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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What kind of business do Carine and her husband operate?
(a) An electronics shop.
(b) A daycare for the elderly.
(c) An auto repair business.
(d) A publishing company.

2. What did Billie find in the bus?
(a) One of Buck's dog collars.
(b) A coffee mug with the family monogram on it.
(c) A spoon from an old family silverware set.
(d) Photos of her and Walt.

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

4. What did the bones outside the bus reveal?
(a) What Chris thought was a moose was actually caribou.
(b) That the bus had been attacked by wolves.
(c) That Chris had been unable to kill edible animals.
(d) That the animal Chris killed had been eaten by vultures.

5. A year after Chris's death, what did Krakauer observe on the banks of the Teklanika River where Chris had been unable to cross?
(a) The river was overflowing its banks.
(b) The ice was breaking up and the footing was dangerous.
(c) There are dangerous rocks just under the surface of the water.
(d) The river is indeed a wide, churning flow of water.

6. When Krakauer reached an impassable place on the mountain, what did he do?
(a) He started traveling horizontally on the mountain.
(b) There was nothing to do but descend.
(c) He radioed for help.
(d) He sat down and cried.

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

8. What happened 10 months after Chris's death?
(a) Billie and Walt got a divorce.
(b) Ten months after McCandless's death, Krakauer, Billie and Walt took a helicopter to the bus site.
(c) The company that owns the bus took it away.
(d) Carine had a dream about Chris.

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

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

11. When Krakauer was at the mountain he came to climb, what enhanced his emotions?
(a) The beauty of the snowy terrain and clear sky was intensified for him by his solitude.
(b) Two sturdy aluminum curtain rods with him, lashed in a cross shape, to prevent him from falling into a crevasse.
(c) The cheers of the people who came to see him off.
(d) The clean air which gave him an oxygen high.

12. What was the tender moment between Chris and his father right after Chris graduated from high school?
(a) He spent that summer doing things with his father.
(b) He let his father ready his personal journal.
(c) He asked his father's advice about choosing a college.
(d) He gave his father an expensive telescope and told him how much he appreciated him.

13. What emotional experience disturbed Chris while he is staying in the bus?
(a) Bad dreams that hinted of his death.
(b) Killing a moose and being unable to preserve the meat.
(c) Thinking about his sister.
(d) Watching an otter get captured by an eagle.

14. In light of his own experiences, what does Krakauer think of Chris's tactics?
(a) More young people should do what chris did.
(b) They are understandable but not justifiable.
(c) They are exemplary.
(d) Except for a bit of bad luck, Chris was right to do what he did.

15. What did Walt leave in the bus?
(a) A flashlight and some batteries.
(b) A memorial plaque.
(c) An emergency radio operated by a hand crank.
(d) A book about edible plants in the area.

Short Answer Questions

1. What daunting challenge did Krakauer set for himself as a young man?

2. How is Carine different from Chris?

3. What did Chris do the summer after his sophomore year in college?

4. After Chris left home, why didnn't Carine get upset when he won't tell her where he was?

5. What ambitions did Jon Krakauer's father have for all of his children?

(see the answer keys)

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