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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. Isaac recognizes his wife's body from her _________.

2. Who suggests that they evacuate the Cline house for higher ground?

3. What does Mrs. Hopkins plan to use as a raft?

4. What causes so many children at the orphanage to die?

5. How many people take refuge in the Cline house during the storm?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Isaac handle Moore's lies and distortion of the truth about how the Weather Bureau handled the hurricane?

2. What is Captain Simmons experiencing on the Pensacola as the storm intensifies?

3. What does Louise Hopkins' mother do when the water started to rise?

4. How does Moore distort the truth about how he handled the hurricane?

5. In addition to the miracle of surviving the storm, what other miracle do Joseph and Isaac experience on the day of the hurricane?

6. What does August Rollfing experience during the hurricane?

7. How do Joseph's and Isaac's accounts of the hurricane differ in tone?

8. What is the first event that causes Galveston residents to begin to take the storm seriously?

9. Why does Joseph want his telegram to the U.S. Weather Bureau chief be kept completely confidential?

10. Why is it initially not alarming to have lost all telegraph communication with Galveston?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What are examples of the hurricane bringing out both the best and worst in people throughout the story? What does this say about both the best and worst sides of human nature? What are real life examples that demonstrate this same truth?

Essay Topic 2

In Part II, Larson quotes a conversation between Colonel Dunwoody and Julio Jover of the Belen College Observatory. The final sentence of the conversation is Colonel Dunwoody saying, "It cannot be; no cyclone ever can move from Florida to Galveston." How is this conversation not only emblematic of the politics of the weather services but also of the cost of America's arrogance?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the symbolic implications for the modern advances of the telegraph and the train. How are they used throughout the book?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 858 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample