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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many in Beck's group made it to the summit?

2. Why did Beck decide to stay put for a while?

3. What was the weather like eighteen hours earlier than when the book opens?

4. Beck lost the use of ____________.

5. What is the date when the book opens?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Beck communicate with his family during most climbs, and how did he do so on the Everest expedition?

2. What was Peach told about Beck in a phone call, and what happened just as she was relaying the news to the children?

3. What happened when the camp radioed down the mountain about Beck's arrival?

4. Whom did Peach and her friends contact to get Beck off the mountain?

5. What does Beck say about hiking the Khumbu trail on his way to base camp?

6. How does Beck contrast current weather conditions with the conditions when he started up the summit eighteen hours earlier?

7. What did Beck do while waiting to travel to base camp on Everest?

8. What route did Beck's group take, and what was the first tragedy on the climb?

9. Why did Dan fly to be with Beck while Beck was in a hotel recovering?

10. How did Beck end up making it back to Camp IV?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Left for Dead is a memoir by Beck Weathers. Discuss the following:

1. Define the word "genre" in the context of literary criticism.

2. Why do you think literature is categorized by genre?

3. Does it help to know how a book is categorized as to its genre before reading it? Explain.

4. Memoir used to be considered inferior to what are considered "the classics." Why do you think this is so? Do you believe a book such as Left for Dead is inferior to something such as A Tale of Two Cities? Explain.

5. What is your favorite genre and why?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the following:

1. What do you think are the characteristics of a successful work of non-fiction/memoir?

2. Analyze and discuss Left for Dead based upon the criteria you decide upon in #1 and judge if Left for Dead is a successful work of non-fiction/memoir.

3. Is Left for Dead a book you would recommend to a friend? Why or why not? Explain.

4. Can a novel be successful and yet many readers not enjoy it? Explain your response.

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the book Beck writes repeatedly about depression. He is an over achiever who seems to have been driven by a need to overcome his chronic depression.

1. Do you think Beck's drive to constantly be doing something helped his depression? Why or why not? Use examples from the book to support your answer.

2. Compare the effects of using alcohol or drugs to self-medicate depression with having to constantly be doing some activity to self-medicate. Use examples from the book to support your answer.

3. Considering the number of years that Beck drove himself to overcome his depression, and the fact that he is an obviously intelligent person, why do you think it took him so long to figure out what he was doing was not the answer?

(see the answer keys)

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