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?
- The boy bury the grinding ball because they don't want adults or their parents to find it and take it away from them, "We knew because of a lot of things, that if we were going to take this and show it to anybody, this discovery, this best thing, was going to be taken away from us." (p. 121)
2.) After they lose the grinding ball, why do the boys talk about it in “small words,…Kid words”? (p. 122)
- The boys talk about the ball in small words because they don't know what it is, so they are just describing the ball as best as they could in kid words, "What were were really saying but didn't know the words, was how much that ball was like that place, that whole arroyo: couldn't tell anybody about it, didn't understand what it was, and didn't have a name for it." (p. 122)
3.) Why does the narrator tell the story of finding the golf course years before he and Sergio find the grinding ball?
- When the golf men show up and take away the children's heaven, the author tells this before the children find the grinding ball because it is the children's experience that they had something taken away from them already, which is why they would hide the grinding ball so it would not be taken away, "Something got taken away from us that moment. Heaven." (p. 126)
4.) Why do the narrator and Sergio stop going to the arroyo after they lose the grinding ball?
- They stop going to the arroyo after they lose the grinding the ball because they are outgrowing it and already had all the fun they had in the arroyo. So they try to find other places to do fun things, "We stopped going to the arroyo after not finding the thing, the same way we had stopped going there years earlier and headed for the mountains." (p. 122)
5.) Why does the narrator say that he and Sergio buried the grinding ball “because it was perfect”? (p. 126)
- The children qualify something as perfect if it was round, so since the ball was round, they buried it because it is something precious to them and they don't want it to be taken away, "we loved it, and when we buried it we knew what would happen." (p. 126)
6.) At the end of the story, why does the narrator say that the grinding ball “was the lion”? (p. 126)
- The narrator says that the grinding ball was the lion because it makes the children feel what the lion represents, like pride or being the king, "We didn't tell my mother, but together it was all we talked about, till we forgot. It was the lion." (p. 126)
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)
- The narrator refers to the fact that the children are maturing. The children are realizing the arroyo is the sewer, the cup holder is a hole, or that they realized that they were at a golf course. They are growing up from children and starting to transition to being older, "We grew up a little bit, and couldn't go backward. We learned." (p. 126)
8.) What does the narrator mean when he says he and Sergio “solved” junior high school? (p. 120)
- The narrator means when they "solved" junior high school because they learned that they get in trouble if they ask a question, or that they are feeling differently about girls, that they "solved" it by saying or thinking whatever they wanted to do at school at the creek so they won't get in trouble, "At the very very top of our growing lungs, what we would do down there was shout every dirty word we could thing of, in every combination we could come up with, and we would yell about girls, and all the things we wanted to do with them, as loud as we could." (p. 120)
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)
- The narrator says that because the children's perception of perfect changes as they grow older. While they were little, round was their idea of perfect, but it changed as they grew older and wasn't just round, "Nature seemed to keep pushing us around one way or another, teaching us the same thing every place we ended up. Nature's gang was tough that way, teaching us stuff." (p. 122)
10.) What does the narrator mean when he says, “We learned to be ready for finding the grinding ball”? (p. 126)
- The narrator means that the children are beginning to learn about being ready for surprises like the grinding ball, "We learned to be ready for finding the grinding ball. WE loved it, and when we buried it we knew what would happen." (p .126)
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 this 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." (p. 120)
Definition (based on context/in your own words): to cut up a body or plant to study it
Synonym: dismember
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): We dissected a cow's eye in a field trip, which was disgusting.
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." (p. 121)
Definition (based on context/in your own words): a very common white/clear-colored mineral made up of mostly silica
Synonym: watch crystal, watch glass
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): The class learned today the components of quartz in science.
3.) Sewage (p. 122)
Quote: "But every third orfourth orfifth day, thesewage 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." (p. 122)
Definition (based on context/in your own words): water carried waste that is to be disposed of
Synonym: garbage, trash
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word):The little boy tripped and fell into the puddle of sewage.
4.) Miscalculated (p. 123)
Quote: "We found a thousand ways to explain what happened on those other days, constructing elaborate stories about neighborhood dogs, and hadn't she, my mother, miscalculated her step before, too?." (p. 123)
Definition (based on context/in your own words): to calculate wrongly
Synonym: misjudge, overestimate, underestimate
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): She miscalculated the amount of change that was supposed to be given.
5.) Treacherous (p. 123)
Quote: "We had read the books, after all; we knew about bridges and castles and wild treacherous-raging alligator mouth rivers." (p. 123)
Definition (based on context/in your own words): guilty of, involving deception
Synonym: betrayal, disloyal,traitorous
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word):
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?
- The boy bury the grinding ball because they don't want adults or their parents to find it and take it away from them, "We knew because of a lot of things, that if we were going to take this and show it to anybody, this discovery, this best thing, was going to be taken away from us." (p. 121)
2.) After they lose the grinding ball, why do the boys talk about it in “small words,…Kid words”? (p. 122)
- The boys talk about the ball in small words because they don't know what it is, so they are just describing the ball as best as they could in kid words, "What were were really saying but didn't know the words, was how much that ball was like that place, that whole arroyo: couldn't tell anybody about it, didn't understand what it was, and didn't have a name for it." (p. 122)
3.) Why does the narrator tell the story of finding the golf course years before he and Sergio find the grinding ball?
- When the golf men show up and take away the children's heaven, the author tells this before the children find the grinding ball because it is the children's experience that they had something taken away from them already, which is why they would hide the grinding ball so it would not be taken away, "Something got taken away from us that moment. Heaven." (p. 126)
4.) Why do the narrator and Sergio stop going to the arroyo after they lose the grinding ball?
- They stop going to the arroyo after they lose the grinding the ball because they are outgrowing it and already had all the fun they had in the arroyo. So they try to find other places to do fun things, "We stopped going to the arroyo after not finding the thing, the same way we had stopped going there years earlier and headed for the mountains." (p. 122)
5.) Why does the narrator say that he and Sergio buried the grinding ball “because it was perfect”? (p. 126)
- The children qualify something as perfect if it was round, so since the ball was round, they buried it because it is something precious to them and they don't want it to be taken away, "we loved it, and when we buried it we knew what would happen." (p. 126)
6.) At the end of the story, why does the narrator say that the grinding ball “was the lion”? (p. 126)
- The narrator says that the grinding ball was the lion because it makes the children feel what the lion represents, like pride or being the king, "We didn't tell my mother, but together it was all we talked about, till we forgot. It was the lion." (p. 126)
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)
- The narrator refers to the fact that the children are maturing. The children are realizing the arroyo is the sewer, the cup holder is a hole, or that they realized that they were at a golf course. They are growing up from children and starting to transition to being older, "We grew up a little bit, and couldn't go backward. We learned." (p. 126)
8.) What does the narrator mean when he says he and Sergio “solved” junior high school? (p. 120)
- The narrator means when they "solved" junior high school because they learned that they get in trouble if they ask a question, or that they are feeling differently about girls, that they "solved" it by saying or thinking whatever they wanted to do at school at the creek so they won't get in trouble, "At the very very top of our growing lungs, what we would do down there was shout every dirty word we could thing of, in every combination we could come up with, and we would yell about girls, and all the things we wanted to do with them, as loud as we could." (p. 120)
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)
- The narrator says that because the children's perception of perfect changes as they grow older. While they were little, round was their idea of perfect, but it changed as they grew older and wasn't just round, "Nature seemed to keep pushing us around one way or another, teaching us the same thing every place we ended up. Nature's gang was tough that way, teaching us stuff." (p. 122)
10.) What does the narrator mean when he says, “We learned to be ready for finding the grinding ball”? (p. 126)
- The narrator means that the children are beginning to learn about being ready for surprises like the grinding ball, "We learned to be ready for finding the grinding ball. WE loved it, and when we buried it we knew what would happen." (p .126)
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 this 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." (p. 120)
Definition (based on context/in your own words): to cut up a body or plant to study it
Synonym: dismember
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): We dissected a cow's eye in a field trip, which was disgusting.
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." (p. 121)
Definition (based on context/in your own words): a very common white/clear-colored mineral made up of mostly silica
Synonym: watch crystal, watch glass
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): The class learned today the components of quartz in science.
3.) Sewage (p. 122)
Quote: "But every third orfourth orfifth day, thesewage 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." (p. 122)
Definition (based on context/in your own words): water carried waste that is to be disposed of
Synonym: garbage, trash
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word):The little boy tripped and fell into the puddle of sewage.
4.) Miscalculated (p. 123)
Quote: "We found a thousand ways to explain what happened on those other days, constructing elaborate stories about neighborhood dogs, and hadn't she, my mother, miscalculated her step before, too?." (p. 123)
Definition (based on context/in your own words): to calculate wrongly
Synonym: misjudge, overestimate, underestimate
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word): She miscalculated the amount of change that was supposed to be given.
5.) Treacherous (p. 123)
Quote: "We had read the books, after all; we knew about bridges and castles and wild treacherous-raging alligator mouth rivers." (p. 123)
Definition (based on context/in your own words): guilty of, involving deception
Synonym: betrayal, disloyal,traitorous
Sentence (underline the vocabulary word):
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.
Things they Know
- They know that their mom will take away the grinding ball - They know not to ask questions in school - They know that they are starting to see girls differently - They know that their mom is hiding something from them about what is behind the hills and mountains - They know what teachers they like and what teachers they dislike |
Things they Don't Know
- They don't know that they were on a golf course - They don't know that not everything that is round is perfect - They don't know that the creek is actually a sewage - They don't know what the grinding ball is - They don't know what the feelings or transitional feelings are coming from |