Galería de arte y vida expands your advanced students' knowledge of the Spanish language with a perfect blend of literature, structure, and conversation. Students travel the Spanish-speaking world to read selections from classic and contemporary Hispanic literature, to view masterpieces of painting and sculpture, and to meet the many changing faces that make up Hispanic culture. Galería de arte y vida is composed of twelve cuadros or units. Each cuadro is structured around a universal theme such as El arte, La fantasía, El humorísmo, El indio... For example, in La mujer, students reflect on the influence of women in today's society. Each cuadro includes four major sections: Para preparar la escena provides background material to introduce the unit theme. Para presentar la lectura focuses on the literary content and authors and directs the students' approach to the selection by means of pre-reading activities. Para entablar conversación contains questions that promote conversation and relate personal experience to the readings and cuadro theme. Selección contains a rich variety of authors and literary genres, including short stories, plays, songs, excerpts from novels, plays, and poetry. Para continuar conversando improves students' communicative skills by generating discussion topics related to the central themes of the readings.