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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 is the name of Louise Hopkins oldest brother?

2. How many lives does Isaac say were saved because of his warnings?

3. What is the name of August Rollfing's sister?

4. How many blocks from the beach is St. Mary's Orphanage?

5. Whom does Isaac save from the floodwaters?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Isaac and Dr. Young interpret what they see from the beach Saturday morning differently?

2. What does Louisa Rollfing experience when she and her children try to take a coach to her mother-in-law's house?

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

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

5. What is Col. William Sterett's experience as he enters Galveston?

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

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

8. What are some of the misconceptions that Isaac and his colleagues have about hurricanes?

9. How do people in Galveston initially react to the storm?

10. What is John Blagden experiencing during the storm?

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

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

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 956 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample