Broken Chain by Gary Soto

Broken Chain by Gary Soto
LITERARY FOCUS: CONFLICT

Plot is a series of related events that take place in a story. Through
the plot we learn what happens to a story’s characters. Most main
characters in stories grapple with one or more conflicts as the action
unfolds. Conflict is a character’s struggle to get what he or she wants.
An external conflict occurs when a character struggles against outside
forces. An internal conflict occurs when a struggle takes place within
a character’s own mind. As the plot of a story unfolds, the character
acts to resolve the conflicts. Here are some examples of external and
internal conflicts:
External Conflict Internal Conflict
A camper goes on a hike, loses An athlete can’t decide whether

her compass, and can’t find her to try out for the swim team or
way back. for the soccer team.
Two friends in a spelling bee Someone who once nearly
compete for the grand prize. drowned has to overcome a
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

fear of the water.
An office worker gets locked in A young actor experiences
a supply closet. stage fright.
READING SKILLS: SUMMARIZING A PLOT

When you summarize a plot, you retell the main events in a story.
Summarizing a plot helps you clarify what’s happened to whom and
when it happened. As you read “Broken Chain,” look for Summarize
Literary Skills
Understand notes in the margins. Then, use your own words to explain what has
conflict.
taken place.
Reading Skills
Summarize a
story’s plot.
Vocabulary
Skills
Understand the
history of
English.
4 Part 1 Collection 1 / Telling Stories

PREVIEW SELECTION VOCABULARY
Before you read “Broken Chain,” preview these words from the story.
apparent (¥·per√¥nt) adj.: visible. retrieved (ri·tr≤vd√) v.: got back.

Alfonso was proud that the muscles on his Alfonso retrieved the chain he had thrown away.
stomach were apparent.
emerged (≤·m∞rjd√) v.: came out.
sullen (sul√¥n) adj.: grumpy; resentful.
Alfonso emerged from behind the hedge to
Ernie became sullen when the girls didn’t show meet Sandra.
up for the date.
impulse (im√puls≈) n.: urge.

Alfonso regretted his impulse to clean his
bike chain.
CLARIFYING WORD MEANINGS: LATIN ROOTS

A long time ago ancient Romans conquered much of Europe, North
Africa, and the Middle East. As a result, their language, Latin, is
reflected in many modern-day languages of those places. About
60 percent of the English language, for example, can be traced
to Latin. Here are some examples, taken from the Vocabulary

words above (the abbreviation L stands for “Latin”).
Word Origin Latin Meaning
apparent L apparere “to appear”

sullen L solus “alone”
impulse L impellere “to drive”
emerged L e– “out” + mergere “to immerse”
Pause at the Word Study notes as you read “Broken Chain” to learn
about the Latin origins of more words.
Broken Chain 5
Gary Soto
© Michael Newman/Photo Edit, Inc.

Alfonso sat on the porch trying to push his crooked teeth
Circle the name of the to where he thought they belonged. He hated the way he
character introduced in the
first paragraph. Underline
looked. Last week he did fifty sit-ups a day, thinking that he
two things he is doing to try would burn those already apparent ripples on his stomach
to change the way he looks.
to even deeper ripples, dark ones, so when he went swim-
ming at the canal next summer, girls in cut-offs would
notice. And the guys would think he was tough, someone

apparent (¥·per√¥nt) adj.:
visible; easily seen; obvious. who could take a punch and give it back. He wanted “cuts”
like those he had seen on a calendar of an Aztec1 warrior
10 standing on a pyramid with a woman in his arms. (Even
Why doesn’t Alfonso dare to she had cuts he could see beneath her thin dress.) The cal-
color his hair (lines 15–21)? endar hung above the cash register at La Plaza. Orsua, the
owner, said Alfonso could have the calendar at the end of
the year if the waitress, Yolanda, didn’t take it first.
Alfonso studied the magazine pictures of rock stars for
a hairstyle. He liked the way Prince looked—and the bass
player from Los Lobos. Alfonso thought he would look cool
with his hair razored into a V in the back and streaked pur-
ple. But he knew his mother wouldn’t go for it. And his
“Broken Chain” from Baseball in April and
Other Stories by Gary Soto. Copyright © 1990
by Gary Soto. Reproduced by permission of
Harcourt, Inc. 1. Aztec: member of an American Indian people of what is now Mexico.

20 father, who was puro Mexicano, would sit in his chair after
work, sullen as a toad, and call him “sissy.”
Alfonso didn’t dare color his hair. But one day he had sullen (sul√¥n) adj.: grumpy;
resentful.
had it butched on the top, like in the magazines. His father
had come home that evening from a softball game, happy
that his team had drilled four homers in a thirteen-to-five
What do you learn about
bashing of Color Tile. He’d swaggered into the living room Alfonso’s father in lines
but had stopped cold when he saw Alfonso and asked, not 22–29?
joking but with real concern, “Did you hurt your head at
school? ¿Qué pasó?”2
30 Alfonso had pretended not to hear his father and had
gone to his room, where he studied his hair from all angles
in the mirror. He liked what he saw until he smiled and
realized for the first time that his teeth were crooked, like
a pile of wrecked cars. He grew depressed and turned away
from the mirror. He sat on his bed and leafed through the
rock magazine until he came to the rock star with the
butched top. His mouth was closed, but Alfonso was sure
his teeth weren’t crooked.
Alfonso didn’t want to be the handsomest kid at school,
40 but he was determined to be better looking than average.

Re-read lines 44–55. Based on
The next day he spent his lawn-mowing money on a new
these details, what inference
shirt and, with a pocketknife, scooped the moons of dirt can you make about the
family’s financial situation?
from under his fingernails.
He spent hours in front of the mirror trying to herd
his teeth into place with his thumb. He asked his mother if
he could have braces, like Frankie Molina, her godson, but
he asked at the wrong time. She was at the kitchen table
licking the envelope to the house payment. She glared up
at him. “Do you think money grows on trees?”
50 His mother clipped coupons from magazines and
newspapers, kept a vegetable garden in the summer, and
2. ¿Qué pasó? (k†√ pä·s»√): Spanish for “What happened?”
Broken Chain 7
shopped at Penney’s and K-Mart. Their family ate a lot of
frijoles,3 which was OK because nothing else tasted so good,
Pause at line 68. List three though one time Alfonso had had Chinese pot stickers4 and
important things you’ve
learned about Alfonso so thought they were the next best food in the world.
far. What main idea about He didn’t ask his mother for braces again, even when
Alfonso’s character do these
details add up to? State she was in a better mood. He decided to fix his teeth by
that main idea in a complete
sentence. pushing on them with his thumbs. After breakfast that
Saturday he went to his room, closed the door quietly,
60 turned the radio on, and pushed for three hours straight.
He pushed for ten minutes, rested for five, and every
half hour, during a radio commercial, checked to see if his
smile had improved. It hadn’t.
Eventually he grew bored and went outside with an
old gym sock to wipe down his bike, a ten-speed from
Montgomery Ward. His thumbs were tired and wrinkled
and pink, the way they got when he stayed in the bathtub
too long.
Alfonso’s older brother, Ernie, rode up on his
70 Montgomery Ward bicycle looking depressed. He parked his
bike against the peach tree and sat on the back steps, keep-

ing his head down and stepping on ants that came too close.
Alfonso knew better than to say anything when Ernie
looked mad. He turned his bike over, balancing it on the
handlebars and seat, and flossed the spokes with the sock.
When he was finished, he pressed a knuckle to his teeth
until they tingled.
Ernie groaned and said, “Ah, man.”
Alfonso waited a few minutes before asking, “What’s the
80 matter?” He pretended not to be too interested. He picked up
a wad of steel wool and continued cleaning the spokes.
Depressed (d≤·prest√), in line
70, means “gloomy; sad.” It
comes from the Latin roots
de–, meaning “down,” and
premere, meaning “to press.”
3. frijoles (fr≤·kh»√l†s): Spanish for “beans.”
4. pot stickers n.: dumplings.

Ernie hesitated, not sure if Alfonso would laugh. But
it came out. “Those girls didn’t show up. And you better
not laugh.” Re-read lines 69–96.
Summarize what has
“What girls?” happened in the story so far.
Then Alfonso remembered his brother bragging about
how he and Frostie met two girls from Kings Canyon Junior
High last week on Halloween night. They were dressed as
Gypsies, the costume for all poor Chicanas5—they just had to
90 borrow scarves and gaudy red lipstick from their abuelitas.6
Alfonso walked over to his brother. He compared their
two bikes: His gleamed like a handful of dimes, while
Ernie’s looked dirty.
“They said we were supposed to wait at the corner. But
they didn’t show up. Me and Frostie waited and waited. . . .
They were playing games with us.”
Alfonso thought that was a pretty dirty trick but sort
of funny too. He would have to try that someday.
“Were they cute?” Alfonso asked.
100 “I guess so.”
“Do you think you could recognize them?”
“If they were wearing red lipstick, maybe.”

Alfonso sat with his brother in silence, both of them
smearing ants with their floppy high tops. Girls could sure
act weird, especially the ones you meet on Halloween.
Later that day, Alfonso sat on the porch pressing on his
teeth. Press, relax; press, relax. His portable radio was on,
but not loud enough to make Mr. Rojas come down the
steps and wave his cane at him.
110 Alfonso’s father drove up. Alfonso could tell by the way
he sat in his truck, a Datsun with a different-colored front
fender, that his team had lost their softball game. Alfonso got
5. Chicanas (¬i·kä√n¥z): Mexican American girls and women.

6. abuelitas (ä≈bw†·l≤√täs) n.: in Spanish, an affectionate term for
“grandmothers,” like grandmas in English.
Broken Chain 9
off the porch in a hurry because he knew his father would be
in a bad mood. He went to the back yard, where he unlocked
Re-read lines 110–117. his bike, sat on it with the kickstand down, and pressed on
Why does Alfonso go to the
back yard? his teeth. He punched himself in the stomach, and growled,
“Cuts.” Then he patted his butch and whispered, “Fresh.”
After a while Alfonso pedaled up the street, hands in
his pockets, toward Foster’s Freeze, where he was chased by
120 a ratlike Chihuahua.7 At his old school, John Burroughs
Elementary, he found a kid hanging upside down on the
top of a barbed-wire fence with a girl looking up at him.
Alfonso skidded to a stop and helped the kid untangle his
pants from the barbed wire. The kid was grateful. He had
been afraid he would have to stay up there all night. His sis-
ter, who was Alfonso’s age, was also grateful. If she had to
go home and tell her mother that Frankie was stuck on
Underline Alfonso’s good
deed in lines 118–128.
a fence and couldn’t get down, she would get scolded.
What does it show about “Thanks,” she said. “What’s your name?”
his character?
130 Alfonso remembered her from his school and noticed
that she was kind of cute, with ponytails and straight teeth.
“Alfonso. You go to my school, huh?”

“Yeah. I’ve seen you around. You live nearby?”
“Over on Madison.”
“My uncle used to live on that street, but he moved
to Stockton.”
“Stockton’s near Sacramento, isn’t it?”
“You been there?”
“No.” Alfonso looked down at his shoes. He wanted
140 to say something clever the way people do on TV. But the
only thing he could think to say was that the governor lived
Observation (äb≈z¥r·v†√◊¥n), in Sacramento. As soon as he shared this observation, he
in line 142, means “a com-
winced inside.
ment or remark based on
something you’ve seen.” It
comes from Latin observatio,
meaning “outward display.”
7. Chihuahua (¬i·wä√wä): small dog with large pointed ears.

Alfonso walked with the girl and the boy as they started
for home. They didn’t talk much. Every few steps, the girl,
whose name was Sandra, would look at him out of the Re-read lines 118–163.
Summarize how Alfonso
corner of her eye, and Alfonso would look away. He learned meets Sandra and how he
that she was in seventh grade, just like him, and that she had goes about asking her to see
him again.
a pet terrier named Queenie. Her father was a mechanic at
150 Rudy’s Speedy Repair, and her mother was a teacher’s aide
at Jefferson Elementary.
When they came to the street, Alfonso and Sandra
stopped at her corner, but her brother ran home. Alfonso
watched him stop in the front yard to talk to a lady he
guessed was their mother. She was raking leaves into a pile.
“I live over there,” she said, pointing.
Alfonso looked over her shoulder for a long time, trying
to muster enough nerve to ask her if she’d like to go bike
riding tomorrow.
160 Shyly, he asked, “You wanna go bike riding?”
“Maybe.” She played with a ponytail and crossed one
leg in front of the other. “But my bike has a flat.”
“I can get my brother’s bike. He won’t mind.”
She thought a moment before she said, “OK. But not

tomorrow. I have to go to my aunt’s.”
“How about after school on Monday?”
“I have to take care of my brother until my mom
comes home from work. How ’bout four-thirty?”
“OK,” he said. “Four-thirty.” Instead of parting imme-
170 diately, they talked for a while, asking questions like “Who’s
your favorite group?” “Have you ever been on the Big Dipper
at Santa Cruz?” and “Have you ever tasted pot stickers?” But
the question-and-answer period ended when Sandra’s
mother called her home.
Alfonso took off as fast as he could on his bike,
jumped the curb, and, cool as he could be, raced away with
Broken Chain 11
his hands stuffed in his pockets. But when he looked back
over his shoulder, the wind raking through his butch,
Pause at line 184. Will Ernie Sandra wasn’t even looking. She was already on her lawn,
let Alfonso borrow his bike?
Tell what you think will hap- 180 heading for the porch.
pen next. That night he took a bath, pampered his hair into
place, and did more than his usual set of exercises. In bed,
in between the push-and-rest on his teeth, he pestered his
brother to let him borrow his bike.
“Come on, Ernie,” he whined. “Just for an hour.”
“Chale,8 I might want to use it.”
“Come on, man, I’ll let you have my trick-or-treat
candy.”
“What you got?”
190 “Three baby Milky Ways and some Skittles.”
“Who’s going to use it?”
Alfonso hesitated, then risked the truth. “I met this
girl. She doesn’t live too far.”
Ernie rolled over on his stomach and stared at the out-
Re-read the boxed passage.
As each speaker changes,
line of his brother, whose head was resting on his elbow.
think about who is speaking “You got a girlfriend?”
and how he might say the

words. Then, read the pas- “She ain’t my girlfriend, just a girl.”
sage aloud, trying to express
the different feelings of the
“What does she look like?”
characters. “Like a girl.”
200 “Come on, what does she look like?”
“She’s got ponytails and a little brother.”
“Ponytails! Those girls who messed with Frostie and
me had ponytails. Is she cool?”
“I think so.”
Ernie sat up in bed. “I bet you that’s her.”
Alfonso felt his stomach knot up. “She’s going to be my
girlfriend, not yours!”
“I’m going to get even with her!”
8. chale (¬ä√l†): Spanish slang expression roughly meaning “it’s

not possible.”

“You better not touch her,” Alfonso snarled, throwing a
210 wadded Kleenex at him. “I’ll run you over with my bike.”
For the next hour, until their mother threatened them Re-read lines 181–210. Then,
identify the conflict between
from the living room to be quiet or else, they argued whether the brothers. What two
it was the same girl who had stood Ernie up. Alfonso said things are Alfonso and Ernie
fighting over?
over and over that she was too nice to pull a stunt like that.
But Ernie argued that she lived only two blocks from where
those girls had told them to wait, that she was in the same
grade, and, the clincher, that she had ponytails. Secretly,
however, Ernie was jealous that his brother, two years
younger than himself, might have found a girlfriend.
220 Sunday morning, Ernie and Alfonso stayed away from
each other, though over breakfast they fought over the last
tortilla. Their mother, sewing at the kitchen table, warned
them to knock it off. At church they made faces at one
another when the priest, Father Jerry, wasn’t looking. Ernie
punched Alfonso in the arm, and Alfonso, his eyes wide
with anger, punched back.
Monday morning they hurried to school on their
bikes, neither saying a word, though they rode side by side.
In first period, Alfonso worried himself sick. How would he

An idiom is a figure of
230 borrow a bike for her? He considered asking his best friend, speech—its actual meaning
Raul, for his bike. But Alfonso knew Raul, a paperboy with is different from its literal
meaning. Underline the
dollar signs in his eyes, would charge him, and he had less idiom in lines 231–232.
Explain what it means.
than sixty cents, counting the soda bottles he could cash.
Between history and math, Alfonso saw Sandra and
her girlfriend huddling at their lockers. He hurried by with-
out being seen.
During lunch Alfonso hid in metal shop so he wouldn’t
run into Sandra. What would he say to her? If he weren’t
mad at his brother, he could ask Ernie what girls and guys
240 talk about. But he was mad, and anyway, Ernie was pitching
nickels with his friends.
Broken Chain 13
Alfonso hurried home after school. He did the morn-
Notes ing dishes as his mother had asked and raked the leaves.
After finishing his chores, he did a hundred sit-ups, pushed
on his teeth until they hurt, showered, and combed his hair
into a perfect butch. He then stepped out to the patio to
clean his bike. On an impulse, he removed the chain to
wipe off the gritty oil. But while he was unhooking it from
the back sprocket, it snapped. The chain lay in his hand like
250 a dead snake.
Alfonso couldn’t believe his luck. Now, not only did he
not have an extra bike for Sandra, he had no bike for him-
self. Frustrated and on the verge of tears, he flung the chain
as far as he could. It landed with a hard slap against the back
fence and spooked his sleeping cat, Benny. Benny looked
around, blinking his soft gray eyes, and went back to sleep.
Pause at line 256. When Alfonso retrieved the chain, which was hopelessly bro-
Sandra said she’d meet
Alfonso and go bike riding ken. He cursed himself for being stupid, yelled at his bike
with him, everything seemed
to be going well. List the
complications in the plot that
have made Alfonso’s situa-
tion increasingly desperate.

© Getty Images.
impulse (im√puls≈) n.: urge.
retrieved (ri·tr≤vd√) v.: got

back.

for being cheap, and slammed the chain onto the cement.
260 The chain snapped in another place and hit him when it
popped up, slicing his hand like a snake’s fang. Pause at line 274. Why won’t
Ernie lend Alfonso his bike?
“Ow!” he cried, his mouth immediately going to his What do you think of this
hand to suck on the wound. reason?
After a dab of iodine, which only made his cut hurt

more, and a lot of thought, he went to the bedroom to plead
with Ernie, who was changing to his after-school clothes.
“Come on, man, let me use it,” Alfonso pleaded.
“Please, Ernie, I’ll do anything.”
Although Ernie could see Alfonso’s desperation, he had
270 plans with his friend Raymundo. They were going to catch
frogs at the Mayfair canal. He felt sorry for his brother and
gave him a stick of gum to make him feel better, but there
was nothing he could do. The canal was three miles away,
and the frogs were waiting. The noun desperation
Alfonso took the stick of gum, placed it in his shirt (des≈p¥r·†√◊¥n), in line 269,
is from Latin de–, “without,”
pocket, and left the bedroom with his head down. He went and sperare, “to hope.”
What is a synonym for
outside, slamming the screen door behind him, and sat in the desperation?
alley behind his house. A sparrow landed in the weeds, and
when it tried to come close, Alfonso screamed for it to scram.

280 The sparrow responded with a squeaky chirp and flew away.
At four he decided to get it over with and started walking
to Sandra’s house, trudging slowly, as if he were waist-deep
in water. Shame colored his face. How could he disappoint
his first date? She would probably laugh. She might even
call him menso.9
He stopped at the corner where they were supposed to
meet and watched her house. But there was no one outside,
only a rake leaning against the steps.
Why did he have to take the chain off? he scolded him-
290 self. He always messed things up when he tried to take them Underline the details in lines
275–285 that show that
apart, like the time he tried to repad his baseball mitt. He Alfonso is upset.
9. menso (men√s») adj.: Spanish for “stupid.”
Broken Chain 15
had unlaced the mitt and filled the pocket with cotton balls.
But when he tried to put it back together, he had forgotten
Pause at line 300 and tell how it laced up. Everything became tangled like kite string.
what you think will happen
in the rest of the story. When he showed the mess to his mother, who was at the
stove cooking dinner, she scolded him but put it back
together and didn’t tell his father what a dumb thing he
had done.
Now he had to face Sandra and say, “I broke my bike,
300 and my stingy brother took off on his.”
He waited at the corner a few minutes, hiding behind
a hedge for what seemed like forever. Just as he was starting
to think about going home, he heard footsteps and knew it
was too late. His hands, moist from worry, hung at his sides
and a thread of sweat raced down his armpit.
He peeked through the hedge. She was wearing a
sweater with a checkerboard pattern. A red purse was slung
over her shoulder. He could see her looking for him, stand-
ing on tiptoe to see if he was coming around the corner.
310 What have I done? Alfonso thought. He bit his lip,
called himself menso, and pounded his palm against his

forehead. Someone slapped the back of his head. He turned
around and saw Ernie.
“We got the frogs, Alfonso,” he said, holding up a
wiggling plastic bag. “I’ll show you later.”
Ernie looked through the hedge, with one eye closed,
at the girl. “She’s not the one who messed with Frostie and
me,” he said finally. “You still wanna borrow my bike?”
Alfonso couldn’t believe his luck. What a brother!
The climax is the most 320 What a pal! He promised to take Ernie’s turn next time it
exciting moment in the plot,
when the outcome of the was his turn to do the dishes. Ernie hopped on Raymundo’s
main conflict is decided.
Underline the passage in
handlebars and said he would remember that promise.
lines 310–323 that describes Then he was gone as they took off without looking back.
the climax in this story.

Free of worry now that his brother had come through,
Alfonso emerged from behind the hedge with Ernie’s bike,
which was mud-splashed but better than nothing. Sandra emerged (≤·m∞rjd√) v.: came
out.
waved.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi,” he said back.
Suppose that Ernie had not
330 She looked cheerful. Alfonso told her his bike was brought the bike. Suggest
broken and asked if she wanted to ride with him. two other ways of ending
this story.
“Sounds good,” she said, and jumped on the crossbar.
It took all of Alfonso’s strength to steady the bike. He
started off slowly, gritting his teeth, because she was heavier
than he thought. But once he got going, it got easier. He
pedaled smoothly, sometimes with only one hand on the
handlebars, as they sped up one street and down another.
Whenever he ran over a pothole, which was often, she
screamed with delight, and once, when it looked like they
340 were going to crash, she placed her hand over his, and it felt
like love.
Broken Chain 17
Broken Chain
Plot Diagram To fill out the plot diagram, first identify the basic
situation and conflict in “Broken Chain.” Then, identify the main
complications that lead to the climax. Next, describe the climax of the
Literary Skills story. Finally, tell what happens in the resolution of the story. If you like
Analyze conflict.
to draw, you might draw little pictures showing one of the complications.
Basic Situation and Conflict: Complications Climax:

(problems, events):
Resolution:

Skills Review
Broken Chain
VOCABULARY AND COMPREHENSION

A. History of the English Language: Latin Roots Write the word from Word Bank
the Word Bank that has the same root as the word in the middle column.
apparent
Root Related Word Word Bank Word sullen
impulse
solus solo 1.
retrieved
apparere disappear 2.
emerged
e– + mergere emergency 3.
B. Reading Comprehension Answer each question below.

1. How do Alfonso and Sandra meet?
2. Why do Alfonso and Ernie quarrel about Sandra?
3. What conflict does Alfonso face when his bicycle chain breaks?
4. At the end of the story, why does Ernie let Alfonso borrow his bike?
Vocabulary
Skills
Understand
the history of
English.
Broken Chain 19
Part One Page 10
CLARIFY
Possible response: Alfonso goes to the backyard to
avoid his father, who is in a bad mood.
INTERPRET
Broken Chain, page 4 Alfonso’s good deed is that he “helped the kid
untangle his pants from the barbed wire.” The deed
Page 6 shows that Alfonso is nice and helpful.
IDENTIFY Page 11
Alfonso is the character introduced in the first para- SUMMARIZE
graph. Details that show how he is trying to change Possible summary: Alfonso meets Sandra when he
the way he looks are “push his crooked teeth to helps her brother get off the fence. He talks with her
where he thought they belonged” and “did fifty sit- while he walks her home. He finally gets up the
ups a day.” nerve to ask her to go bike riding.
IDENTIFY
Alfonso wouldn’t dare color his hair because his Page 12
mother wouldn’t like it and his father would “call PREDICT
him ‘sissy.’ ” Possible predictions: Ernie will lend his bike to
Alfonso; Ernie will refuse, and Alfonso will have
Page 7 to find another bike.
IDENTIFY
Answers will vary. Possible responses: (1) Alfonso’s Page 13
father is happy and good-natured when he is suc- IDENTIFY
cessful. (2) Alfonso’s father doesn’t understand his Alfonso and Ernie are fighting because Alfonso
son’s fashion interests. wants to use Ernie’s bike and because Ernie claims
that Sandra is the same girl who stood him up.
INFER Alfonso argues that she is not the same one.
Possible response: The family doesn’t have a lot of
money. INTERPRET
The idiom is “with dollar signs in his eyes.” This
Page 8 idiom means “anxious to make money.”
INTERPRET
Possible response: Three important things I’ve Page 14
learned about Alfonso are (1) he cares about his IDENTIFY
appearance; (2) he has ideas about how to improve Possible complications: Because Alfonso and Ernie
his appearance; (3) he works hard at improving his get in a fight, Ernie won’t lend Alfonso his bike.
appearance. Then Alfonso breaks his bike chain and now has
no extra bike for Sandra and no bike for himself.
A possible main idea about Alfonso’s character is
that he is resourceful and self-reliant. Page 15
EVALUATE
Page 9
Ernie won’t lend Alfonso his bike because he needs it
SUMMARIZE to go catch frogs at the canal. Most students will say
Possible summary: After Alfonso has spent the this is not a good reason because Ernie could catch
morning worrying about the appearance of his hair frogs at another time.
and teeth, he goes out to clean his bicycle. While he
is cleaning, his brother, Ernie, comes home. Ernie is WORD STUDY
angry because he and his friend Frostie were stood Possible synonyms for desperation are hopelessness
up by two girls they met at a Halloween party. and panic.
Answer Key 3
IDENTIFY B. 1. Alfonso and Sandra meet when Alfonso helps
Details in lines 275–285 that show Alfonso is upset Sandra’s brother untangle his pants from a
include “with his head down”; “slamming the screen barbed-wire fence.
door behind him”; “Alfonso screamed for [the spar- 2. Alfonso and Ernie fight over Sandra because
row] to scram”; “trudging slowly”; and “Shame col- Ernie thinks she might be one of the girls
ored his face.” who stood him up.
3. The conflict Alfonso faces when his bicycle
Page 16 chain breaks is that he now has no bike to
PREDICT take Sandra riding.
Possible predictions: Sandra won’t care about the 4. (1) Ernie lets Alfonso borrow his bike because
bike, and they’ll have fun without it; Ernie will offer he wants to help his little brother out;
his bike at the last minute, and Alfonso and Sandra (2) When Ernie sees that Sandra was not the
will ride together. girl who stood him up, he agrees to lend his
bike to Alfonso.
IDENTIFY
Possible response: The climax, when the outcome of
the main conflict is decided, occurs when Ernie The Landlady, page 20
offers Alfonso his bike.
Page 17 Page 21
EXTEND IDENTIFY
Answers will vary. Two possible endings: (1) Alfonso The name of the character is Billy Weaver. Possible
could apologize to Sandra for not bringing a bike details that establish the setting: “traveled down
but suggest instead that they go for a walk. She from London on the slow afternoon train”; “nine
would forgive him and agree to go on a walk. (2) o’clock in the evening”; “the moon was coming up
Alfonso could explain the situation to Sandra. Then out of a clear starry sky over the houses opposite the
she would laugh and fix the bike chain, muttering station entrance”; “the air was deadly cold and the
how boys can’t fix anything. Then they would go for wind was like a flat blade of ice on his cheeks.”
a ride with her on the crossbar. Page 22
Page 18 INFER
Possible response: Billy’s mood could be described as
■ Possible Answers to Skills Practice upbeat or eager.
Plot Diagram (page 18) VISUALIZE
Basic Situation and Conflict: Alfonso meets Sandra Details that make the boardinghouse seem inviting

and asks her to go bike riding, but he has only one and comfortable: “There was a vase of yellow chrysan-
bike. themums, tall and beautiful, standing just underneath
Complications (problems, events): Ernie won’t lend the notice”; “Green curtains (some sort of velvety
Alfonso his bike; Alfonso breaks the chain on his material) were hanging down on either side of the
bike. Alfonso goes to Sandra’s house to tell her window”; “the first thing he saw was a bright fire
they can’t go bike riding. burning in the hearth”; “in front of the fire, a pretty
Climax: Ernie arrives in time to lend Alfonso his little dachshund was curled up asleep with its nose
bike. tucked into its belly”; [The room] “was filled with
Resolution: Alfonso and Sandra go bike riding. pleasant furniture”; “There was a baby grand piano
and a big sofa and several plump armchairs.”
■ Possible Answers to Skills Review Page 23

IDENTIFY
Vocabulary and Comprehension (page 19) Details that describe the benefits of staying at the
A. 1. sullen pub: “a pub would be more congenial”; “There
2. apparent would be beer and darts”; “lots of people to talk to”;
3. emerged “it would probably be a good bit cheaper, too.”
PREDICT
Answers will vary.
4 The Holt Reader: Teacher’s Manual

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LITERARY FOCUS: CONFLICT

External Conflict Internal Conflict

A camper goes on a hike, loses An athlete can’t decide whether

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

READING SKILLS: SUMMARIZING A PLOT

4 Part 1 Collection 1 / Telling Stories

apparent (¥·per√¥nt) adj.: visible. retrieved (ri·tr≤vd√) v.: got back.

impulse (im√puls≈) n.: urge.

CLARIFYING WORD MEANINGS: LATIN ROOTS

to Latin. Here are some examples, taken from the Vocabulary

Word Origin Latin Meaning

apparent L apparere “to appear”

© Michael Newman/Photo Edit, Inc.

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

6 Part 1 Collection 1 / Telling Stories

40 but he was determined to be better looking than average.

2. ¿Qué pasó? (k†√ pä·s»√): Spanish for “What happened?”

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

8 Part 1 Collection 1 / Telling Stories

“If they were wearing red lipstick, maybe.”

5. Chicanas (¬i·kä√n¥z): Mexican American girls and women.

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

7. Chihuahua (¬i·wä√wä): small dog with large pointed ears.

10 Part 1 Collection 1 / Telling Stories

She thought a moment before she said, “OK. But not

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

8. chale (¬ä√l†): Spanish slang expression roughly meaning “it’s

12 Part 1 Collection 1 / Telling Stories

In first period, Alfonso worried himself sick. How would he

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

impulse (im√puls≈) n.: urge.

retrieved (ri·tr≤vd√) v.: got

14 Part 1 Collection 1 / Telling Stories

After a dab of iodine, which only made his cut hurt

when it tried to come close, Alfonso screamed for it to scram.

9. menso (men√s») adj.: Spanish for “stupid.”

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

16 Part 1 Collection 1 / Telling Stories

Basic Situation and Conflict: Complications Climax:

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

18 Part 1 Collection 1 / Telling Stories

VOCABULARY AND COMPREHENSION

B. Reading Comprehension Answer each question below.

2. Why do Alfonso and Ernie quarrel about Sandra?

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

■ Possible Answers to Skills Review Page 23

4 The Holt Reader: Teacher’s Manual

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