España Viva =========== España Viva ----------- This software is produced in association with the BBC Education beginners' Spanish series, España Viva. It is a structured course designed to help practise the basic language needed by any visitor to Spain. Exercises range from shopping simulations to map reading and from mystery identity games to a Spanish version of a one armed bandit. Devised by Drs Marie-Madeleine and Michael Kenning, the software comprises 30 programs, two for each unit of the course. The accompanying booklet contains a description of each program as well as instructions for use. The programs are based on authentic, everyday language featured in the BBC broadcasts and in the course book. The software fully exploits the medium of computers for language learning. This software is suitable for the British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer Model B, B+, and Master 128. The programs are on three 5.25" discs, compatible with 40 or 80- track disc drives (converter program supplied for the latter). Getting Started --------------- The 'España Viva' software offers you the chance to practise the kind of language encountered in ordinary, everyday situations such as shopping, booking accommodation, finding your way around, or talking about yourself, your likes or your dislikes. It covers the same ground as the Television series, the Radio series, and the book, but can be used independently of them. There are 15 units, consisting of 2 programs each, with the 15th being a revision unit. Disc 1 contains units 1 to 5 Disc 2 contains units 6 to 11 Disc 3 contains units 12 to 15 You are advised to backup the discs before use (see below). Features common to all the programs are given below. followed by detailed, specific instructions unit by unit, program by program. Features Common To All The Programs ----------------------------------- Running The Programs -------------------- The names of the programs for each unit are given in the heading to the description of each exercise. For example, the first program in Unit 1, on asking people where they come from, is called WHOSIT. To run this program, place the disc containing Units 1-5 in Drive 0, and start up the opening menu by pressing SHIFT, pressing and releasing BREAK, and then releasing SHIFT. A list of the exercises in Units 1-5 is displayed and you select one of them by pressing one of the keys 'A' to 'U'. To run the WHOSIT program, press 'A'. Confirm your selection by pressing 'P',for PROCEED. Alternatively, if you wish to change your mind, or realize that you have pressed the wrong key. press 'C', for CHANGE, and re-select. The format of the first two pages of each exercise displayed on the screen, is the same for all the programs. You will see a title page, followed by an introductory page, which gives an outline of the exercise plus a description of the keys you will need to use. You may take as long as you like to read the introductory page as the program waits for you to press SPACE before it proceeds to load the main part of the program. At the end of each exercise you are given the option to re-run the program or to stop. Many of the programs include an element of randomization, so if you opt to re-run them, you get a slightly different version. Once you have finished with an individual program, select the 'stop' option. You are then taken back to the opening menu as if you had pressed SHIFT BREAK. Some of the instructions given on the screen will be in Spanish. pulse el espaciador = press SPACE pulse una tecla = press a key The ? Key --------- You may forget what you are supposed to do in an exercise, or which keys to press. If so, try pressing the '?' key. This will usually suspend the program momentarily, and display a summary of the information given on the introductory page. Accented Letters ---------------- You will need to type in accented letters, such as é. This is done by means of the red function keys, f0 to f9. Included with this User Guide is a card to be slipped under the clear plastic strip above the function keys on your computer keyboard. Referring to this card, you will see that to type in an á, for example, you press the function key fo, and to type in an ñ you hold down the SHIFT key and press the function key f6. Usted And Vd ------------ You will find that in written Spanish, usted is often represented as Vd. Both forms are used in the software texts. The Programs ------------ WHOSIT UNIT 1 PROGRAM 1 Who is it? What could be more natural, when you're trying to break the ice with someone new, than to ask where he or she comes from? And, if you're trying to impress, it helps to get your genders right. Here is an exercise based on the various different ways you can pose such a question. It is in the form of a quiz in which you have to work out who, of six individuals, comes from a specified place, or is of a specified nationality. You do this by asking them questions, and noting their replies. The required nationality, or place, is shown at the top of the screen. Sets of questions, three at a time, are displayed on a pad, and you choose which question you want answered, and by whom. To indicate who is to answer the question, place the cursor in front of their name using 't' and 'l'. and press RETURN. Select the question you want answered in the same way. The question/answer dialogue (in the form appropriate to the sex of the respondent) appears at the bottom of the screen. Press any key and a new set of questions will be displayed. Carry on asking questions till you think you've got the answer. (Note that the replies to some sets of questions will only provide indirect information, and that you will need to use your deductive powers to get at the information you need.) When you think you know who it is, press ESCAPE and make your selection by moving the cursor to a name and pressing RETURN. BLANKIT UNIT 1 PROGRAM 2 Cloze Test This exercise uses a skill we all seem to possess - the ability to make sense of a conversation even if we don't catch every word that is said. This is a skill we use in all sorts of everyday situations, from eavesdropping on a bus, to a chat at a noisy party. In this exercise, a text is displayed and you have to type in the words which have been blanked out. You can select the criterion used to blank out the words, but the symbol displayed on the screen to indicate that a word has been blanked out gives no indication of the length of the word. You attempt to fill a particular blank: other occurrences of the blanked out word won't be filled in. At the start of each text, you have to decide how the words are to be blanked out; eg. you can opt for every fifth word, or, all the verbs. You do this by selecting from the options presented on the screen using '1', '2', '3' etc. The text then appears on the screen with certain words blanked out. Carefully read the text, and try to work out what the words are which have been blanked out. To fill a blank, start by moving the cursor to it using 't' and ''. Then type in the word and press RETURN. Be sure to check what you have typed before you press RETURN - Use DELETE to correct typing errors. In the case of adjacent blanks, type in only one word at a time. If the word you type in is correct, it is filled in, and if not you are charged 5 points. If you can't work out what a particular word might be, don't give up, all is not lost. You can buy a word by moving the cursor to the relevant blank and pressing 'l'. This may then help you to work out what nearby blanks might be. If you really get desperate you can ask to see the whole text by pressing '2' - the complete text appears on the screen for a few seconds and then quickly reverts to the blanked out version. Buying a word costs 25 points and peeping costs 250 points. Press ESCAPE to abort a text. You may wish to start with the easier option, deleting the verbs, and only gradually work your way to deleting one word in three. Finally, note that the text has to be reconstructed exactly, and alternatives, however plausible, will be rejected. su = your ANAGRAM UNIT 2 PROGRAM 1 Anagrams Here's one to prove that vocabulary can be fun. This exercise draws on the words you've met so far. An anagram is displayed on the screen with a white pad underneath for you to type in what you think the word is. Type the word and press RETURN. Don't worry if you're not a crossword fiend - if you get stuck, you can get two clues to help you to find out what the word is. Pressing 'l' gives you the first letter of the word, and pressing '2' gives you a hint related to the meaning of the word. You can give up by pressing '3'. A complete run-through consists of a selection of 10 anagrams for you to puzzle over. You get 10 points for a right answer obtained without any help. This is reduced by 3 for requesting the first letter of the word clue, and by 5 for the hint. There are, in fact, twenty words available, and two different clues for each, so you can have several goes at this one. TREE UNIT 2 PROGRAM 2 Family Tree It is not so long since our forbears were swinging from branch to branch, which perhaps explains the current interest in family trees. A good way to engage someone in conversation is to ask them about their family. In this exercise you are given a partially filled-in tree, and you have to use it to work out who is speaking, from the answers they give. Move the cursor using the arrow up and arrow down keys, and press RETURN to select a question. Press ESCAPE when you think you you know who it is. Move the cursor around the tree using the left, right, up and down arrow keys. Press RETURN to select a person. BANDIT UNIT 3 PROGRAM 1 Commodity Bandit There's no need to worry, you won't have to choose between your money or your life - this is the one-armed variety. And instead of pictures of cherries and apples, you play with combinations of words. To get the better of this particular bandit, you have to look for correct combinations of a commodity, and the quantity in which it is usually bought and sold. The three wheels contain, from left to right, numbers, quantities and commodities. The bandit pays out when the words in the centre of the middle and right-hand windows go together, and the amount it pays out is equal to ten times the number shown in the left-hand window. To spin the wheels, press SPACE. If you think commodity and quantity go together, press RETURN. If you are correct you get your winnings, otherwise the machine makes a noise at you. You can spin the wheels as often as you like, but pressing RETURN counts as a try, and you only get ten tries per game. To maximise your score, you can nudge the wheels into a winning combination. To nudge any of the three wheels, move the cursor to it using the arrow left and arrow right keys, and press 'N'. It is only possible to nudge a wheel once per spin. You can also hold a wheel, while spinning the others. Do this by moving the cursor to it and then pressing 'H'. If you cannot see a winning combination, just keep pressing SPACE to spin the wheels till one appears in the centre, or till you spot a combination you can nudge into place. SCRAMBL UNIT 3 PROGRAM 2 Scrambled Dialogues No, Scrambled Dialogues is not about top-secret exchanges between the White House and the Kremlin. Here we continue the theme of making sense of written Spanish, but go one stage further from recognising individual words. A number of sentences are displayed on the screen. All you have to do is read, understand and inwardly digest them - then decide which order they should go in. To shuffle the sentences around, first decide which sentence you want to move. Next move the cursor to it, using the up and down arrow keys. Then press either 'A', to swap it with the one above, or 'Z', to swap it with the one below. Continue swapping sentences around till you you think the text makes sense as a whole, then press RETURN. Those sentences which are in the correct position in the text will turn green (dark). Those sentences in the correct order will be bracketed together. The whole text will turn green if you've managed to reconstruct it correctly, and pressing any key will take you on to the next text. If you're having difficulty, you can always press RETURN after each sentence you swap. And if you think you'd do better starting afresh with a new text, press ESCAPE at any time to abandon the current text. WHERE UNIT 4 PROGRAM 1 Where to? One of the pleasures of foreign travel is exploring unfamiliar towns and cities. From time to time you're going to have to stop a passer-by and ask them the way - to the station, your hotel, a supermarket, or wherever. Are you going to be able to understand what they say to you, or are you just going to smile politely and set off in the wrong direction? And suppose a Spanish tourist stops you to ask directions? Here is an exercise to help you give and understand directions. It is in two phases, based on a simple map. The first phase gives you the chance to see what various directions in Spanish mean in practice. The map is drawn on the screen, and a list of directions is displayed alongside. To see what a particular direction means, move the cursor to it using 't' and 'V', and press RETURN. A small arrow then traces out on the map the motion you have selected. This can be repeated as often as you like. When you are ready to move on to the second phase, which tests your ability to give directions, press ESCAPE. In the test phase a symbol is placed somewhere on the map to represent a particular location or building, and you have to say how to get there. You do this by selecting one of the three directions which are displayed alongside the map. You select a direction using 'q' and 'T', and RETURN, as in the first phase. The motion you have selected is traced out and you can see if it leads to the right place. The test is made up of five questions, and your score is displayed at the bottom of the screen. NEWTOWN UNIT 4 PROGRAM 2 New Town You're travelling in Spain and have just stopped somewhere for a couple of days. Fortunately the Oficina de Turismo is still open, so you pop in to get a street map (printed below). Outside again, eager to try out your Spanish on a real live person, you approach a number of poor unsuspecting passersby to make a few enquiries about the town, carefully noting on your map where the various places are. They also explain to you where they live, and to confirm that you have understood, you show them your map and point to the place you think they mean. Usually, you get it right, but sometimes... The town plan is shown on the screen with a list of names. You have to work out who comes from where from the answers they give. Move the cursor using the up and down arrow keys. Press RETURN to select a name. The ensuing dialogue is displayed at the bottom. Move the cursor from place to place on the map also using the down and up arrow keys. Press RETURN to select the place you think they mean. If correct, the person's initial appears at that spot, otherwise the program beeps and you try again. Note that there is no scoring associated with this exercise. Your aim is simply to find out about the town, and to observe some of the forms that questions and answers can take. [] MARKET UNIT 5 PROGRAM 1 Market Research What is your ideal holiday? Sizzling on the sand, marching up a mountain, or stomping around a stately home? Do you prefer wonderful weather, superb scenery or lots of life? And do men and women like the same things? Questions, questions - it's enough to drive you up the poll! You are given a question to answer and three sets of replies to a Market Survey carried out in Santander, Madrid and Mojacar. Study all these replies, carefully noting how many men and/or women prefer the feature in question, and how strong is their preference. (You may assume that someone who uses 'muchísimo' counts double.) Press 'l' to 3' to see the replies for each town. Press '4' to see the question again. Press ESCAPE when you want to answer the question. Move the cursor using the up and down arrow keys, and press RETURN to select. If you get it wrong you carry on with the same survey, otherwise you are given the option of re-starting with the same survey (if you wish to check it again) or to start with a new survey. el edificio = building IDENTITY UNIT 5 PROGRAM 2 Identity Card Here is your chance to sort out an identity crisis, and to get some practice asking and answering questions. Talking about yourself, and getting others to do the same is a good way to get to know people and try out your Spanish at the same time. You begin by typing in the current year. You are then presented with a dialogue in which someone is asked a series of questions about where they come from, where they live, and so on. Unfortunately, the interviewee is a little confused, and not all of the replies are correct. Your task is to assist by checking the replies given against the extract from their identity card displayed above the dialogue on the screen, and by correcting any replies you think do not fit. To simplify the task of calculating the person's age, you may assume that the interview was carried out at the end of the year in question. Press the down and up arrow keys to move the cursor to a reply. Press SPACE to change a reply - repeat until you think it is right. Press RETURN when you think all the replies agree with the identity card details. The replies turn green it correct, red if incorrect. If some replies are still wrong, you continue with the same person. If all the replies are correct, you are given the option of re-starting with the same person, should you wish to check it over, or starting with a new person and a new set of details. NUMBER UNIT 6 PROGRAM 1 Number Learning Aid You don't need to be a mathematical genius for this one, just able to count up to 100. This is an exercise on the numbers 1 to 100 in Spanish. The exercise is in two phases, a learning phase and a test phase. To move from one phase to the next, you press ESCAPE. In the learning phase you type in a number, in digits, and press RETURN, and the corresponding Spanish words are displayed. Note that the program will only accept numbers up to 100. In the test phase you start by specifying the range of numbers you want to be tested on. To do this you move the cursor to the range you want, using 't' and 'I', and press RETURN. A number is then displayed in Spanish, and you have to type in what it means in digits, followed by RETURN. Once you have entered your answer, the program displays on the screen what you should have typed. If you have got it right, the screen flashes and you get ten points, but if you have got it wrong. your answer slowly fades out. The test contains ten questions. The time you take over the test phase is displayed with the final score. DIRECT UNIT 6 PROGRAM 2 Scrambled Directions Here's your chance to become a director, but unfortunately, this exercise has nothing to do with big business or the movies. In Scrambled Directions your task is to sort out a set of directions which have got mixed up. The exercise is identical in operation and presentation to Scrambled Dialogues, So See SCRAMBL, Unit 1, for details. The essential difference between the two exercises is that, in order to make sense of the set of directions, you must refer to the map below. [] TIME UNIT 7 PROGRAM 1 Telling the Time in Spanish The key to success is all a matter of timing, so to make sure we don't miss the boat, here is an exercise on telling the time in Spanish. The exercise is in two phases, a learning phase and a test phase. To move from one phase to the next, press ESCAPE. In the learning phase you type in the time and the corresponding Spanish words, in informal and official forms, are displayed on the screen beneath a clock face. Type the hour in digits, using the 24 hour clock, and press RETURN. Then do the same for the minutes. Note that the program will not accept nonsensical times, and works to the nearest 5 minutes. In the test phase a time is displayed in Spanish, and you have to set the hands of a clock on the right hand side of the screen to that time. You move the hour hand using 'c' or ' → to go backwards or forwards to the selected hour, and move the minutes hand using '1' or 'l'. When you have set both hands of the clock, press RETURN. You will then see a new clock face appear on the left-hand side of the screen, in both analogue and digital forms, set to the time corresponding to the right answer. If your clock agrees with this clock the display flashes and you are awarded 10 points. There are ten questions in each run of the test. SPACES UNIT 7 PROGRAM 2 Scrambled Spaces And now for the conquest of Inner Space. The spaces between the words in a piece of text have become mixed up with the words, and your task is to put them back in the right place. Carefully scrutinise the text on the screen, looking for spaces (shown as coloured blobs) which are in the wrong place. When you find one, move the cursor to it, using '+' and '—, and set about shifting it to where you think it ought to be. To move a space-blob one place to the left, press 'Z'. To move it to the right, press X. Spaces can be shifted only within the line on which they appear. By convention, all punctuation marks within a line, except apostrophes and hyphens, must be followed by a single space. When you think you have finished, press RETURN. All blobs which are in the correct position will then turn into spaces, but any blobs in the wrong position remain on the screen. Pressing RETURN before you have finished can be helpful if you get stuck, but it costs you 100 points every time, and you continue with the same text. There are three such texts in all, and you start with a score of 2000 for each. Press ESCAPE if you want to abandon the current text and proceed to the next one. WHAT UNIT 8 PROGRAM 1 What Can You Ask For? Getting what you want often starts with knowing how to ask for it. Here is an exercise using some everyday items, which you will need to be able to ask for. You are presented with a mixed bag of Spanish words, and three phrases in English, and you are asked to indicate which of the English phrases can be said using only the given Spanish words. First of all, the three English phrases are displayed in the bottom half of the screen, beneath the list of Spanish words you can draw on. You then indicate which of the English phrases can be said in Spanish, using only the given set of words. You do this by moving the highlight, using 't' and I', and pressing RETURN. Note that some of the Spanish words may have to be used more than once. When you have selected all the possible phrases (of which there may be more than one), press ESCAPE. A translation of each phrase is then presented, with those words coming from the given set of Spanish words colour-coded the same colour as the list of words. You get ten points for each phrase correctly accepted or rejected. There are 10 sets of phrases so the maximum score is 300. MENU UNIT 8 PROGRAM 2 Choosing from a Menu Man does not live by bread alone, and visitors to Spain are no exception. So if you do not wish to succumb to malnutrition while on holiday, you will have to visit a restaurant or two while you are there. And, what better way of sampling authentic local cuisine, while showing off your new-found linguistic skills? You have gone out for a meal with a companion. Your preferences and those of your friend are displayed at the top of the screen. You must select appropriate dishes from the menu. The Menú del Día is first displayed and then, course by course, you work your way through, selecting dishes according to your preferences. Your dialogue with the waiter is gradually filled in as you make your selections. Selections which conflict with your preferences are rejected. Finally, the complete dialogue is displayed. To select a dish from the menu, move the cursor using I' and '1', and press RETURN. Press ESCAPE to abort a run. ANAGRAM UNIT 9 PROGRAM 1 Anagrams See Unit 2. REACTION UNIT 9 PROGRAM 2 Reactions Shopping can be such fun, unless you are looking for something specific. Of course, it helps to take someone along to tell you whether it fits, or suits you, or the colour goes with your eyes. In this exercise, you have to decide whether to buy four articles of clothing. For each item you ask the person with you what they think. Read the question and study the advice you are given. Decide, from your friend's reaction, whether to buy or not. You score a point for a correct decision. A timer ticks away while you think. Press 'S' for Si or 'N' for No. Press SPACE to see the next item. Press ESCAPE to abort a run. WHO UNIT 10 PROGRAM 1 Who Are You? Not a 'knock knock' joke, more a sort of guessing game in which you have to work out who you are. Displayed in the table below is a summary of the following bits of information about each of ten people: the hours they work, what they want to drink, their favourite sport, what they are going to do this evening. The program starts by randomly picking a name for you, and then selects twelve different clues to help you work out who you are. You will see the first of these clues displayed on a pad, beneath the list of the names of all ten people. Read the clue and consult the table to see which persons it could apply to. To see the next clue, just press a key. A timer ticks away while you think. Continue this process of elimination till you feel you know who you are. When you know the answer, press ESCAPE. To indicate who you think you are, move the cursor to that name using '+' and ' +' and press RETURN. If you are right, you are congratulated and invited to have another game, otherwise you continue looking. Clearly, the aim is to work out the answer from the minimum of clues, in the minimum time. Lo/el mismo que = the same as [] MISSVRB UNIT 10 PROGRAM 2 Missing Verbs Not a beauty contest for linguists, but a chance to have a closer look at the different forms verbs can take in Spanish. A dialogue is displayed with a verb blanked out. The missing verb also occurs in another form elsewhere in the dialogue. Read the text displayed on the screen and work out which verb should go in the gap. Type in the missing verb and press RETURN. The correct verb will appear in the gap. If your answer is correct you score a point, but an incorrect answer is erased from the screen. Each run contains 10 dialogues. TRAVEL UNIT 11 PROGRAM 1 Travel Agent If you travel around Spain using public transport, you'll almost certainly need to make enquiries at some point about times of trains, buses, or planes, and so on. Let's hope you have better luck than the poor client in this exercise. This program simulates a question-answer dialogue between a confused Travel Agent and a client. You can direct the conversation by selecting the destination, and mode of transport, and by constructing the client's question. Unfortunately, the Travel Agent is new to the business and sometimes makes mistakes; it is for you to say if the answer the client receives is correct, by checking the information in the tables below. You start by selecting the destination, by pressing either 1 or 2. Next, you select the mode of transport in the same way. Having specified where the client is going, and how, you must now decide on details, such as whether you want the first train or the last, first or second class, and so on. Assemble the client's question by selecting from the alternative possible components displayed on the screen using the up arrow, the down arrow and RETURN keys. The question thus put together, and the answer given by the Travel Agent, appear in dialogue form near the bottom of the screen. You should carefully read them, and, referring to the tables below, decide whether or not you agree with the answer. If you think the answer is correct, press 'V' for verdadero, otherwise press 'F' for falso. You start with 2000 points and lose 100 if you either falsely accuse the Travel Agent of making a mistake, or fail to spot an error. [] [] SCRAMBL UNIT 11 PROGRAM 2 Scrambled Words See Unit 3. HOTEL UNIT 12 PROGRAM 1 Hotel Information System Finding the right hotel can be a daunting task, but never fear, the Magnificent Micro will soon come to the rescue. If you go into the Oficina de Turismo of most large towns in Spain and ask about hotels, the chances are the assistant will just punch a few keys on a keyboard and instantly have to hand a list of vacancies, prices and facilities for you to choose from - at least, in theory. This exercise simulates just such a Hotel Information System, designed to help you find the right hotel to suit your particular requirements and your pocket. Your imaginary requirements are first set out, and a 'menu' screen is displayed, showing you the titles of the information pages you can call up. If you press one of the keys marked 'l' to '9', you get a screenful of information summarising a particular feature, or a particular hotel. Pressing 'D' displays your requirements. Once you have selected an information page, and noted its contents, press any key to get back to the menu screen. Consult as many, or as few, of these pages as you need to find a hotel which has the facilities you want, at the price you're willing to pay. When you think you know which hotel fits the bill, press ESCAPE. The system then asks you to name the hotel, and checks whether it meets the requirements displayed on the screen. You identify your choice by moving the highlight, using the up arrow and down arrow and pressing RETURN. If your choice is incorrect, you are given the description again, and you should carry on working through the various information pages. Note that this exercise, like many of the others in the pack, includes an element of randomization, so that information gleaned during one run should be discarded when re-starting. ahora a divertirse = (now) have a nice time continue buscando = keep looking SPACES UNIT 12 PROGRAM 2 Scrambled Spaces See Unit 7. WEATHER UNIT 13 PROGRAM 1 Weather Maps The rain in Spain falls mainly in the northwest. You can confirm this by consulting a weather map, which is precisely what you are asked to do in this exercise. The program picks the region containing one of the towns Santander, Barcelona, Almería or Madrid. You are then given clues consisting of statements about the kind of weather normally experienced in that region in Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter. To help you work out which region the program has picked, you can consult a series of national weather maps, one for each season. A timer ticks away while you think. Read the clue displayed on the screen, and try to work out which region(s) it can apply to. Press '1', '2', '3', or '4' to consult the weather maps for Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Press SPACE to get the next clue. When you think you know the answer, press ESCAPE. Move the cursor using the arrow up and arrow down keys, and press RETURN to select. Clearly, the aim is to work out the answer from the minimum of clues, in the minimum time. [] GROUPS UNIT 13 PROGRAM 2 Groups of Words Modern Maths seems to creep in everywhere these days - groups of this, sets of that; where will it all end? But don't worry, you don't need to be an Einstein to do this exercise. Here you are looking for three words all belonging to one of the following categories: sports, modes of transport, colours, months. The presentation is in the form of a one-armed bandit, so see BANDIT, Unit 3, for details. As the words in the middle of all three wheels must belong to the same group, you'll find that you need to make greater use of the HOLD and NUDGE facilities. Also, the score is a standard 100 points for a successful try. WHAT UNIT 14 PROGRAM 1 What Can You Ask For? See unit 8. que tengo que hacer = what do I have to do REBUILD UNIT 14 PROGRAM 2 Rebuild a Text Suppose you're straining to listen to what someone is saying, amid a hubub of conversation and traffic noise. Just as they're getting to the interesting bit, a motor bike comes roaring by. Isn't it amazing how often you can still follow what is being said, even if their voice is occasionally completely blotted out. It's as if your brain is filling in the missing bits of the conversation as it goes along. Here is an exercise based on exactly this kind of situation. It tests both your command of vocabulary, and your ability to work out what fits in a particular context. Your aim is to reconstruct a piece of text, which is displayed on the screen with some of the words blanked out. All you have to do is type in any word which you think has been blanked out, and press RETURN. All occurrences of that word, if any, irrespective of the cursor position, will be filled in. (Don't forget to check what you've typed before pressing RETURN - you can use DELETE to correct a typing error.) Note that you have to reconstruct the text *exactly*, and that alternatives, however plausible, will be rejected. There are various strategies you can adopt for filling in the blanks, such as: looking for common phrases, like buenos días; trying out frequently occurring words like articles; examining carefully the words around a gap, taking into account the flow of the text. If you get stuck, there are two levels of assistance available. You can buy the next blanked out letter from any word by moving the cursor to it, using the 't' and +, and then pressing the '1'. This costs you 10 points. Secondly, you can peep at the whole text by pressing the '2': this costs you 100 points. You start with a balance of 2000 points, and each unsuccessful attempt to enter a word, costs 5 points. If you decide to give up on the current text, and go on to the next one, press ESCAPE. TEST UNIT 15 PROGRAM 1 Testing Sequence It did seem too good to last - the day of reckoning had to come sooner or later. But you shouldn't find it too testing. This is a revision test consisting of four units, with each one automatically chaining the next. They are: A: Take Your Pick - a multiple-choice exercise in which you pick one of five possibilities. B: Fill the Gap - an exercise in which you type in the word or words missing from a piece of text. C: Match It - an exercise in which you indicate which answer goes with which question. D: True or False? - a comprehension exercise consisting of a piece of text in Spanish, and statements which may be true or false. With each of the units A to D you can choose whether or not to have a running score and/or the correct answer displayed with each item. The score for the unit, and your overall score, are given at the end of each unit.) This enables you to run the four units as a simple test in which you do not see the detailed marking. so that you can repeat the test without fear of having memorized the right answers. Alternatively, if you prefer to see precisely which questions you get right, and which you get wrong, you can simply run the sequence indicating that you wish to have a running score and the right answer displayed with each item. PASEO UNIT 15 PROGRAM 2 The last Paseo Have you ever been late? If not, here's your chance. You're staying at the Hotel San José, in the middle of a beautiful peninsula ringed by spectacular sandy bays and rocky headlands. You have decided to have one last look at the scenery and have gone out for a walk. You have to be back at your hotel by 5.30, but unfortunately you have got lost... The only map you have, below, just gives general information about what sort of things can be found in the area, with no details of street or place names, or bus routes. You move around the town by pressing the 'N', 'S', 'E', or 'O', for Norte, Sur, Este, or Oeste. Take careful note of what you discover about the town, perhaps by drawing your own map, and don't be surprised if it takes several attempts before you manage to make it in time, especially as you may encounter some hidden delays. The randomization in this program is limited to your starting point and the amount of time you've got. Consequently, even when you've found your way to the Hotel San José, it can be quite fun to have a few more goes and explore the rest of the peninsula. amplio, -a = spacious, wide cualquier, -a = any (unspecified) le quedan veinte minutos = twenty minutes left [] Backing Up The Discs -------------------- If you are using España Viva for the first time, to avoid accidentally corrupting the program discs, you are advised to make working copies of the three discs: For each disc in turn, place the original program disc in Drive 0. FOR A 40-TRACK 5.25" DRIVE: You will need a 40-track, formatted disc. Create a backup of the program disc, following the instructions in your Disc User Guide. FOR AN 80-TRACK 5.25" DRIVE: You will need an 80-track, formatted disc. Type: *INST80 followed by RETURN, and follow the instructions on the screen until copying is complete. In all cases, take great care to put the right disc in the required drive when asked. Once you have created a set of working discs, the original discs should be stored in a safe place. You are now in a position to use España Viva. Game Credits ------------ Editors: Meyer Solomon & Andre Peters Software & User Guide: Drs Mike & Marie-Madeleine Kenning User Guide designed by Grahan Bartram Front Cover illustration by Gillian Martin Devised by Drs Marie-Madeleine and Michael Kenning, ISBN 0 563 21311 6