Homework / test English to Spanish Art/Literary Poetry & Literature guidebook

As we reach Ana’s back door there is a cry of: “İFuego!” Flames are licking around the base of the agaves, just a few metres from our boundary. Shrubs and dried plants, shrivelled into tinder after a scorching summer, are everywhere on this abandoned plot.

I sprint back, heart pounding. The only thing I can do is use buckets, filled from the tap at the base of our rainwater tank. At least last night’s 7 mm of rain, collected across our various flat roofs, will have put something into this tank. I race round the house side, slopping water, but the fire is beyond a steep bank topped with a tall wire fence. The fence is one I’d put up earlier in the year to stop the incursions of the neighbours’ new dog, Combate, a huge Alsatian; friendly, but a nuisance.

Already my mouth is dry, drier than I ever remember it being. The flow from the rainwater tap is slow. Meanwhile, I’m unclipping the fence to get access to the fire. Along one side of our house is a huge woodpile. Then there are the thick wooden poles of the terraces. I HAVE VISIONS OF THE WHOLE LOT GOING UP. The first bucketful of water launched onto the flames brings forth a great spew of steam and smoke. I slither down the bank, run round the house, collect another bucketful, pound back, scramble up the bank, try to assess where I can most effectively throw the water, get scarred by agave blades, eyes stung by smoke. Repeat many times.

¿A QUÉ SE REFIERE CON 'THE WHOLE LOT GOING UP'?