Spanish Homework conundrum

[Dmsatdawn]

I’m flummoxed with my Spanish homework (not asking on behalf of a child, I’m 67) - it’s driving me mad now. Next lesson is a week away. Sorry it’s a bit long but not sure what is relevant here. Here’s the scenario:

Woman walks into a seemingly prosperous doctors office at 12.45 - he has 3 secretaries taking calls/bookings/queries etc and remarks on how ordinary the room is - table with magazines for men and women and 4 corner tables each with a lamp.

Patients start to enter - all with (I think) minor complaints (headache/stomach ache broken arm) and she sits near them to listen to their conversations. They are mostly calm but fidgety and pass the time looking at their watches and talking to each other.

Meanwhile the room is filling up with more patients until it’s full.

At 1.30 the doctor appears from his room and a secretary calls their names one by one. Each one goes into the consulting room and emerges a few minutes later, books another appointment and goes home. This goes on all afternoon… until

The secretary notices this lady hasn’t been called and asks her name - she tells her - says she has no appointment and would she like to book one. She says no thanks, I’m not ill. Secretary says we close at 6 and you’ll have to leave. She says that’s ok.

The question is: what was she doing in the doctors office?

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The surgeon was the boy’s mother.
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Reading Comprehension
La cita
La sala de espera de este doctor es muy grande porque trabaja solo. Debe tener mucho éxito porque tiene tres secretarias que contestan sus llamadas, hacen las citas, dan consejos sobre los seguros médicos y organizan su horario. Confieso que la sala de espera es común; tiene una mesa como cualquier otra, con revistas de moda para las mujeres y revistas de deportes para los hombres. Hay una mesita con una lámpara en cada rincón del cuarto. Son las dos menos quince. Tomo asiento y escojo una
de las revistas.
Un hombre amable entra. Él debe tener la primera cita de la tarde.
En seguida, una viejecita llega con su hija y toman asiento cerca de mí. Logro escuchar su conversación. La madre tiene dolor de cabeza; su hija no camina bien. Un hombre con el brazo roto entra; después, un muchacho que tiene problemas con el tobillo, una mujer con dolor
del cuello y de la espalda, y un hombre simpático con dolor del estómago. Algunos están tranquilos, pero la mayoría de ellos están inquietos. Miran sus relojes a menudo; tratan de leer pero no pueden; tratan de hacer conversación para pasar el tiempo. Mientras tanto, la gente llega y llega
y llega. Parece que no va a caber ninguna persona más en la sala pequeña.
Pero vienen más y más hasta llenar todo el cuarto con pacientes.
Son las dos y media. Por fin, el doctor emerge de su oficina. La secretaria empieza a leer los nombres que están en su lista. Al escuchar su nombre, cada persona desaparece en la oficina por un rato, sale del
consultorio, hace otra cita antes de volver a casa. Sigue así toda la tarde.
La secretaria ve que todavía estoy aquí. Tenemos esta conversación:
LA SECRETARIA
¿Cuál es su nombre?
YO
Me llamo Isabel.
LA SECRETARIA
¿Cuál es su apellido?
YO
Pereira. Mi apellido es Pereira.
LA SECRETARIA
Pero su nombre no aparece en la lista.
YO
No tengo una cita hoy. Estoy bien de salud.
LA SECRETARIA
¿Quiere Ud. hacer una cita?
YO
No, estoy bien, gracias.
LA SECRETARIA
La oficina cierra a las seis. Ud. tiene que salir.
YO
Está bien.

She wants to ask where the library is

She’s just there to read a magazine?

This is the Apple translation which doesn't help. Maybe it's the question you are not translating properly?

The appointment

This doctor's waiting room is very large because he works alone. He must be very successful because he has three secretaries who answer his calls, make appointments, give advice on health insurance and organise his schedule. I confess that the waiting room is common; it has a table like any other, with fashion magazines for women and sports magazines for men. There is a small table with a lamp in every corner of the room. It's a quarter to two. I take a seat and choose a

Of the magazines.

A kind man comes in. He must have the first date of the afternoon.

Immediately, an old lady arrives with her daughter and they take a seat near me. I manage to hear their conversation. The mother has a headache; her daughter doesn't walk well. A man with a broken arm enters; then, a boy who has ankle problems, a woman with pain

Of the neck and back, and a nice man with stomach pain. Some are calm, but most of them are restless. They look at their watches often; they try to read but they can't; they try to make conversation to pass the time. Meanwhile, people arrive and arrive

And it arrives. It seems that no one else is going to fit in the small room.

But they come more and more until they fill the whole room with patients.

It's half past two. Finally, the doctor emerges from his office. The secretary begins to read the names that are on her list. Upon hearing his name, each person disappears in the office for a while, leaves the

Office, make another appointment before returning home. It continues like this all afternoon.

The secretary sees that I'm still here. We have this conversation:

THE SECRETARY

What's your name?

I

My name is Isabel.

THE SECRETARY

What's your last name?

I

Pereira My last name is Pereira.

THE SECRETARY

But his name doesn't appear on the list.

I

I don't have an appointment today. I'm in good health.

THE SECRETARY

Do you want to make an appointment?

I

No, I'm fine, thank you.

THE SECRETARY

The office closes at six. You have to go out.

I

It's fine.

At the beginning the waiting room is muy grande but at the end pequeña. I wonder if that’s a clue to something.

Maybe the answer is she didn't go in the doctors office? She was only in the reception area

I have noticed some scenarios when learning Spanish are just plain odd, I listened to a radio phone in on Duolingo about eating pyjamas, confirmed by a Spanish speaker as I was sure I must have translated wrong. Maybe there is something in odd situations that show better comprehension?

In this case, I think my answer would be that it’s no clear why she is there since she has no illness, no appointment and no need to make an appointment. Would love an update on the actual answer.

Are you overthinking this? Is the actual question “what was she doing?” In which case she was reading a magazine and listening to the other people’s conversations 🤷🏻‍♀️ Is it a reading comprehension or a riddle?

I’m realising that, even after 30 years, I can more or less still read and understand Spanish. Well chuffed with myself there !

And otherwise… I have no idea @Dmsatdawn

I understand the Spanish and I don't get it. I don't get why the room is big then small. I don't get why it's half past two but she has to leave because the doctors closes at 6. It's weird.

It switches to first person at the end so the woman having the conversation with the receptionist is the woman who is telling us about the dr's surgery.

So, what was she doing? She was observing the room and the patients and writing down what she saw.

Surely you just say she was sitting in the waiting room watching and listening? I mean, it’s a comprehension question, not a riddle…?

Probably it would be useful to know the question OP has to ask verbatim

So the patients are all making follow up appointments? I think the lady is an insurance fraud investigator, or sent by an employer who thinks the employees are getting fake sick notes.

It's a slightly surreal story. I'm not sure if that's a good idea when learning a foreign language, since you are not sure if you have made a mistake in comprehension even if you have got the ostensible meaning of the words perfectly.

I might ask the teacher (nicely) why they chose this particular story, since it caused confusion. Of course, a possible answer is "Well, when you're speaking a foreign language, you are often in slightly different circumstances to your usual, so adding the surreal element seemed like a good way to check that the students have really understood", which could be fair enough depending on the school, the level of the class, etc.

Her hovercraft is full of eels and therefore she sits in the doctor's office in order to have a quiet place to work on the Spanish language textbook she's writing.

This is what I was thinking... if the question is 'what was she doing' maybe the answer is simply that she was reading magazines, listening to conversations and watching everyone around her? Maybe it's not asking why she was there

Yes, free magazines and some local gossip

Odd text. Nobody says "las dos menos quince". That's not Spanish. We say "las dos menos cuarto". Also the sexism regarding the reading materials is very strange.

Apart from that, I think the woman is the doctor's wife.

She is waiting for the doctor or one if the secretaries to finish work.

She's the doctors uber driver

You aren't the first person confused by this!
Reading comprehension question, need some help : r/Spanish (reddit.com)

Is she the writer? Hence the use of 'yo'?