View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Joseph come to Galveston to be?

2. An easterly wind converges over the ________ in the early weeks of August 1900.

3. Besides being an amateur meteorologist, Dr. Young is also _____________.

4. Whom does Isaac consider one of the great pioneers of meteorology?

5. The barometer reading Joseph takes the night before the storm is ____________.

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Isaac do in the initial part of his training for the weather service?

2. What is Galveston like in 1900?

3. How does Larson describe the center of a hurricane?

4. How was weather recorded before the creation of the weather service?

5. What does the Galveston newspaper advertise as being the chic look for the summer of 1900?

6. How does Moore treat the weather forecasting being done in Cuba?

7. Why does hail become an obsession of Isaac's?

8. Describe the photograph taken of Isaac by New Orleans photographer.

9. What happens to the weather in Galveston two days before the storm?

10. What does Isaac do for the U.S. Weather Bureau?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is both surprising and tragic about how the residents of Galveston are first unaware of the storm and then revel in its onset? At what moment does the city seem to realize that this is going to end very badly?

Essay Topic 2

Larson ends the book with a description of what is standing today in the place where St. Mary's Orphanage once stood. What story in contained in that one simple image and why is that a poignant image to end the book?

Essay Topic 3

What role does weather play in the book, beyond representing the hurricane?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 818 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample