Verified answer

en Ingles:

Plot summary

Set in the future, the book chronicles the interactions of five sixteen-year-olds who are taken from state orphanages and placed in a strange building. The building, neither a prison nor a hospital, has no walls, no ceiling, no floor: nothing but endless flights of stairs leading nowhere, with no perceivable boundary. On one landing is a basin of running water that serves as a toilet, sink and drinking fountain; on another, a machine with lights that occasionally produces food. Without prior preparation or introduction, the five must learn to deal with the others' widely-divergent personalities, the lack of privacy, their apparent helplessness, and the strange machine that only feeds them under increasingly exacting circumstances.

One of the protagonists is Peter, a slightly slow boy who tends to follow authority; another, Lola, is a rebellious juvenile delinquent girl. Blossom is a fat, spoiled girl who grew up amidst wealth but who was recently orphaned; Oliver is a handsome, self confident, and arrogant athlete; and Abigail is compassionate but easily misguided and worried about what others think of her. Peter is in awe of Oliver, who resembles a close friend Peter once had.

It becomes clear that the machine - or those behind it - has a sinister agenda. The food consists of pellets of delicious steak, a rare delicacy normally reserved for a privileged few. Although at first produced by the machine on request, soon it is provided only after the performance of certain dance-like behaviors, in response to either a red or a green light. The required ritual behavior becomes more and more elaborate until eventually, the cooperation of all five are required, with strictly observed movements, in order to obtain food. Later the color of the light becomes irrelevant. Finally, the machine stops producing food entirely.

Blossom, who has hated Lola since the start, tells the others things shared in confidence, and the machine once again produces food; then again, when Oliver grabs Abigail's hair. It becomes clear that aggression and antagonism are now key to activating the machine. As a result, the behavior of the five becomes increasingly ugly.

Rejecting domination by the machine, Lola and Peter climb high into the stairs and refuse to dance, act agressive, and of course, eat. Oliver, Abigail, and Blossom continue dancing and acting brutally towards each other - and towards Lola and Peter - in order to obtain food. When it becomes clear that Peter and Lola will starve rather than submit to external control, the 5 teenagers are removed from the building.

An epilogue reveals that the five are subjects in a psychological experiment on conditioned human response, designed to create operatives for the current ruling "administration." It is discovered that the three who succumbed to the conditioning cannot even tell the difference between a green light and a red light. Peter and Lola, who did not succumb, are dubbed 'failures'. Abigail, Oliver, and Blossom, however, are seen as future candidates for such posts as concentration camp directors, and at the close of the book, the sight of a blinking traffic light causes the 3 teenagers to start dancing uncontrollably

en español:

Parcela resumen

Situado en el futuro, el libro narra las interacciones de cinco dieciséis años que se han tomado de los orfanatos y en un extraño edificio. El edificio, ni una prisión ni un hospital, no tiene paredes, ni techo, ni piso: nada más que interminables tramos de escaleras conduce a ninguna parte, sin límites perceptibles. El aterrizaje es una cuenca de agua que sirve como un retrete, lavabo y beber fuente; en otro, una máquina con luces que de vez en cuando produce alimentos. Sin preparación previa o la introducción, los cinco deben aprender a tratar con los demás "personalidades ampliamente divergentes, la falta de intimidad, su aparente impotencia, y la extraña máquina que se alimenta sólo bajo circunstancias cada vez más exigentes.

Uno de los protagonistas es Peter, un muchacho un poco lento que tiende a seguir la autoridad y otro, Lola, es una niña rebelde de delincuentes juveniles. Blossom es una grasa, malcriada niña que creció en medio de la riqueza, pero que recientemente se han quedado huérfanos, Oliver es un guapo, auto confianza, atleta y arrogante, y Abigail es compasivo, pero fácilmente equivocado y preocupado por lo que otros piensan de ella. Peter está en temor de Oliver, que se asemeja a un gran amigo Pedro, una vez tuvo.

Se pone de manifiesto que la máquina - o los que están detrás de él - tiene un programa siniestro. La comida consiste en "pellets" de deliciosa carne, un manjar raro normalmente reservado para unos pocos privilegiados. Aunque a primera producida por la máquina en la solicitud, en breve, es sólo después de la realización de determinados comportamientos como la danza-, en respuesta a un color rojo o una luz verde. El ritual de comportamiento se vuelve

Consulta la fuente.

Un saludo.