Unit 1 – Curious Places: Reading Text

Convent of the Monjas Trinitarias Descalzas, Madrid

This historic convent is in the Huertas district in Madrid. Today, Huertas is popular for its
restaurants and pubs. In the past, however, famous writers like Lope de Vega, Quevedo,
Góngora and Cervantes used to live here. One of them, Miguel de Cervantes, had a special
connection to the Trinitarian convent.
In 1575, pirates captured Cervantes. After five years in captivity, Trinitarian nuns helped Cervantes’
family free him. Cervantes was very thankful to the Trinitarian nuns for their help, and before his
death in 1616, he asked them to bury him in the convent. The nuns agreed, but unfortunately, they
didn’t record the location of his body. It remained a mystery for centuries because experts didn’t
have the technology to search for Cervantes’ body without destroying the convent.
But that has changed. Thanks to special equipment from crime scene investigations, it is now
possible to locate bones underground without causing damage to existing buildings. So in 2014,
experts began looking for Cervantes’ body under the convent floor. They used cameras, 3D
scanners and radar. Then, in March 2015 they located the bodies of 15 people, including Cervantes
and his wife, Catalina de Salazar. Historical knowledge and pieces of clothing helped them identify
the bones.
Cervantes’ body will remain in the convent as he requested. But finally, 400 years after his death, it
will be possible for people to visit and show respect to one of the greatest writers in the history of
literature.
Unit 1 – Curious Places: Reading Text

Rob’s Place

Hello from New York City, USA! I’m here for a week with my parents and I’m having a great time.
People used to say, “The streets of America are paved with gold.” They meant it was easy to earn
money in the USA. Well, they were wrong about that. But according to one man, there actually is
gold on the streets of New York!
The man’s name is Raffi Stepanian. We saw him on a tour of 47th Street, a famous diamond
district. It was a busy time of day and there was a traffic jam. Stepanian was on his hands and knees
in the street, looking for something on the pavement. I wanted to help him, but according to the tour
guide, Stepanian didn’t need help. He was on the ground because there is gold there!
How did Stepanian discover this amazing secret? He used to work in the diamond industry. One
day, he found tiny pieces of gold on the floor at work. The gold was from jewellery workers’
clothes. Stepanian realised there must be gold from their clothes on the streets, too, so he started
looking for it.
Today he finds hundreds of dollars’ worth of gold, diamonds and other precious stones in the streets
and alleys of New York. He lives from the money he gets for these items. Now that’s an amazing
way to earn money!