I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family,
though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. He got a good
estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at York, from whence he
had married my mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that
country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of
words in England, we are now called - nay we call ourselves and write our name - Crusoe;
and so my companions always called me.
I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieutenant-colonel to an English regiment of foot
in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart, and was killed at the
battle near Dunkirk against the Spaniards. What became of my second brother I never
knew, any more than my father or mother knew what became of me.
Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head began to be filled very
early with rambling thoughts. My father, who was very ancient, had given me a competent
share of learning, as far as house-education and a country free school generally go, and
designed me for the law; but I would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and my
inclination to this led me so strongly against the will, nay, the commands of my father, and
against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother and other friends, that there seemed
to be something fatal in that propensity of nature, tending directly to the life of misery which
was to befall me.
My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he
foresaw was my design. He called me one morning into his chamber, where he was confined
by the gout, and expostulated very warmly with me upon this subject. He asked me
what reasons, more than a mere wandering inclination, I had for leaving father's house and my
native country, where I might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune
by application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure. He told me it was
men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring, superior fortunes on the other, who went
abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings
of a nature out of the common road; that these things were all either too far above me or too
far below me; that mine was the middle state, or what might be called the upper station of
low life, which he had found, by long experience, was the best state in the world, the
most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labour and
sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury,
ambition, and envy of the upper part of mankind. He told me I might judge of the
happiness of this state by this one thing - viz. that this was the state of life which all other people
envied; that kings have frequently lamented the miserable consequence of being born to
great things, and wished they had been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between
the mean and the great; that the wise man gave his testimony to this, as the standard of
felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty nor riches.
Contesta las siguientes preguntas de comprensión
Choose the best answer, a), b) or c)
1. Robinson Crusoe got his name from a mixture of
2. Robinson Crusoe had two brothers who
3. When Crusoe's father learned that he wanted to travel and see the world he
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