The Secret Lion by Alberto Alvaro Rios
Interpretive Questions: Answer all questions in complete sentences. Provide quotes/textual evidence to support your answers.
1.) Why do they boys bury the grinding ball? They hide it from their parents because they're going to take it away and be a buzzkill.
2.) After they lose the grinding ball, why do the boys talk about it in “small words,…Kid words”? (p. 122) They don't know what it is and they haven't seen anything like it.
3.) Why does the narrator tell the story of finding the gold course years before he and Sergio find the grinding ball? They find the golf course and they think it's heaven, but the men take it away because it's a golf course.
4.) Why do the narrator and Sergio stop going to the arroyo after they lose the grinding ball? They don't have any treasures to bury anymore.
5.) Why does the narrator say that he and Sergio buried the grinding ball “because it was perfect”? (p. 126) They qualify something as perfect because it's round.
6.) At the end of the story, why does the narrator say that the grinding ball “was the lion”? (p. 126) Lions are the kings of the jungle and the kids think they are on top of the world when the have it.
7.) What is the narrator referring to when he says that “something happened that we didn’t have a name for, but it was there nonetheless like a lion”? (p. 119) They are maturing and realizing that everything they thought as a kid was wrong.
8.) What does the narrator mean when he says he and Sergio “solved” junior high school? (p. 120) They see girls in class and they are maturing and gossip about people in class.
9.) Why does the narrator say, “Nature seemed to keep pushing us around one way or another, teaching us the same thing every place we ended up”? (p. 122) Perception.
10.) What does the narrator mean when he says, “We learned to be ready for finding the grinding ball”? (p. 126) The grinding ball is the treasure and they are getting ready for dealing with surprising and things going to change in life.
Vocabulary in Context:
1.) Dissect (p. 120)
Quote: "—and we would yell about teachers, and how we loved some of them! like Miss Crevelone, and how we wanted to dissect some of them, making signs of the cross....."
Definition (based on context/in your own words): pick apart
Synonym: anatomize
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): In science class, we were going to dissect a frog, but Nick over there started talking and fooling around so we couldn't do it.
2.) Quartz (p. 121)
Quote: "That's the way it works with little kids, like all the polished quartz, the tons of it we had collected piece by piece over the years.
Definition (based on context/in your own words): mineral
Synonym: rock
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): When I was hiking last weekend, I found a small amount of quartz on the ground.
3.) Sewage (p. 122)
Quote: "But every third or fourth or fifth day, the sewage treatment plant that was, we found out, upstream, would release whatever it was that it released..."
Definition (based on context/in your own words): trash, dirty water
Synonym: poopy water
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): Mommy always says that playing in the sewage is nasty.
4.) Miscalculated (p. 123)
Quote: "We found a thousand ways to explain what happened on those other days, constructing elaborate stories about the neighborhood dogs, and hadn't she, my mother, miscalculated her step before, too?"
Definition (based on context/in your own words): judge incorrectly
Synonym: calculate wrongly
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): I miscalculated the nasty curveball so I swung too early and looked like a fool.
5.) Treacherous (p. 123)
Quote: "We had to read all the books, after all; we knew about bridges and castles and wildtreacherousraging alligatormouth rivers."
Definition (based on context/in your own words): deceptive
Synonym: untrustworthy
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): I had a treacherous climb the other day.
Thinking Map:
Use textual evidence to show examples of when the boys know something or when the boys do not know something. Include 5 examples and support with page numbers and opinion for each column.
1.) Why do they boys bury the grinding ball? They hide it from their parents because they're going to take it away and be a buzzkill.
2.) After they lose the grinding ball, why do the boys talk about it in “small words,…Kid words”? (p. 122) They don't know what it is and they haven't seen anything like it.
3.) Why does the narrator tell the story of finding the gold course years before he and Sergio find the grinding ball? They find the golf course and they think it's heaven, but the men take it away because it's a golf course.
4.) Why do the narrator and Sergio stop going to the arroyo after they lose the grinding ball? They don't have any treasures to bury anymore.
5.) Why does the narrator say that he and Sergio buried the grinding ball “because it was perfect”? (p. 126) They qualify something as perfect because it's round.
6.) At the end of the story, why does the narrator say that the grinding ball “was the lion”? (p. 126) Lions are the kings of the jungle and the kids think they are on top of the world when the have it.
7.) What is the narrator referring to when he says that “something happened that we didn’t have a name for, but it was there nonetheless like a lion”? (p. 119) They are maturing and realizing that everything they thought as a kid was wrong.
8.) What does the narrator mean when he says he and Sergio “solved” junior high school? (p. 120) They see girls in class and they are maturing and gossip about people in class.
9.) Why does the narrator say, “Nature seemed to keep pushing us around one way or another, teaching us the same thing every place we ended up”? (p. 122) Perception.
10.) What does the narrator mean when he says, “We learned to be ready for finding the grinding ball”? (p. 126) The grinding ball is the treasure and they are getting ready for dealing with surprising and things going to change in life.
Vocabulary in Context:
1.) Dissect (p. 120)
Quote: "—and we would yell about teachers, and how we loved some of them! like Miss Crevelone, and how we wanted to dissect some of them, making signs of the cross....."
Definition (based on context/in your own words): pick apart
Synonym: anatomize
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): In science class, we were going to dissect a frog, but Nick over there started talking and fooling around so we couldn't do it.
2.) Quartz (p. 121)
Quote: "That's the way it works with little kids, like all the polished quartz, the tons of it we had collected piece by piece over the years.
Definition (based on context/in your own words): mineral
Synonym: rock
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): When I was hiking last weekend, I found a small amount of quartz on the ground.
3.) Sewage (p. 122)
Quote: "But every third or fourth or fifth day, the sewage treatment plant that was, we found out, upstream, would release whatever it was that it released..."
Definition (based on context/in your own words): trash, dirty water
Synonym: poopy water
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): Mommy always says that playing in the sewage is nasty.
4.) Miscalculated (p. 123)
Quote: "We found a thousand ways to explain what happened on those other days, constructing elaborate stories about the neighborhood dogs, and hadn't she, my mother, miscalculated her step before, too?"
Definition (based on context/in your own words): judge incorrectly
Synonym: calculate wrongly
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): I miscalculated the nasty curveball so I swung too early and looked like a fool.
5.) Treacherous (p. 123)
Quote: "We had to read all the books, after all; we knew about bridges and castles and wildtreacherousraging alligatormouth rivers."
Definition (based on context/in your own words): deceptive
Synonym: untrustworthy
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): I had a treacherous climb the other day.
Thinking Map:
Use textual evidence to show examples of when the boys know something or when the boys do not know something. Include 5 examples and support with page numbers and opinion for each column.
They know that mom will take away the grinding ball.
They know not to ask questions iin school. They know that they are maturing. They know their mom is lying. They know that they have opinions. |
They don't know that they were sitting on a golf course.
They don't know that it's a sewage. They don't know what the grinding ball is. They don't know where the transition was coming from. They don't know that all circles are perfect. |