READ THE TEXT : Abuelita invents the zero. and answer those questions.
2. Refer to details from the text to explain why Constancia considers her grandmother to be, in her eyes, “ridiculous” and “bizarre.” (2 points)
How would you describe Connie’s attitude toward and treatment of her grandmother? Support your answer with examples from the story. (2 points)
4. How does Constancia respond when Abuela becomes lost in the church? Describe her reaction, and support your answer with evidence from the text. (2 points)
5.Summarize what Connie has learned from the conflict with her grandmother. (1 point)
6. What new understanding of the word “zero” does Connie now have? What understanding do you have of the story’s title? (1 point)
THANK YOU IN ADVANCE
Answers
Answer:“You made me feel like a zero, like a nothing,” she says in Spanish, un cero,
nada. She is trembling, an angry little old woman lost in a heavy winter coat
that belongs to my mother. And I end up being sent to my room, like I was a
child, to think about my grandmother’s idea of math.
It all began with Abuela coming from the Island1
for a visit—her first
time in the United States. My mother and father paid her way here so that
she wouldn’t die without seeing snow, though if you asked me, and nobody
has, the dirty slush in this city is not worth the price of a ticket. But I guess
she deserves some kind of award for having had ten kids and survived to tell
about it. My mother is the youngest of the bunch. Right up to the time when
we’re supposed to pick up the old lady at the airport, my mother is telling me
stories about how hard times were for la familia on la isla,2
and how la abuela
worked night and day to support them after their father died of a heart attack.
I’d die of a heart attack too if I had a troop like that to support. Anyway, I
had seen her only three or four times in my entire life, whenever we would go
for somebody’s funeral. I was born here and I have lived in this building all
my life. But when Mami says, “Connie, please be nice to Abuela. She doesn’t
have too many years left. Do you promise me, Constancia?”—when she uses
my full name, I know she means business. So I say, “Sure.” Why wouldn’t I be
nice? I’m not a monster, after all.
So we go to Kennedy3
to get la abuela and she is the last to come out of the
airplane, on the arm of the cabin attendant, all wrapped up in a black shawl.
He hands her over to my parents like she was a package sent airmail. It is
January, two feet of snow on the ground, and she’s wearing a shawl over a thin
black dress. That’s just the start.
Once home, she refuses to let my mother buy her a coat because it’s a
waste of money for the two weeks she’ll be in el Polo Norte, as she calls
New Jersey, the North Pole. So since she’s only four feet eleven inches tall, she
walks around in my mother’s big black coat looking ridiculous. I try to walk
far behind them in public so that no one will think we’re together. I plan to
Explanation: