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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. What disease did one of the firefighters contract?
(a) Influenza.
(b) Pneumonia.
(c) Hepatitis.
(d) A bacterial infection.

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

3. What was the first call the department took the day after the Saint Patrick's Day parade?
(a) A child locked inside a bathroom alone.
(b) A child locked inside an apartment alone.
(c) A stove fire.
(d) An overflowing bathtub flooding an apartment beneath.

4. Why were the teens carrying the items out of the Simpson Street apartment building?
(a) They had bought them from another resident.
(b) They were carrying them out for another resident.
(c) They were carrying them out of their own apartment for safety.
(d) They stole them from another resident.

5. Why did the city fence off the empty lots near the fire station?
(a) To prevent drug dealers from using the lots.
(b) To prevent garbage from being dumped.
(c) To keep children away from dangerous areas.
(d) To cut down on prostitution.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did the naked man on Southern Boulevard wield as a weapon?

2. Why did George say firefighters will never realize they are being duped?

3. What was the cause of the fire the men responded to at Union and 166th Street in Chapter 10?

4. Why did Smith's mother hide the television under a bedspread?

5. Why did Smith not eat hamburgers when fellow firefighters prepared them for the station dinner?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. In what key way does Smith say the modern firefighting exams are different from those of the past?

3. How did Smith distinguish between acts of shoplifting and looting within poor neighborhoods?

4. In what way does it seem as though Smith--despite his hatred for cockroaches--actually respects them?

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

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

7. Why did Smith think it was useless to argue with the sneering youths hanging around a fireman's car in Chapter 10?

8. Did Smith feel that the rich New Yorkers mentioned in Chapter 7, who were raising money to bail out Black Panthers, had any real understanding of need?

9. Despite the death of the baby in the last fire in the book, Smith was more committed than ever to remaining a firefighter. What did he see at that fire that reinforced his tremendous loyalty to his fellow firemen?

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

(see the answer keys)

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