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From the preface to the Nova Fase: "The first edition of Cronicas Brasileiras was published in 1970 and has been so well received by teachers and students of Portuguese that several reprintings were needed over the years.  The publisher and original editors decided, however, that the advent of many new excellent cronistas in Brazil and various changes in Brazilian life and attitudes during the past twenty years made it advisable to produce a new edition of the book.  The new edition was to retain many of the cronicas that have proved to be especially popular and successful and to add newer ones that more adequately reflect aspects of contemporary Brazilian reality.  A new essay concerning the evolution of the cronica since the late 1960s has been added to complement the piece written by Paulo Ronai for the first edition." In this second edition of Cronicas Brasileiras, one-third of the material is completely new, in most cases new exercises have been added or revised, and all the grammar has been reviewed.  The book assists students of Portuguese in developing a reading, speaking, and writing knowledge of the language as it is used in present-day Brazil.  The collection introduces readers to urban society in modern Brazil, including such aspects of experience as domestic life, the everyday problems that accompany cultural changes, and the complications caused by a convoluted bureaucracy.  The texts are annotated in English so they can be used by students who have completed only an introductory study of grammar. Richard A. Preto-Rodas is professor of romance languages at the University of South Florida, Tampa.  He is the author of Negritude as a Theme in the Poetry of the the Portuguese-Speaking World (UPF, 1971). He is the coauthor with Alfred Hower of the 1971 UPF edition of Cronicas Brasileiras and of Carlos Drummond de Andrade: Quarenta Historinhas e Cinco Poemas (UPF, 1986) and Empire in Transition: The Portuguese World in the Time of Camoes (UPF, 1986).  Alfred Hower, who died in 1992, was professor emeritus of Portuguese and Spanish at the University of Florida for almost thirty years.  Charles A. Perrone is associate professor of Portuguese and Luso-Brazilian literature at the University of Florida.  He is the author of Masters of Contemporary Brazilian Song: MPB 1965-1985 and Letras e Letras da M#65533;sica Popular Brasileira and is the translator/editor of Taxi or Poem of Love in Transit by Adriano Espinola.