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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Approximately how many firefighters died each year in New York at the time the book was written?
(a) Eight.
(b) Twenty.
(c) Five.
(d) Three.

2. What two famous people once ran for Mayor and City Council President?
(a) Norman Mailer and Jimmy Breslin.
(b) Woody Allen and Philip Roth.
(c) Woody Allen and Jimmy Breslin.
(d) Woody Allen and Normal Mailer.

3. How would firefighters have designed a building differently to make firefighting easier, according to Smith?
(a) They would have restricted the height.
(b) They would have eliminated elevators.
(c) They would have had more fire escapes.
(d) They would have designed better staircases.

4. How did Smith remember details for the book while working full-time?
(a) By simply relying on his memory.
(b) By dictating into a tape recorder.
(c) By writing daily.
(d) Byinterviewing fellow firefighters,

5. What did Smith consider the most admirable characteristic of firefighters?
(a) Their bravery.
(b) Their committment to community.
(c) Their reliability.
(d) Their strength.

Short Answer Questions

1. What injury did the young Hispanic boy suffer during the dinner time call to Home and Simpson streets?

2. How were the men rescued during the factory fire?

3. What was the name of the strong fireman who single-handedly replaced the hose at the end of Chapter 5?

4. In what town did Smith live while working in the South Bronx?

5. Which two companies were prohibited from responding to the same fire under the new plan?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe how fireman Jim Stack fought the apartment fire at 1284 Fox in Chapter 3.

2. Explain why the landlord of the Intervale Avenue apartment building wanted the place torched.

3. Why does Dennis Smith think firefighters--although regular people--are nevertheless somehow apart from others?

4. Why does Smith say city workers were fleeing cities to live in the suburbs?

5. What did Dennis Smith observe about the attitude of the driver who hit the young boy and was then beaten by the crowd in Chapter 2?

6. What does Dennis Smith think should be done with people who pull malicious false alarms, and why?

7. What did the firemen do when they got the second teenager out of the Intervale Avenue apartment building, which was torched in the arson attack in Chapter 1?

8. How did Dennis Smith get started on writing Report From Engine Co. 82?

9. What did Katherine Anne Porter mean by "a book will find its author" and how did that apply to Dennis Smith?

10. In reflecting on the boys who chanted hate-filled slogans at the firefighters in Chapter 4, Smith reflects that "people don't hate other people." What does he mean by that?

(see the answer keys)

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