Spanish language Q&A Forum

I'm assuming that before using this form the paragraph would start out using a tense that would ground the event in the past.  Thus I'm assuming you would not start out saying "Martina se llevará una gran sorpresa al ver de nuevo a su madre".  You'd instead start out with saying ""Martina pensaba que su madre había fallecido" or something else that signals we're talking about the past.  Is this right?

Contar bringing you to encontrar table is confusing me, as it shows yo encuentro instead of cuento which is the conjugation for contar

"hacen demostraciones en directo e imparten cursos, lo que atrae la curiosidad"

Hacer demostraciones y impartir cursos son dos cosas, y las dos cosas serían referidas de las que atrae curiosidad, no? Porque habla de 2 cosas y luego tienes que usar el singular? Gracias!

"El hemisferio meridional" is an accepted (though perhaps less common) equivalent of "southern hemisphere." Perhaps it could be added as a correct answer. 

"Yo visité unos cuarentas países cuando era joven" (taken from a test, correct answer), pero "unos ochenta minutos". 

I would have expected that "unos cuarenta países" is correct. Why isn't it?

I know that letters in Spanish are feminine, but I notice in this reading that the acronym DNI is proceeded by a masculine article.  Is that because the word "documento" is masculine?  Or are all acronyms masculine in Spanish?