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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 are the pilots known by at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base?
(a) Their given name.
(b) Their call sign.
(c) Their nickname.
(d) Their number.

2. What do the Project Mercury engineers think will be an easy task?
(a) Recovering the capsule after it splashed down.
(b) Training the astronauts.
(c) Launching the rockets.
(d) Controlling the capsule while in space.

3. What does the author liken the deck of a carrier to?
(a) An ice rink.
(b) A highway.
(c) A skillet.
(d) A thimble.

4. Which of the astronauts' wives has been previously divorced--a matter of public record that is not reported in the Life article?
(a) Wally Schirra.
(b) Gordon Cooper.
(c) Gus Grissom.
(d) Deke Slayton.

5. When Chuck Yeager is interviewed by reporters in Phoenix, what do the reporters want to know about?
(a) The sound barrier.
(b) The astronauts.
(c) The next plane Yeager will be testing.
(d) How Yeager's family is.

Short Answer Questions

1. While not logging any flying time comes to bother all seven of the astronauts, which is the astronaut who finally voices their complaint?

2. While most fighter pilots revel in driving fast sports cars, John Glenn does not. What car does he drive?

3. Who is Bob White?

4. While NASA is introducing and promoting Project Mercury, what is the Air Force trying to promote?

5. What is Gus Grissom awarded for his actions during combat in Korea?

Short Essay Questions

1. In detailing the experiences of the astronauts, the author states that "everywhere they went in their travels people stopped what they were doing and gave them a certain look of awe and sympathy." Awe is easily understood. Why do they look at them with sympathy?

2. Describe what the chapter's title of "On the Balcony" refers to.

3. Jane Conrad sees a real man going to her front door and realizes it wasn't one of her hallucinations. Who is the man and why is he there?

4. What is written in Conrad's file as a reason he isn't selected for the Mercury program?

5. Why does Gus Grissom feel that the reporter's question regarding whether or not the pilots feel they would come back from space is a stupid question?

6. Why is the book titled "The Right Stuff"?

7. According to the author, why does every pilot sound the same and talk with a lilting, vaguely Southern-sounding drawl?

8. The engineers tend to feel that the glorification of the astronauts has really gotten out of control. Why do they feel that way?

9. Why do the astronauts not refer to themselves or the other astronauts as "astronauts"?

10. Where is Muroc Field and what is is the significance of the project taking place there?

(see the answer keys)

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