Unit 6 Then and Now

8.Listen to the conversation.

MY TRIP TO CARTAGENA

BY KANA RILEY

We traveled by airplane to Cartagena.It is a city in Colombia.

A guide told us about the city long ago.

"Who knows who lived here then?"she asked.

"Was it the Spanish?"I asked.

"Yes,"she said,"but the tribe of Caribes lived here first.

The Spanish came in the 1500s and built many of the buildings you see today."

"Then one day in 1586,

the explorer Sir Francis Drake and his men

came to Cartagena from England,"she said.

"They heard that the Spanish had lots of gold.Drake wanted the gold."

"Did he get it?"I asked."Drake went in at night,"she said.

"Did they have lights?"I asked.

"No,"she said."It was different in 1586.

Electric lights weren't invented then.The city didn't have street lamps.

It was very dark.So one of Drake's men lit a small fire to help him see.

The Spanish saw the light.""What happened then?"I asked.

"Some of the men hid the gold.Some started to fight Drake and his men."

"Did Drake get any gold?"I asked.

"Yes,he got some of it.His men took it away by boat.

"But Drake was not the last person to try to take gold from the city.

The Spanish people needed to protect their gold.

So they built this and lots of other strong buidings to protect the city.

We are lucky they did,

because these old buildings are still standing for us to see today!"