Summer of the Mariposas

Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.

Prologue-Chapter 3

Reading Check

1. What creatures appeared after the long drought?

2. What interrupts the Garza sisters’ peaceful summer swim?

3. Who does Odilia try to save from drowning?

4. Who does Odilia meet down by the river on the morning her sisters get ready to drive to Mexico?

5. Who lives near El Sacrificio, Mexico, and why do the girls want to go there?

6. What reasons do the girls have for not going to the authorities? (Name two)

Multiple Choice

1. In the Prologue, McCall writes, “There [the river] pooled, relaxed, cleansed itself, and bubbled into laughter at the sheer joy of having us in its midst.” This sentence is an example of what kind of figurative language?

A) Verbal irony

B) Characterization

C) Simile

D) Personification

2. Based on Odilia’s conversation with La Llorona in Chapter 3, which of these is likely NOT a theme or motif in this story?

A) Innocence and pureness of heart

B) Family ties

C) Selfish self-sacrifice

D) Change, or transformation

3. Using La Llorona as a character and comparing her hair to Medusa’s are both examples of which literary device?

A) Allusion

B) Illusion

C) Characterization