.

In the continuation of the chapter, I will present the lines from the text, one by one. Every line will appear in a big font to facilitate the reading and the corresponding voice file will be next to it. You have to read the line, listen to the voice file and read out loud several times until you get a satisfactory feel of confidence and then you should move to the next line.

Afterwards, we will meet at the same text, but instead of line by line, we will read it paragraph by paragraph. One more time, you have to read out loud until you get a satisfactory feel of confidence.

At the end of the chapter, we will meet with the complete text. The full text will appear together with its voice file, but this time I recorded the voice file in a regular way, this is, I did not read slowly for the purpose of studying, as I kept doing up to now. After we master the reading of the full text, we will be able to say with certainty: We know how to read in Spanish excellently!

Line by Line

El Salvador
 

República en la costa del pacífico de Centro América.

Como el país más pequeño de la región, El Salvador es el segundo país más poblado, después de Guatemala.

Y es la república más densamente poblada del continente.

Aunque El Salvador es tradicionalmente un país rural,

en el siglo veinte ha experimentado una migración extensiva a las áreas urbanas

y una tercera parte de su población vive dentro del área metropolitana de San Salvador,

la capital y ciudad más grande.

Al país lo llamaron El Salvador en honor a Jesucristo.

El paisaje del país lo domina una cadena volcánica que provee condiciones ideales para el cultivo del café,

que ha sido el fundamento de la economía salvadoreña por más de un siglo.

La economía basada en el café ayudó a crear una sociedad dividida entre una pequeña clase rica y gobernante,

y una vasta clase pobre y trabajadora.

A partir de 1980 (mil novecientos ochenta), la nación fue desgarrada por una guerra civil,

y en la década del noventa se empezó a recobrar del daño social, político y económico,

causado por una década de lucha violenta.

Paragraph by Paragraph

And now lets try to read paragraph by paragraph:

El Salvador

República en la costa del pacífico de Centro América. Como el país más pequeño de la región, El Salvador es el segundo país más poblado, después de Guatemala. Y es la república más densamente poblada del continente.

Aunque El Salvador es tradicionalmente un país rural, en el siglo veinte ha experimentado una migración extensiva a las áreas urbanas y una tercera parte de su población vive dentro del área metropolitana de San Salvador, la capital y ciudad más grande. Al país lo llamaron El Salvador en honor a Jesucristo.

El paisaje del país lo domina una cadena volcánica que provee condiciones ideales para el cultivo del café, que ha sido el fundamento de la economía salvadoreña por más de un siglo. La economía basada en el café ayudó a crear una sociedad dividida entre una pequeña clase rica y gobernante, y una vasta clase pobre y trabajadora.

A partir de 1980 (mil novecientos ochenta), la nación fue desgarrada por una guerra civil, y en la década del noventa se empezó a recobrar del daño social, político y económico causado por una década de lucha violenta.

The Full Text

And now lets try to read the whole text:

Translation to English

Right now you are able to read every text in Spanish. At the beginning it will be right to come back to this chapter several times and read it out loud again and again.

As I said at the beginning of the chapter, the text about El Salvador is very complex and was thought for the purpose of reading only. Nevertheless, you will be happy to understand what you said and read out loud up to now.

El Salvador

El Salvador, a republic in the Pacific coast of Central America. As the smallest nation in the region, El Salvador is the second country in terms of population, after Guatemala. And it is the most crowded republic in the continent.

Even though El Salvador is traditionally a rural country, in the twentieth century it has experienced an extensive migration to the urban areas and one third of its population lives within the metropolitan area of San Salvador, the capital and biggest city. The country was named El Salvador in honor of Jesus Christ.

The countrys landscape is dominated by a volcanic range which provides the ideal conditions for planting coffee that has been the base of the Salvadorian economy for over a century. The economy based on coffee crops helped to create a society divided into a small, rich and powerful class, and a vast poor and working class.

After 1980, the nation was torn by a civil war, and during the 1990s began to recover from the social, political and economical damage caused by a decade of violent conflict.