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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. What rabbi was shocked to see all the people walking away from the beach and carrying personal items with them in Part III: Spectacle?

2. Which of Louise Hopkins's siblings made it home last, with water up to his underarms?

3. Isaac wrote an urgent cable to Willis Moore telling him of the terrible situation and gave the message to whom to deliver?

4. After the storm, there were so many dead that the city resolved to do what with the corpses?

5. Cuban forecasters indicated that they had correctly predicted that the storm would not __________.

Short Essay Questions

1. How is the setting of Judson Palmer's home described? Who took refuge there?

2. What did the Weather Bureau refer to the storm as, despite Isaac's warnings in Part III: Spectacle? Who did Isaac go to warn locally?

3. What was Louise Hopkins doing as the flooding began in Galveston? Where did she go?

4. Who was Colonel William Sterett? Why was he traveling to Galveston?

5. What lists appeared in the Galveston News following the storm? How are they described?

6. What "hideous things" does the author describe happening across Galveston in Part IV: Cataclysm?

7. Describe the losses sustained by the Credo and Palmer families. How many were lost?

8. How does the author describe the events at Ritter's Cafe?

9. How does the author describe Rabbi Cohen's experiences of the storm?

10. What did Isaac Cline find when he visited his office? How is this setting described?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe and discuss the geography of Galveston in 1900. What elements of the topography led Galveston to be particularly vulnerable in the event of a hurricane? How was the city's infrastructure developed? How is it different today?

Essay Topic 2

Describe and discuss the conflicts between the US Weather Bureau and the local Cuban forecasters. How was Willis Moore to blame for the animosity between the two? How many lives were potentially lost as a result of egoism? How does the author express this thematically in the narrative?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the meteorological discoveries of Thomas Jefferson, the Byzantine Empire, Aristotle and the Greeks, and Galileo. Of what importance were these men's discoveries to Isaac Cline? How had history developed a fascination for the weather in Isaac? In what ways did Isaac as a "scientist" relate to these historical figures?

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