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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. After years of "carrying death in my hands," what did Smith see firefighting as lacking?
(a) Security.
(b) Glamor.
(c) High pay.
(d) Stability.

2. What job did Smith take when he quit high school?
(a) Delivering food.
(b) Driving a cab.
(c) Delivering for a Chinese restaurant.
(d) Delivering flowers.

3. What free perk did New York firemen get?
(a) Free admission to parks.
(b) Free rides on the subway.
(c) Free taxi rides.
(d) Free clothes.

4. What did the welfare inspector recommend to the welfare agency after the visit?
(a) He recommended an increase in benefits so that the children could get winter coats.
(b) He recommended no change in benefits.
(c) He recommended a decrease in benefits when he saw the television.
(d) He recommended an increase in benefits so the family could have more to eat.

5. What did the firefighters discover after the police had left the station in Chapter 6?
(a) A bullet lodged in a fire truck.
(b) A bullet that had ricocheted and landed on the floor of the fire station.
(c) A bullet that hit the alarm system.
(d) A bullet lodged in a bulletin board near Smith.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many men competed for firemen positions that day?

2. What three jobs did the nuns at Smith's school tell the students they could aspire to?

3. Why was Smith upset about the path Tina de Vega took in life?

4. What did the woman do to the man whose Intervale Avenue apartment burned in Chapter 7?

5. How many shots did the police officer fire at the fleeing youth in front of the fire station in Chapter 6?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the elementary student, Cynthia, approach her interview with Smith in Chapter 9?

2. Is the poverty seen by Dennis Smith in the South Bronx different than the poverty in which he grew up?

3. What did Smith find most frustrating about the attack on the firefighters (the dropped garbage can) in Chapter 8?

4. How did Smith convince himself of the need to respond to all calls when he found himself getting fed up with the arson incidents?

5. Why had the system of safety inspections changed so radically?

6. Why does Smith suggest that perhaps even with guidance, South Bronx resident Tina de Vega may still have ended up on drugs and prostituting herself?

7. What was Smith's attitude toward the man hanging around at the Union Avenue fire in Chapter 10? How did he feel about the man screaming that the firemen were not taking fire victims to the hospital because they didn't care about black people?

8. How did contemplating the changing seasons make it easier for Smith to deal with the dangers of his job?

9. In what way can the training firemen undergo never be completely sufficient?

10. How did the firefighters react to the call in Chapter 7 in which they tended to a man who almost overdosed on drugs?

(see the answer keys)

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