Barrio Boy Comprehension Questions

What is most closely the meaning of formidable as it is used in the following paragraph?

Then Miss Hopley did a formidable thing. She stood up. Had she been standing when we entered she would have seemed tall. But rising from her chair she soared. And what she carried up and up with her was a buxom superstructure, firm shoulders, a straight sharp nose, full cheeks slightly molded by a curved line along the nostrils, thin lips that moved like steel springs, and a high forehead topped by hair gathered in a bun. Miss Hopley was not a giant in body but when she mobilized it to a standing position she seemed a match for giants. I decided I liked her.

• frightening

• impressive

• unexpected

• aggressive

Tags

CCSS.RI.6.4

CCSS.RI.7.4

CCSS.RI.8.4

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

"Almost tiptoeing across the office, I maneuvered myself to keep my mother between me and the gringo lady."

The author most likely included the following sentence to ___________.

• show that Miss Hopley, the gringo lady, is tall and frightening in appearance

• offer readers an example of the narrator’s quick reflexes

• remind the reader that the narrator is young and nervous

• to suggest to the reader the narrator’s fear of authority

Tags

CCSS.RI.7.1

CCSS.RI.8.1

CCSS.RL.6.1

CCSS.RL.7.1

CCSS.RL.7.2

Miss Ryan took me to a seat at the front of the room, into which I shrank—the better to survey her. She was, to skinny, somewhat runty me, of a withering height when she patrolled the class. And when I least expected it, there she was, crouching by my desk, her blond radiant face level with mine, her voice patiently maneuvering me over the awful idiocies of the English language.

What information mainly does the following passage convey (paragraph 12)?

• The narrator is anxious in Miss Ryan’s presence.

• Miss Ryan thinks the narrator is an exceptional student.

• Miss Ryan is more than six feet tall.

• The narrator dislikes Miss Ryan trying to explain the “idiocies” of English.

Tags

CCSS.RI.6.1

CCSS.RI.7.1

CCSS.RL.7.1

CCSS.RL.7.2

CCSS.RL.8.1

At Lincoln, making us into Americans did not mean scrubbing away what made us originally foreign. The teachers called us as our parents did, or as close as they could pronounce our names in Spanish or Japanese. No one was ever scolded or punished for speaking in his native tongue on the playground. Matti told the class about his mother’s down quilt, which she had made in Italy with the fine feathers of a thousand geese. Encarnación acted out how boys learned to fish in the Philippines. I astounded the third grade with the story of my travels on a stagecoach, which nobody else in the class had seen except in the museum at Sutter’s Fort. After a visit to the Crocker Art Gallery and its collection of heroic paintings of the golden age of California, someone showed a silk scroll with a Chinese painting. Miss Hopley herself had a way of expressing wonder over these matters before a class, her eyes wide open until they popped slightly. It was easy for me to feel that becoming a proud American, as she said we should, did not mean feeling ashamed of being a Mexican.

Which of the following selections best identifies the main idea of the following paragraph (paragraph 17)?

• The Lincoln School encouraged each of the students to embrace his or her individual identity.

• Students in classes at Lincoln School were allowed to speak in their native tongue

• There were quite a few field trips at the Lincoln School to museums and art galleries.

• The students’ different cultures were fascinating to Miss Hopley.

Tags

CCSS.RI.6.2

CCSS.RI.7.2

CCSS.RL.6.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

CCSS.RL.8.2

The two of us walked south on Fifth Street one morning to the corner of Q Street and turned right. Half of the block was occupied by the Lincoln School. It was a three-story wooden building, with two wings that gave it the shape of a double-T connected by a central hall. It was a new building, painted yellow, with a shingled roof that was not like the red tile of the school in Mazatlán. I noticed other differences, none of them very reassuring.

Which of the following inferences about the narrator is best supported by the first paragraph of the excerpt?

• The narrator and his mother had to walk a long way to get to the school.

• The narrator has just started noticing the architecture of the United States.

• The narrator is apprehensive at first about his new school due to its unfamiliarity.

• The narrator is excited by the look of the school, with its new, yellow building.

Tags

CCSS.RI.7.1

CCSS.RL.6.2

CCSS.RL.7.1

CCSS.RL.7.2

CCSS.RL.8.1

When we came to know each other better, I tried interrupting to tell Miss Ryan how we said it in Spanish. It didn’t work.

Which is most likely the narrator’s reason for interrupting Miss Ryan in the following passage?

• The narrator would like to teach Miss Ryan to speak Spanish.

• The narrator prefers Spanish words to English, and would like to show Miss Ryan why.

• The narrator wants to impress Miss Ryan with words he knows that she does not.

• Miss Ryan is overwhelming the narrator with so many new English words.

Tags

CCSS.RL.5.6

CCSS.RL.6.6

CCSS.RL.7.6

CCSS.RL.8.6