From Barrio Boy

Read the sentence from Barrio Boy by Ernesto Galarza.

Any neighborhood courtesy—an exchange of a banana for a red pepper, or the return of a borrowed utensil—was sure to pass through our messenger system.

Which words have a connotative meaning in the sentence?

• borrowed utensil

• Any neighborhood

• messenger system

• red pepper

Read the sentence from Barrio Boy by Ernesto Galarza.

José bought us two cardboard suitcases and one for himself, and an alarm clock like the one we used to try to win in the lottery tent in Mazatlan.

Which word has a connotative meaning in the sentence?

• suitcases

• alarm

• cardboard

• tent

Read the sentence from Barrio Boy by Ernesto Galarza.

People talked to one another on the street in low tones; only drunks and muchachitos mal educados raised their voices, or the arrieros when they shouted to their donkeys.

Which words best signal that "muchachitos mal educados" has a negative connotation?

• raised their voices

• on the street

• their donkeys

• People talked

Read the sentence from Barrio Boy by Ernesto Galarza.

José then explained a remarkable thing about our money. 

Which sentence supports a negative connotation for the word remarkable?

• On the table he laid out the coins, in rows of two for one.

• For one tostón you get one quarter.

• He had already exchanged some of our Mexican currency for dollars.

• Mexican centavos and tostones and pesos were good for nothing in the United States.

Which sentence from Barrio Boy gives the word mother a negative connotation?

• That evening at the meson, José and my mother and I reread Gustavo's letter, the last we had received in Mazatlan.

• You never knew when a compadre or comadre, of your aunt, or your uncle, or your father, or your mother was watching.

• And if the offense was considered serious, the voice would say, "You will see, I am going to tell your mother."

• "My mother sends greetings and says may God give you a good day, and here is an egg."

Which sentence uses the denotation of the word heart?

• The heart pumps blood in the body.

• The main character had a heart of stone.

• He knows the song's words by heart.

• Her heart was in the right place.

Which phrase from Barrio Boy contains a simile?

• disappearing down the drain with a deep, sonorous gargle

• the wooden lid with a large hole that looked like a horse collar

• explore the remarkable inventions of the Americans

• wait there until another pass and money could be obtained

Read the sentence from Barrio Boy by Ernesto Galarza.

I pushed a chair under it and after some instruction from my mother proceeded to create lightning in the room by turning the switch as fast as I could.

The author uses figurative language to

• give human qualities to the light.

• imagine what the chair looks like.

• form a picture of flashing light.

• compare himself to his mother.

Read the sentence from Barrio Boy by Ernesto Galarza.

You never knew when a compadre or comadre of your aunt, or your uncle, or your father, or your mother was watching. For that matter, even people who were not compadres to your family thought they had some sort of rights over you. If you did or said something slightly irregular at the farthest end of the street from your cottage, where your legitimate bosses lived, somebody would be watching and ready to call out: "Mira, que muchachito tan malcriado." And if the offense was considered serious, the voice would say, "You will see, I am going to tell your mother.”

What does the author mean by "legitimate bosses"?

• friends

• work managers

• police officers

• parents

Read the sentence from Barrio Boy by Ernesto Galarza.

"Now, Ernesto, you are the man of the family. You will take care of your mother until we are together in Sacramento.

Which statement best describes the figurative language used in these sentences?

• A simile is used to paint a picture of family life.

• A metaphor is used to paint a picture of responsibility.

• A simile is used to compare Ernesto to a man.

• A metaphor is used to compare a man and his family.