The House on Mango Street

The description of the house in paragraph 1 adds to the development of the text mainly by ____________________.

• building up to the excitement when the narrator’s family buys and is able to move into this house

• reminding the narrator of everything that the house on Mango Street doesn’t have

• explaining why the narrator puts so much faith in her parents

• pointing out that the narrator is satisfied with her life despite where she lives

What mainly does the following passage reveal (paragraph 9)?

"In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting. It is like the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing."

• Esperanza thinks she would be happier if her life and identity were different.

• All of her siblings think that Esperanza was given the most beautiful name in the family.

• Esperanza’s father is not fit to be a parent.

• Esperanza was given a unique name because her parents did not want her to be tied down by her past.

Which of the following best explains Esperanza’s feelings about her great-grandparents’ courtship?

• She dreams that she will fall in love in a similar manner one day.

• She thinks that it was necessary and wise to tone down her great-grandmother’s wildness.

• She thinks that marrying her great-grandfather kept her great-grandmother from reaching her potential.

• She believes that her great-grandmother was unlucky in love because she was born in the year of the horse, like her.

What is most closely the suggested meaning of the image women sit their sadness on an elbow in the passage below (paragraph 12)?

"And the story goes she never forgave him. She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best with what she got or was she sorry because she couldn't be all the things she wanted to be."

• Women live most of their lives in physical pain.

• Women don’t move around much when they get older.

• Women store all their feelings of sadness in their elbows in order to cope with the pain.

• Women get trapped as housewives, dreaming of a better life outside.

Which of the following inferences is best supported by the text?

• The house on Mango Street is the worst home that the family has lived in.

• Esperanza has been disappointed by her parents before.

• The nun that taught at Esperanza’s school was pleased to hear that Esperanza had moved into the house on Mango Street.

• Most of Esperanza’s classmates lived in big, fancy houses.

What quote proves that Esperanza has been disappointed by her parents before?

• “Our house would be white with trees around it, a great big yard and grass growing without a fence.”

• “The laundromat downstairs had been boarded up because it had been robbed two days before and the owner had painted on the wood YES WE'RE OPEN so as not to lose business.”

• “The way she said it made me feel like nothing.”

• "For the time being, Mama says. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go.

Which of the following conclusions about the narrator is best supported by the excerpt?

• Esperanza feels like an outcast within her family.

• Esperanza does not know why she was given her name.

• Esperanza feels no attachment to her Mexican heritage.

• Esperanza believes that the most important quality for girls and women is obedience.

Match each image or element from the story with what it represents:

• How unrealistic their dream house is

• Year of the Horse myth

• Hope that Esperanza can power through to

• Nenny

• Bad luck or omen for women

• lottery ticket

• Escape that Esperanza does not have

• four skinny trees

• How unsafe Esperanza’s home life is

• boarded-up laundromat