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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 kind of living quarters did Dennis Smith grow up in?
(a) A townhouse in the Bronx.
(b) A New York City high-rise studio apartment.
(c) A single-family house in Flushing.
(d) A New York City tenement.

2. Why were the firefighters frustrated about budget issues?
(a) Salaries were being cut.
(b) Layoffs were expected.
(c) The firefighters themselves have always had to pay for basic station needs.
(d) The budget was being cut.

3. What actor was interviewed in the Playboy issue, read by Smith in Chapter 7?
(a) Jack Nicholson.
(b) Donald Sutherland.
(c) Marlon Brando.
(d) Elliott Gould.

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

5. Where did Smith take the application test?
(a) Harlem.
(b) Greenwich Village.
(c) South Bronx.
(d) Upper West Side.

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. What is the minimum height for a fireman in New York?

4. Approximately how many children were at the ice cream party in Chapter 9?

5. What holiday was being celebrated on Smith's day off in Chapter 7?

Short Essay Questions

1. Does Smith feel that society has become more violent over the years, and if so, why?

2. Describe the character of Lieutenant Collins.

3. 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?

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

5. Did Smith's wife appreciate her husband's devotion to his job?

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

7. What were Smith's initial views of firefighting before he joined the department?

8. Why were the men uneasy as they begin the training drill in Chapter 6?

9. 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?

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

(see the answer keys)

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