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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was the one thought the Smokejumpers shared as they ran from the fire?
(a) To find some place cool.
(b) To find some water.
(c) To find a way back to their foreman.
(d) To find Sallee and Rumsey.

2. Who did Maclean meet who finally makes the connection for him to Robert Sallee?
(a) A registrar.
(b) A French-Canadian nurse.
(c) A policeman.
(d) A personnel director.

3. What words are in the Common Book of Prayer that beg to not die of sudden death?
(a) "Good Lord, deliver us."
(b) "Good Lord, help us."
(c) "Good Lord, watch over us."
(d) "Good Lord, be my shepherd."

4. What time was recorded on the watch found near the bodies?
(a) Four minutes to six.
(b) Nine thirty.
(c) Three forty-five.
(d) Twenty minutes to ten.

5. As an old man, what did the author hope to receive by his study of the Mann Gulch fire?
(a) A better understanding of himself and people close to him.
(b) A better understanding of the role of the Smokejumper.
(c) A better understanding of the Forest Service.
(d) A better understanding of Sallee and Rumsey.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is one of the best bibliographical references about the Mann Gulch fire available to Laird and Maclean?

2. When did Wag Dodge die?

3. In Maclean's mind, what did the Ponderosa pines look like during the fire?

4. How did Maclean explain the change in the world after compassionately studying the fire at Mann Gulch?

5. Where did Bob Moore and Maclean discover they had both worked in their youths?

Short Essay Questions

1. Whom did Maclean find at the Hoerner Waldorf-Champion paper mill? What information did this person give Maclean to move him along in his search for Sallee and Rumsey?

2. What did Sallee and Rumsey explain to Maclean that answered one of his most important questions? What was the question? What was the answer?

3. To what did the author compare the cloud of smoke atop the Mann Gulch fire when the blowup rose out of the gulch?

4. Who is the firsthand source of information Maclean and his investigative partner Laird Robinson set out to find before they did anything else? Why? Who were they looking for?

5. How did the Forest Service receive Maclean when he began searching for the documentation on the Mann Gulch fire? Why?

6. What did the land in Mann Gulch look like in the aftermath of the fire?

7. How did Jansson's explanation of why the non-flammable objects such as wallets and watches were found uphill from the men's bodies? How did his explanation differ from that of the Forest Service?

8. Who was Henry Thol, Sr.? What was his role in the Mann Gulch fire?

9. What two emotions governed the analysis of the tragedy at Mann Gulch? How did Maclean describe the first emotion among the men in Mann Gulch?

10. What happened to the men when they left the foreman, Dodge, at the site of the escape fire? What name did the author give to the point at which the men left? From what perspective did the author tell the story of their assent?

(see the answer keys)

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