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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Racing against a storm, Krakauer reaches the summit of the Thumb. How does he describe it?
(a) He describes it as a big disappointment.
(b) He describes it as breathtakingly beautiful.
(c) He describes the summit as malevolent and surreal.
(d) He describes it as the coldest place on earth.

2. Why does Krakauer think Chris could not excrete poison from his body?
(a) Melted snow water caused him to become severely constipated.
(b) His deteriorated body did not have enough glucose and amino acids to bind with the poisons.
(c) His bowel and urinary sustems had shut down.
(d) He did not have enough white blood cells to fight organisms.

3. What was in the McCandless house that speaks to the feelings of Walt and Billie McCandless toward Chris?
(a) All of Chris's track trophies lined up on the mantle.
(b) A photo memorial to Chris on the dining room table.
(c) Clippings of newspaper articles and magazine stories about Chris.
(d) No photos of Chris in the house.

4. What does Carine recall that Chris loved so much?
(a) Her dog, Buck.
(b) Reading Moby Dick.
(c) His yellow Datsun.
(d) The Gianni guitar.

5. What was the skeleton in Walt's closet that stressed the whole family, Chris in particular?
(a) Walt kept a mistress after Chris went to college.
(b) Walt and Billie divorced but later remarried.
(c) Walt had affairs with several women.
(d) Walt had lived a bigamist life for some years after Chris was born.

6. Chris's parents had moved, but his step brother was contacted. After he positively identified Chris, what did he do?
(a) Drove to Maryland to inform Chris's parents.
(b) Told his wife that he always knew Chris would end that way.
(c) Contacted Gillien to get more information.
(d) Flew to Alaska to claim the body.

7. What does Krakauer think actually killed Chris?
(a) Choking on rabbit bones.
(b) The wild potato seeds he was eating.
(c) Tainted canned goods he found in the bus.
(d) Poisonous leaves he was reduced to eating.

8. What information does Gallien provide the police?
(a) That the young man had called himself Alex and had come from South Dakota.
(b) That Alex was coughing bad when he dropped him off.
(c) That Alex had mentioned a friend named Ron in California.
(d) That Alex's real name was Chris McCandless.

9. What ambitions did Jon Krakauer's father have for all of his children?
(a) That they would leave home and be on their own after high school.
(b) That they would excell in sports.
(c) That they would all enter the family business.
(d) That they would attend Ivy League schools.

10. What did Krakauer do similar to what Chris did when he needed to go to the village of Petersberg?
(a) He bought a big bag of rice.
(b) He abandoned his car.
(c) He burned his money.
(d) He sent postcards to friends.

11. What gift did Walt give Billie after the birth of Chris?
(a) A vacation in Paris.
(b) A 3-carat diamond ring.
(c) A leather bound copy of Leaves of Grass.
(d) The Gianni guitar that was left in the yellow Datson.

12. Why does Krakauer relate his own experiences in Chapter 14?
(a) To show his affinity with Chris.
(b) To prove that he had no right to write about Chris.
(c) To see if he is any different now as a mature man.
(d) To show how he was so much better than Chris.

13. What important work does Walt McCandless do?
(a) Nuclear physicist.
(b) CIA undercover.
(c) Biochemist.
(d) Advanced radar technology.

14. What is significant about the cloth belt Krakauer founds in the bus?
(a) He seemd to have made it to tie up his paperback books.
(b) Chris had made it to keep himself busy.
(c) Chris probably didn't want to ruin the leather belt he had made at Ron Franz's house.
(d) It must have been made when Chris got too thin for his jeans.

15. Who gave Krakauer dinner and a place to sleep in Petersberg?
(a) A policeman offered him a jail cell.
(b) A drifter named Jan Buress.
(c) A kind woman named Kai Sandburn.
(d) The captain of a tuna fishing boat.

Short Answer Questions

1. What emotional experience disturbed Chris while he is staying in the bus?

2. What evidence does Krakauer find that suggests Chris was ready to re-enter society?

3. August 12, Chris left the bus to forage for berries. What did the note he left on the door say?

4. What is so poignant about the final photograph Chris took of himself holding his good-bye note?

5. Why did Chris write in his journal that he had found the Magic Bus?

(see the answer keys)

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