the secret lion
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 the ball because they look at it as if it's a treasure and they don't want their mother to tell them to tore it away.
2.) After they lose the grinding ball, why do the boys talk about it in “small words,…Kid words”? (p. 122)
They can't describe it because they don't know what it is.
3.) Why does the narrator tell the story of finding the golf course years before he and Sergio find the grinding ball?
They find the gold course and think it's heaven. It prepared them for disappointment.
4.) Why do the narrator and Sergio stop going to the arroyo after they lose the grinding ball?
They're moving on to their next treasure. They're outgrowing it.
5.) Why does the narrator say that he and Sergio buried the grinding ball “because it was perfect”? (p. 126)
They qualified perfection as something that's round. They buried it because it's their treasure.
6.) At the end of the story, why does the narrator say that the grinding ball “was the lion”? (p. 126)
It makes them feel like they're kings. The children are the lions because they feel like the "King of the Jungle".
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 coming to terms with things ands maturing. The secret is that this is just happening without asking for it.
8.) What does the narrator mean when he says he and Sergio “solved” junior high school? (p. 120)
They learn the system. They go to the creek and talk about their feelings. They don't solve JH, but they learn the system.
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)
Nature is telling them that as you mature, you think differently.
10.) What does the narrator mean when he says, “We learned to be ready for finding the grinding ball”? (p. 126)
They learned as they matured to expect surprises, but also accept disappointment.
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, like priests, and we would yell stuff over and over because it felt good, we couldn't explain why, it just felt good and for the first time in our lives there was nobody to tell us we couldn't."
Definition (based on context/in your own words): to take apart and examine
Synonym: dismember
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): In biology class, we dissected a frog.
2.) Quartz (p. 121)
Quote: "That's the way it works with little kids, like all polished quartz, the tons of if we had collected piece by piece over the years."
Definition (based on context/in your own words): a white or colorless miners,
Synonym: mineral
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): My ring stone was quartz.
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, and we would never know exactly what day that was, and a person really couldn't tell right off by looking at the water, not every time, not so a person could get out in time."
Definition (based on context/in your own words): waste water
Synonym: waste
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): Ew, that water has sewage in it.
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): make a mistake
Synonym: mistakes
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): Oops, I miscalculated this problem.
5.) Treacherous (p. 123)
Quote: "
We had read the books,after all;we knew about bridges and castles and wildtreacherous-ragingalligatormouthrivers."
Definition (based on context/in your own words): hazardous
Synonym: dangerous
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): We climed over the bridge that kept us from falling into the treacherous acid water.
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.
know mom will take grinding ball
they know not to ask questions
know they are maturing
know what mom is lying to them
they know how to dissect teachers
they think something round is perfect
think golf course is heaven
think creek but its a sewage
dont know what grinding ball is
dont know where their feelings are coming from
1.) Why do they boys bury the grinding ball?
They hide the ball because they look at it as if it's a treasure and they don't want their mother to tell them to tore it away.
2.) After they lose the grinding ball, why do the boys talk about it in “small words,…Kid words”? (p. 122)
They can't describe it because they don't know what it is.
3.) Why does the narrator tell the story of finding the golf course years before he and Sergio find the grinding ball?
They find the gold course and think it's heaven. It prepared them for disappointment.
4.) Why do the narrator and Sergio stop going to the arroyo after they lose the grinding ball?
They're moving on to their next treasure. They're outgrowing it.
5.) Why does the narrator say that he and Sergio buried the grinding ball “because it was perfect”? (p. 126)
They qualified perfection as something that's round. They buried it because it's their treasure.
6.) At the end of the story, why does the narrator say that the grinding ball “was the lion”? (p. 126)
It makes them feel like they're kings. The children are the lions because they feel like the "King of the Jungle".
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 coming to terms with things ands maturing. The secret is that this is just happening without asking for it.
8.) What does the narrator mean when he says he and Sergio “solved” junior high school? (p. 120)
They learn the system. They go to the creek and talk about their feelings. They don't solve JH, but they learn the system.
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)
Nature is telling them that as you mature, you think differently.
10.) What does the narrator mean when he says, “We learned to be ready for finding the grinding ball”? (p. 126)
They learned as they matured to expect surprises, but also accept disappointment.
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, like priests, and we would yell stuff over and over because it felt good, we couldn't explain why, it just felt good and for the first time in our lives there was nobody to tell us we couldn't."
Definition (based on context/in your own words): to take apart and examine
Synonym: dismember
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): In biology class, we dissected a frog.
2.) Quartz (p. 121)
Quote: "That's the way it works with little kids, like all polished quartz, the tons of if we had collected piece by piece over the years."
Definition (based on context/in your own words): a white or colorless miners,
Synonym: mineral
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): My ring stone was quartz.
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, and we would never know exactly what day that was, and a person really couldn't tell right off by looking at the water, not every time, not so a person could get out in time."
Definition (based on context/in your own words): waste water
Synonym: waste
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): Ew, that water has sewage in it.
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): make a mistake
Synonym: mistakes
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): Oops, I miscalculated this problem.
5.) Treacherous (p. 123)
Quote: "
We had read the books,after all;we knew about bridges and castles and wildtreacherous-ragingalligatormouthrivers."
Definition (based on context/in your own words): hazardous
Synonym: dangerous
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): We climed over the bridge that kept us from falling into the treacherous acid water.
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.
know mom will take grinding ball
they know not to ask questions
know they are maturing
know what mom is lying to them
they know how to dissect teachers
they think something round is perfect
think golf course is heaven
think creek but its a sewage
dont know what grinding ball is
dont know where their feelings are coming from