Revising and Editing House on Mango Street

PART A: Which of the following statements identifies the theme of the text? (RL.7.2)

• People should always appreciate what they have.

• High expectations may lead to over confidence.

• Being dishonest can lead to negative consequences.

• People do not always get what they hope for.

PART B: Which two quotes develop the theme from Part A? (RL.7.1)

• “I knew then I had to have a house. One I could point to. The house on Mango Street isn’t it. For the time being, Mama said. Temporary, said Papa. But I know how those things go.”

• By the time we got to Mango Street we were six—Mama, Papa, Carlos, Kiki, my sister Nenny and me.

• The house on Mango Street is ours and we don‘t have to pay rent to anybody or share the yard with the people downstairs or be careful not to make too much noise and there isn’t a landlord banging on the ceiling. But even so it’s not the house we’d thought we’d get.

• We were using the washroom next door and carrying water over in empty milk gallons.

• 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.

How do the narrator’s actions develop the story’s theme? (RL.7.2)

• The narrator’s desire to live in a rich neighborhood makes her mistreat her family.

• The narrator’s negative descriptions about her family’s new move illustrate how the house on Mango Street did not meet her expectations.

• The narrator’s negative description of her conversation with the nun show how she has anxiety about meeting new people and desires to avoid social encounters.

• The narrator’s description of her new home shows how satisfied she is to be away from the house with the broken water pipes.

What is most likely the meaning of the personification “windows so small you’d think they were holding their breath” as it is used in paragraph 5? (RL.7.4/L7.5)

• The window glass was shattered into many pieces.

• The windows need to be replaced because of the spray paint.

• The windows are not the appropriate size for the size of the house.

• The windows could not breathe due to allergies.

Read the following statement.

But the house on Mango Street is not the way they told it at all. It’s small and red with tight little steps in front and windows so small you’d think they were holding their breath.

How does the figurative language in the statement help the reader understand the narrator’s feelings about her experience with the new house? (RL 7.4)

• It stresses how shameful she feels about the house because she thought that the new house would be much more than the old one they left.

• It reveals that the narrator does not enjoy moving, but she eventually learns to love the new places her family moves to.

• It emphasizes how the narrator’s embarrassment causes her to avoid telling others that she lives in that house.

• It shows how the narrator worries too much about people knowing where she lives because she is embarrassed by the color of it.

PART A: Which of the following best describes how the narrator responds to the house? (RL.7.3)

• The narrator is excited to have a new home and knows that it is the best place to live even though it is on the other side of town.

• The narrator is disappointed that the new house does not meet her friends’ expectations, but she is glad that they did not react like the nun did on Loomis.

• The narrator is frustrated that the house is not what she anticipated, so she uses only negative descriptions in describing the house on Mango.

• The narrator is accepting of the new house because it is somewhat better than the previous one, but she feels they should not have left the house on Loomis.

PART B: Which quote from the text best supports the answer to Part A? (RL.7.1)

• “I knew then I had to have a house. One I could point to. The house on Mango Street isn’t it. For the time being, Mama said. Temporary, said Papa. But I know how those things go.”

• ”We didn’t always live on Mango Street. Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that we lived on Keeler. Before Keeler it was Paulina, and before that I can’t remember. But what I remember most is moving a lot.”

• ”Our parents always told us that one day we would move into a house, a real house that would be ours for always so we wouldn’t have to move each year."

• ”This was the house Papa talked about when he held a lottery ticket and this was the house Mama dreamed up in the stories she told us before we went to bed.”

Based on the following paragraphs, what can the readers infer about the Nun? (RL.7.1)

...Once when we were living on Loomis, a nun from my school passed by and saw me playing out front. 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.“Where do you live?”she asked.“There,” I said pointing up to the third floor.“You live THERE?”There. I had to look to where she pointed—the third floor, the paint peeling, wooden bars Papa had nailed on the windows so we wouldn’t fall out. You live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there. I nodded.

• The reader can infer that the nun is impressed that she lives there.

• The reader can infer that the the nun is concerned that she lives there.

• The reader can infer that the nun is not judging her for living there.

• The reader can infer that the nun is shocked that she lives there.

Which of the following best summarizes paragraph 3? (RL.7.2)

We had to leave the flat on Loomis quick. The water pipes broke and the landlord wouldn’t fix them. We were using the washroom next door and carrying water over in empty milk gallons.That’s why Mama and Papa looked for a house, and that’s why we moved into the house on Mango Street, far away, on the other side of town.

• We had to leave the flat on Loomis quick. The water pipes broke and the landlord wouldn’t fix them. We were using the washroom next door and carrying water over in empty milk gallons.That’s why Mama and Papa looked for a house, and that’s why we moved into the house on Mango Street, far away, on the other side of town.

• The narrator’s family had to look for a new home due to problems with the water pipes at the house on Loomis.

• The house on Mango Street is more than the narrator expected. It is small and red with a garage. It is a house and not just a third floor apartment like on Loomis.

• The family had to carry water in jugs to the laundromat to wash clothes until they could afford to buy a better house.

Based on the following lines from the text, what can the reader infer about the narrator’s character? (RL7.1)

The house on Mango Street is ours and we don‘t have to pay rent to anybody or share the yard with the people downstairs or be careful not to make too much noise and there isn’t a landlord banging on the ceiling. But even so it’s not the house we’d thought we’d get.

• The narrator wants to take pride in where she lives.

• The narrator believes that bigger houses are better.

• The narrator believes small windows make any house look less attractive.

• The narrator and her family own Mango Street.