PLEROMA INTERNATIONAL HIGH

SCHOOL
SPRING TERM ASSESSMENT
SUBJECT: ENGLISH LANGUAGE DURATION: 2 HOURS CLASS: YEAR 8

NAME

SECTION A: FIRST LANGUAGE

An extract from ‘The House on Mango Street’ by Sandra Cisneros
The house on Mango Street

They always told us that one day we would move into a house, a real house that would be ours
for always so we wouldn’t have to move each year. And our house would have running water
and pipes that worked. And inside it would have real stairs, not hallway stairs, but stairs inside
like the houses on T.V. And we’d have a basement and at least three washrooms so when we
took a bath we wouldn’t have to tell everybody. Our house would be white with trees around it, a Line 5
great big yard and grass growing without a fence. This was the house Papa talked about when
he held a lottery ticket and this was the house Mama dreamed up in the stories she told us
before we went to bed.

But the house on Mango Street is not the way they told it at all. It’s small and red with tight steps
in front and windows so small you’d think they were holding their breath. Bricks are crumbling in Line 10
places, and the front door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in. There is no front yard,
only four little elms the city planted by the curb. Out back is a small garage for the car we don’t
own yet and a small yard that looks smaller between the two buildings on either side. There are
stairs in our house, but they’re ordinary hallway stairs, and the house has only one washroom.
Everybody has to share a bedroom – Mama and Papa, Carlos and Kiki, me and Nenny. Line 15

Once when we were living on Loomis, a nun from my school passed by and saw me playing out
front. The laundromat downstairs had been boarded up because it had been robbed two days
before and the owner had painted on the wood YES WE’RE OPEN so as not to lose business.

‘Where do you live?’ she asked.

‘There,’ I said pointing up to the third floor. Line 20

‘You live there?’

There. I had to look to where she pointed – the third floor, the paint peeling, wooden bars Papa
had nailed on the windows so we wouldn’t fall out. You live there? The way she said it made me
feel like nothing. There. I lived there. I nodded.

I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this isn’t it. The house Line 25
on Mango Street isn’t it. For the time being, Mama says. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how

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 those things go.

Hairs
Everybody in our family has different hair. My Papa’s hair is like a broom, all up in the air. And
me, my hair is lazy. It never obeys barrettes or bands. Carlos’ hair is thick and straight. He Line 30
doesn’t need to comb it. Nenny’s hair is slippery – slides out of your hand. And Kiki, who is the
youngest, has hair like fur.

But my mother’s hair, my mother’s hair, like little rosettes, like little candy circles all curly and
pretty because she pinned it in pincurls all day, sweet to put your nose into when she is holding
you, holding you and you feel safe, is the warm smell of bread before you bake it, is the smell Line 35
when she makes room for you on her side of the bed still warm with her skin, and you sleep
near her, the rain outside falling and Papa snoring. The snoring, the rain, and Mama’s hair that
smells like bread.

My Name
In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it Line 40
means waiting. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings
when he is shaving, songs like sobbing.

It was my great-grandmother’s name and now it is mine. She was a horse woman too, born like
me in the Chinese year of the horse.

My great-grandmother. I would’ve liked to have known her, a wild horse of a woman, so wild Line 45
she wouldn’t marry. Until my great-grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off.
Just like that, as if she were a fancy chandelier. That’s the way he did it. And the story goes she
never forgave him. She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their
sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best with what she got or was she sorry
because she couldn’t be all the things she wanted to be. Esperanza. I have inherited her name, Line 50
but I don’t want to inherit her place by the window.

I would like a new name, a name more like the real me, the one nobody sees. Esperanza as
Lisandra or Maritza or Zeze the X. Yes. Something like Zeze the X will do.

1. Who is the narrator in the story? Tick (✓) one box.

Papa

Mama

Carlos

Esperanza

2. The family’s hopes of a better house seem unlikely to come true. Give one quotation from lines 1–8 that
tells the reader this.
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3. Look at the first and second paragraphs (lines 1–15).
(a) What are the differences between the houses described in each paragraph? Complete the table below with
information from the text.
First paragraph Second paragraph
Rooms three washrooms

Condition The bricks are crumbling

Outside a great big yard

(b) Why has the writer put these paragraphs next to each other? Use your own words.

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4. Look at this phrase: ‘… windows so small you’d think they were holding their breath.’ (Line 10). What
technique is this an example of?

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5. Give one quotation from lines 16–20 that tells the reader that Loomis is a dangerous area.
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6. Look at lines 21–24.

(a) There is repeated four times in italics. What does this tell the reader about the attitude of the nun? Tick
(✓) one box. She feels
envy.

confusion.

amusement.

contempt.

(b) The narrator is embarrassed about the house. Give one quotation that tells the reader this.

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7. Look at this sentence: ‘But I know how those things go.’ (Lines 26–27) What does the narrator mean in the
sentence above?
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8. Look at lines 33–38.
(a) Give one example of each of the following:
a metaphor _____________________________________________________________

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 repetition _____________________________________________________________
alliteration _____________________________________________________________

(b) What does the reader learn about the mother’s character?
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9. Look at the section of the text under the heading My Name (lines 39–53). Why does Esperanza want to
change her name? Give two reasons, using your own words.

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SECTION B: ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Reading

Questions 1–10. Read the text below, and for each number, circle the correct word on the next page.

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1. suppose think realise notice
2. dreamed designed imagined formed
3. carry set come start
4. until where again while
5. getting working solving understanding
6. addition extra advantage support
7. included made gave showed
8. which who what whose
9. Apart Instead Even Rather
10. producing permitting providing promoting

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 Writing

1. In your English class, you have been talking about school subjects. Your teacher has asked you to write this
essay:
“Which do you think is more useful to learn at school, foreign languages or science? Why?”
Write your essay in 100 – 120 words in an appropriate style below

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LISTENING

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