Day 16: The Bridge Paid For Twice
In the newsroom of a daily paper in Hermosillo, Sonora, Alfredo (A), the veteran editor, goes over the first investigation by his son Fabián (B), a young reporter, into a footbridge built by the city.
How to study this lesson 3 steps
- Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
- Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a Spanish word to see what it means.
- Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native Spanish, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.
Dialogue
Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.
Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning
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A
Lo leí dos veces, Fabián: está muy bien escrito, y mañana no se publica.
I've read it twice, Fabián: it's very well written, and it's not running tomorrow.
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B
¿Cómo que no? Tengo dos facturas del mismo puente peatonal, pagadas a la misma constructora.
What do you mean, no? I've got two invoices for the same footbridge, paid to the same construction firm.
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A
Y una sola fuente, a la que corrieron de Obras Públicas hace un mes, lo cual huele a venganza.
And a single source, who was fired from Public Works a month ago, which smells of revenge.
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B
¿Y qué? La constructora, cuyo dueño es cuñado del director de Obras, cobró 4.2 millones dos veces.
So what? The construction firm, whose owner is the Public Works director's brother-in-law, got paid 4.2 million twice.
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A
Las facturas no mienten, plebe, pero las fuentes sí, y la demanda te llega a ti.
Invoices don't lie, kid, but sources do, and the lawsuit lands on you.
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B
Tú a mi edad publicaste lo del basurero con una llamada anónima, y en el gremio es leyenda.
At my age you ran the garbage dump story on one anonymous phone call, and in the trade it's a legend.
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A
Lo que no cuentan es que me demandaron por daño moral, lo cual nos costó la camioneta.
What they don't tell you is that I got sued for defamation, which cost us the pickup.
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B
Hasta el contrato lo dice: “Quien resultare responsable de pagos duplicados deberá reintegrarlos”. Y nadie ha devuelto un peso.
Even the contract says so: “Whosoever shall be found responsible for duplicate payments must repay them.” And nobody's returned a single peso.
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A
Dice “quien resultare”, no “quien diga tu fuente”. Y la segunda fuente está en nuestra hemeroteca: el ayuntamiento nos pagó un desplegado por cada inauguración.
It says “whosoever shall be found,” not “whoever your source says.” And the second source is in our own archive: the city paid us for an ad every time it opened the bridge.
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B
¿Lo inauguraron dos veces y nosotros cobramos los dos desplegados? Ahora sí, apá, a ver quién es el valiente.
They opened it twice and we got paid for both ads? OK then, Dad, let's see who's brave now.
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