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Ray Gonzalez, The Jalapeño Contest

Ray Gonzalez, The Jalapeño Contest

Read The Jalapeño Contest and check your comprehension by answering the following questions. Then “submit” your work.

1. What is the relationship between the contestants in “The Jalapeño Contest”?

best friends

father and son

romantic rivals

brothers

2. What is different about this contest and the jalapeño contest the two characters had earlier in their lives?

A large sum of money is at stake.

They are older and have a point to prove.

The love of a woman is at stake.

Now they are able to laugh it off.

3. What literary device is employed when the narrator calls the jalapeños a “feast” and a “delight”?

simile

sarcasm

hyperbole

alliteration

4. Why does Freddy see two Tesoros?

because the story takes place in an alternate reality

because Freddy is drunk

because Tesoro’s twin has entered the room

because the jalapeños are causing Freddy to hallucinate

5. What is the last image of the story?

Freddy sees Tesoro appear as an angel dressed in green jalapeño robes.

Freddy sees Tesoro bite into his eighth and final jalapeño and then vomit on the table.

Freddy sees the jalapeño plant sitting in the center of the table, its branches immersed in a large pile of yellow jalapeño seeds.

Freddy sees two Tesoros stand up, fart, and fall back down.