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

2. 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 it as the coldest place on earth.
(d) He describes the summit as malevolent and surreal.

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

4. What characteristic of his father's does Krakauer mention as a flaw?
(a) That his father could never admit to being wrong.
(b) That his father worked too many jobs.
(c) That his father never climbed a mountain.
(d) That his father was too kind to everyone.

5. How does Krakauer interpret the evidence he gathered about Chris?
(a) He sees Chris as a hopeles greenhorn without any knowledge of the terrain.
(b) He believes that Chris immersed himself in nature in an effort to isolate himself from human society.
(c) He suggests that someone else was in the bus and refused to help Chris.
(d) He thinks that Chris was completely irrational and contributed to his own death.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Billie find in the bus?

2. Why did the Candless family not follow the route Chris had taken to get to the bus as Billie wanted?

3. What kind of business do Carine and her husband operate?

4. How did the police know Chris's real last name?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. Carine knew that Chris was leaving but she didn't know where he was going. Why?

2. In Chris's journal, what did he think was happening to him?

3. What was the irony Krakauer thought about as he kept attempting to climb Devil's Thumb?

4. What kind of work made Walt McCandless such a success?

5. What discovery did Chris make the summer after his freshman year in college that drove a deeper wedge between him and his father?

6. Explain Jim Gillien's difficulty in contacting the Alaska police.

7. What items did Billie and Walt McCandless leave behind in the bus?

8. What defense does Krakauer make of Chris's ability to survive in the wild?

9. What was Chris's problem with his parents monetary success?

10. What do Carine and her parents regret after the fact of Chris's death?

(see the answer keys)

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