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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. Between what two points of view does Chapter 13 switch?

2. What did Beck's father use to combat negative feelings?

3. Why did Beck try different challenges in the early years of his marriage?

4. What did Beck do to his body as he was making it stronger?

5. Where did Beck find a pipe wrench?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Beck and Peach say attracted each of them to the other?

2. What does Ken want Beck to decide while descending Mount McKinley? What is Beck's response?

3. What did Beck begin to do after his term as president of Medical City ended? How did he cope with the problem?

4. What did Beck relate about his time when his father was stationed in Saudi Arabia in 1958?

5. Discuss what Beck wrote about his parents in Chapter 11.

6. Why does Beck go to Mexico? What does he realize while he is there?

7. What is the "black dog," and how did it affect Beck?

8. What did Dan relate about his and his father's coping methods for their negative emotions?

9. What happened to Beck's emotional state during his first year at Midwestern?

10. What does Peach say about Beck's "obsessions"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Peach began to notice some differences in Beck's mental attitude. He was reaching out to her and seemed to care about all the pain he caused others.

1. What do you think are the steps to forgiveness? What type of thinking and processing do you think Peach has to go through in order to forgive Beck? Use examples from the book and your own life to support your answer.

2. Do you think Beck would have changed if he had not gone through the pain and suffering he did? Why or why not? Use examples from the book and your own life to support your answer.

3. How do you think Beck reaching out to Peach and caring more about others might help his chronic battle with depression? Use examples from the book and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Characters are an important part of what makes the story interesting. Discuss the following:

1. Thoroughly discuss and analyze Beck. What are his strengths? His weaknesses? How does he contribute to the plot? Is he a sympathetic character? Is he always likable? Never likable? Use specific examples to illustrate your ideas.

2. Thoroughly discuss and analyze the character of Peach. What are her strengths? Her weaknesses? How does she contribute to the story? Is she a sympathetic character? Is she ever likable? Never likable? Use specific examples to illustrate your ideas.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss one of the following:

1. Define irony in literary terms. Discuss the irony of the situation whereby Beck Weathers says that climbing Everest is not dangerous and yet he barely survived.

2. Define symbolism in literary terms. Discuss the use of and meaning of five symbols found in Left for Dead. Symbols are inherent in any work of literature, whether fiction or non-fiction, though in non-fiction, the use of symbols is not always intentional.

3. Discuss the use of foreshadowing in non-fiction. What is the purpose of foreshadowing in non-fiction? Cite 3 examples of foreshadowing and how it is indicates events to come in Left for Dead. Can you as the reader see ways that what Weathers writes about his early life foreshadows what will happen in his later life?

(see the answer keys)

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