House of the Scorpion Chapter Questions

Chapters 1-5

1. What is Eduardo making in the test tubes?

2. How many “drops of life” are there in the beginning?

3. What happens to most of them?

4. Where does Eduardo put the surviving ones?

5. Why does the nurse stop Eduardo from injecting the last embryo?

6. What does Celia call Matt?

7. What can’t Matt call Celia?

8. What can’t Matt touch in the house?

9. What can Matt usually see out the window?

10. What strange thing does Matt see one day?

11. What do the boy and girl bring with them the next day?

12. What does Matt show them through the window?

13. What do Stephen and Emilia threaten to do to Maria?

14. How does Matt get their attention?

15. What does he say?

16. Where do the children bring Matt?

17. What is wrong with his feet?

18. What do the maids find tattooed on his foot?

19. Where do they bring Matt after they find the words?

20. What do they call him?

21. Who is responsible for taking care of Matt?

22. What does she hope he is able to do?

23. Who comes to visit him?

24. What does Matt use as a blanket?

25. Why does Matt knock over his bucket?

Chapter 6

Who was Matt taken to meet?

What did the doctor say he knew about Matt’s condition?

What happened to Rosa?

What does Matt share with El Patron?

Who does Matt get to live with now?

Which bodyguard does Matt choose?

Chapter 7

What can Matt still not do?

Who does Matt fight in the beginning of the chapter?

What does Tam Lin call Matt on pg 67?

Why does Maria leave?

What is wrong with the teacher?

Chapter 8

Who is Matt’s favorite TV hero? (it means “The Black Whip”)

What do Matt and Tam Lin find in the field?

Why can’t they take the horse into the hills?

Why don’t people like Matt?

What is an eejit?

Chapter 9

What does Tam Lin threaten to suck up the vacuum cleaner?

Why is Matt upset about not getting punished?

What is Felicia’s routine around playing piano?

What happened when Matt flicked the light switch?

Who does he hear/see talking from the passage?

Who agrees to teach Matt music?

Chapter 10

What occasion are they celebrating?

What does Celia want Matt to do if anything bad happens?

Where does Matt find Furball?

Who put him there?

How old is El Patron?

Who is the creepy old man talking to El Patron?

CHAPTER 11

  1. How does Matt assert his authority at El Patron’s birthday party?
  2. What does this reveal about Matt?
  3. What has caused El Patron’s improved health?
  4. Who is El Viejo? What is his physical condition?
  5. How does Mr. Alacran (El Viejo’s son) react? What is the end result of this confrontation?

CHAPTER 12

  1. How does viewing the clone affect Matt and Maria?
  2. Whom does Matt think the clones looks like? What do you think this indicates?

CHAPTER 13

  1. Who does Matt tell about seeing the clone? How does she react? What does she tell him about Tom?
  2. What might Celia’s comment to Matt, “. . . for as long as you live” imply?
  1. Briefly describe the cause and effect of Matt’s decision to kidnap Furball. What do you think actually happened?
  2. Why does Tam Lin have to leave? Why is he angry before he leaves?

CHAPTER 14

  1. In a complete sentence, describe the Alacran “estancia.”
  2. Why was Matt so upset by Tam Lin’s departure?
  3. What happed to Tom? Why?
  4. How did Celia come to work for El Patron?
  5. What happened to the others Celia traveled from Aztlan with?
  6. What do El Patron and Celia have in common?
  7. How has this affected her life?

Chapter 15

  1. What has happened to Rosa?
  2. Where does Matt go on the horse?
  3. Who left Matt the letter?
  4. What does the priest say about Matt being in church?
  5. Who helps him?

Chapter 16

1.What was in the cold room Matt found?

  1. Who do they spy on?
  2. Who really killed Furball?
  3. Who helps Matt and Maria out in the end of the chapter?

Chapter 17

  1. Which saint did Matt read about?
  2. According to the book, where could Opium sell its drugs?
  3. Who was Esperanza talking about when she said, “a more

evil, vicious, and self serving man could hardly be imagined?”

  1. What did Matt decide he would do when he was in charge?

5. What lived in the horrible buildings?

6. What did Tam Lin do?

Chapter 18

  1. What did Celia make Matt eat before he left?
  2. Where did the bodyguards bring Matt?
  3. Who was beside Matt’s bed when he woke up?
  4. Who got a piggyback heart?
  5. What did Matt suggest El Patron do with his things?

Chapter 19

  1. What happened to Matt while he was singing?
  2. What does Tam Lin say happened to Matt’s “stepmother”?
  3. Where did MacGregor’s kidneys and liver come from?
  4. How old is Matt?

Chapter 20

  1. What is Matt afraid to ask Tam Lin?
  2. Where does Matt go to think?
  3. Who is Esperanza Mendoza?
  4. What does Matt’s breath smell like?
  5. Why can’t Matt leave?

Chapter 21

  1. What event is everyone preparing for?
  2. What did Matt realize about Emilia’s attendants?
  3. What does Maria think Matt has?
  4. What present does Matt give Maria?
  5. What happens to El Patron during the wedding?

Chapter 22

  1. In this chapter, Matt suddenly realizes the real reason he was created. What is it?
  2. What should Matt be hoping happens to El Patron?
  3. What is the mark of the Alacrans?
  4. Why can Matt open it?
  5. What does Matt pretend to be?

Chapter 23

  1. Where does Matt find himself as chapter 23 begins?
  2. What does Matt wish he had done while he had the chance?
  3. What story does el Patron tell once again when Matt goes to visit him?
  4. Why does el Patron feel Matt owes him?
  5. What has Celia done to make Matt useless for the transplants?
  6. How many lives (clones) has El Patron had?
  7. What did Maria get in trouble for doing at school?
  8. What happens to el Patron?
  9. What does Mr. Alacran order Tam Lin to do to Matt?

Chapter 24

  1. Why does Tam Lin act so cruel towards Matt?
  2. Where does Tam Lin Take Matt?
  3. Why doesn’t Daft Donald talk?
  4. Who changed Tam Lin from his old “monster” ways?
  5. How did Tam Lin protect Celia and prevent her from being turned into an eejit?
  6. According to Tam Lin, what is the difference between clones and humans?
  7. What should Matt do when he gets to Aztlan?

Chapter 25

  1. What wildlife does Matt see?
  2. How does Matt escape the Farm Patrol border guards?

Chapter 26

  1. What false name does Matt give?
  2. What story does he tell the guards he meets?
  3. What do the boys chant?
  4. What do the guards call themselves?
  5. Who does Matt sit with?
  6. Where are they, according to Chacho?
  7. What do the boys think has happened to their parents?

Chapter 27

  1. What was Chacho making with that wood?
  2. What does it mean to show the guards a map of the world?
  3. According to Raul, what’s wrong with a five legged horse?
  4. What’s Matt’s solution to the five legged horse problem?
  5. How does Raul react to this?

Chapter 28

  1. What does Fidelito do to the bag of plastic strips?
  2. What does the plankton factory smell like?
  3. What’s Matt’s nickname?
  4. How does Carlos describe plankton?
  5. What happened to the Colorado River?
  6. What happened to Fidelito and his grandmother?

Chapter 29

  1. What was Ton Ton’s crime?
  2. What does Jorge have the boys do to help Matt see the error of his ways?
  3. What three people does Matt think of?

Chapter 30

  1. What did Ton Ton drive?
  2. What do Chacho and Matt see when they walk towards the sea?
  3. What does Fidelito explain the bones were?
  4. What did Matt think of when the boys accused him of crimes at night?
  5. What was Ton Ton’s crime this time?
  6. What was his punishment?
  7. What does Matt confess to doing? Why?

Chapter 31

  1. What is Luna training for?
  2. How many keepers are there?
  3. How many boys?
  4. What do the keepers eat?
  5. What do they take every night?
  6. According to Tam Lin, what’s the one thing a prisoner has in mind?
  7. According to Fidelito’s grandmother, what are people’s souls like?
  8. How did Jorge save Ton Ton?
  9. Who does Matt realize are like his parents?

Chapter 32

  1. Who is Matt’s lackey?
  2. What does Jorge plan to do to him?
  3. What do Chacho and Matt do instead?
  4. What do they think Matt is?

Chapter 33

  1. Where do Chacho and Matt get dumped?
  2. What is Chacho afraid of?
  3. Why does Tam Lin say people are different from animals?
  4. What does the wind sound like?
  5. What do the bats do in the rain?
  6. What does Matt hear Chacho doing at the end of the chapter?

Chapter 34

  1. What did Matt talk about to help Chacho?
  2. Who came to save Chacho and Matt?
  3. What was the escape vehicle?
  4. What treat helped to revive Chacho?
  5. What happened to the keepers?
  6. Where is Luna planning on going?

Chapter 35

  1. What story does Matt tell Fidelito about the convent?
  2. Who helped Matt when he fainted by the river?
  3. What holiday did they arrive on?

Chapter 36

  1. Who fought in the hospital room?
  2. Who stopped the fight?
  3. Who arrived at the very end of chapter 36?

Chapter 37

  1. What has been going on in Opium for the past three months?
  2. What important thing does Esparanza tell Matt about himself?
  3. What did Matt promise to do when he returned to Opium?
  4. How did Matt get back into Opium?
  5. Who did Matt scare when he arrived?
  6. What is wrong with Matt’s face?
  7. Which two people greet him in Opium?
  8. Where is everyone else?

Chapter 38

  1. Describe the sequence of events from El Patrons wake, funeral, burial, etc.
  2. What happened to all of the Alacrans and most of the bodyguards including Tam Lin?
  3. How did Daft Donald survive?
  4. Why didn’t Tam Lin warn anyone else?
  5. Tam Lin knew what would happen to him by drinking the toast to El Patron. Why do you suppose he drank it anyway?
  6. Describe the Dragon Horde.