No-Guitar Blues Reading Comprehension Check

What does Fausto decide to do after seeing "American Bandstand" with Los Lobos?

• Get a guitar and become a famous musician.

• Get a dumset and become a drummer.

• Get tickets to see a Los Lobos show live.

• Ask his parents for his grandfather's guitar.

Tags

8.5.j

What does the word "blues" mean in the title?

• Feelings of desire or hope.

• Feelings of determination or grit.

• Feelings of self-reflecction or growth.

• Feelings of sadness or melancholy.

Tags

8.4.b

Reorder the following events from the story.

• Fausto feels guilty about lying and ends up telling the truth.

• Fausto sees Los Lobos on "American Bandstand" and decides to become a musician.

• Fausto tries to earn money to buy a guitar.

• Fausto gets his grandfather's guitarron, and begins learning to play.

• Fausto meets a dog who likes oranges, decides to get a "finder's fee".

Tags

8.5.j

8.5.a

Which of the following statements best describes a theme of "No-Guitar Blues" by Gary Soto?

• You should do whatever it takes to get money, no matter what, because it is worth it.

• Hard work hardly works, so cheat the system to get ahead as much as you can.

• Lying will make you feel guilty, ruining whatever benefit it got you.

• No good deed goes unpunished; admitting to a mistake will result in punishment.

Tags

8.5.c

How does Fausto end up getting his guitar in the end?

• Through the reward money, which the dog's owners let him keep.

• His grandfather lets him have his guitarron; gives him lessons.

• He steals his guitar with the help of his new, orange-eating dog.

• He finds a missing guitar and decides to keep it, unlike the dog he returned.

Tags

8.5.j

Which of these is the main conflict of the story?

• Fausto dealing with his guilt over his deception.

• Fausto fighting with the dog over an orange.

• Fausto fighting with his parents.

• Fausto fighting the system to make money.

Tags

8.5.a

Match which emotion each passage evokes.

• Surprise

• Fausto's ears perked up. That was the same kind the guy in Los Lobos played. Instead of asking for the guitar, he waited for his mother to offer it to him. And she did, while gathering the dishes from the table.

• Hopeful

• Fausto looked at the bill and knew he was in trouble. Not with these nice folks or with his parents but with himself. How could he have been so deceitful? The dog wasn't lost. It was just having a fun Saturday walking around.

• Determination

• That afternoon Fausto knew his mission in life: to play guitar in his own band; to sweat out his songs and prance around the stage; to make money and dress weird.

• Regret

• "How come you like oranges, dog?"

• Guilt

• Man, I coulda bought me Levi's, he thought. He pictured his twenty dollars being spent to buy church candles. He pictured a priest buying an armful of flowers with his money.

Tags

8.5.a