5.3 ESTRATEGIAS EN LA CULTURA ORGANIZACIONAL
5.3.2 POLÍTICAS Y VALORES DENTRO DE CD SISTEMAS DE SEGURIDAD
A.
Background informationWorld War II ended in 1945 but has survived in the public’s memory and imagination because of the countless books and movies that have been written about it. This paragraph is from The Rising Tide, by well-known historical novelist Jeff Shaara. This part of the book tells the story of soldiers fighting in North Africa. In this scene, the characters are facing German tanks.
B.
Words to know before you read Match the words to their definitions.____ 1. halt a. explosive substance
____ 2. tank b. a small device that makes a gun fire
____ 3. hatch c. stop
____ 4. trigger d. very close to the target
____ 5. gunpowder e. a small door on a vehicle or ship ____ 6. point-blank f. an armored vehicle
C.
Reading strategyQuickly read the excerpt. Then answer the question.
How many men did he shoot?
______________________________
iii. comPrehension check
Mark the sentences T (True) or F (False).______ 1. The German soldiers came out of their tank.
______ 2. He was shooting a rifle.
______ 3. He killed the German soldiers.
______ 4. The enemies were near each other.
______ 5. It was easy to see where to shoot.
______ 6. The men were dancing.
iV. Vocabulary building A.
Understanding from contextRead the phrases. Before you look up words in the dictionary, use the context of the sentence to help you match the verbs with the definitions below.
______ 1. He jerked the door open so quickly that he broke the handle.
______ 2. The hill was sandy, so they scrambled up it on hands and knees.
______ 3. The soldier gripped the gun, afraid that he might drop it.
______ 4. The man was hurt—he staggered slowly along the road.
______ 5. The gunshot wounded the man, but it didn’t kill him.
______ 6. The glass shattered when the bullet hit it.
They jerked to a halt, and he could see smoke coming from the German tank, waited for the movement, saw it now, the hatch coming open. A think plume of black smoke poured up from inside the tank, and the men appeared,
scrambling out, escaping the burning hulk. His hand gripped the trigger of the machine gun, and he watched four men drop to the ground, staggering, wounded, blinded by the smoke and the shattering blast that had ripped into them. He pulled the trigger, sprayed the machine-gun fire back and forth, all four men going down quickly. He paused, took another breath, fought through the stink of gunpowder, saw movement beyond, more tanks, streaks of light.
The fight was all around them, tanks and armored cars, perfect confusion, enemies only yards apart, seeking a target in the dust, firing point-blank.
“Move! Ninety degrees starboard! Forward!”
He searched for another target, all four men rising to the battle, all a part of the chaos, a desperate dance of men and machine.
Source: The Rising Tide, by Jeff Shaara, New York: Random House, 2006, p. 9.
ii. read
Read the text. Mark the words you don’t know, but don’t stop reading to look them up.
______ 7. He ripped his shirt to make a bandage.
______ 8. They were seeking a way through the enemy line, but they never found one.
a. move quickly and awkwardly, often using one’s hands b. look for
c. hold tightly
d. break into many pieces
e. walk unsteadily, as if going to fall f. pull suddenly and forcefully g. tear
h. injure, usually in a way that opens the skin
B.
Use the new wordsComplete the sentences with the bold words from Exercise A.
1. The child _________________ his mother’s arm so he wouldn’t fall.
2. The man was so tired that he _________________ down the hallway.
3. The customers who came in the morning were _________________ the best deals.
4. He _________________ his pants on the fence.
5. That man _________________ himself with his own knife.
6. When she dropped the plate, it _________________.
7. When they saw the alligator, they _________________ out of the river.
8. He _________________ on the leash to pull the dog out of the road.
V. undersTanding grammar: ParTiciPial Phrases A.
Read about participial phrasesA participle is a verb form ending in -ed or -ing. Participial phrases are used in many different ways in English—they can be subjects of sentences, they can modify nouns, and they can modify clauses.
In the passage above, the author uses participial phrases to combine clauses. By omitting the verb be and using a participle, he gives the writing a more poetic sound. These types of sentences are not common in spoken English.
Look at these comparisons:
the men appeared, scrambling out, escaping the burning hulk = the men were scrambling out; they were escaping the burning hulk
he watched four men drop to the ground, staggering, wounded, blinded = the men were staggering, wounded, and blinded
enemies only yards apart, seeking a target in the dust, firing point-blank = the enemies were seeking a target; they were firing point-blank
In these examples, the participial phrase has the same subject as the main clause. In the following examples, however, the phrase has a new subject:
He . . . sprayed the machine-gun fire back and forth, all four men going down = all four men were going down while he sprayed gun fire
He saw it now, the hatch coming open = the hatch was coming open when he saw it
B.
Identify meaningRewrite the participial phrases as separate sentences.
1. The soldiers moved around the building, seeking a safe place to enter.
2. The commander shouted orders, knowing his men would quickly obey.
3. The gunfire hit the door, shattering it into a thousand pieces.
4. He ran into the room, calling orders as he went.
5. They began the battle, one soldier driving the tank while another used the machine gun.
Vi. read iT again
Read the excerpt again. Answer the questions.
1. At the beginning of the excerpt, why do the Germans come out of their tank?
2. Why does he describe the battle as “chaos”?