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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 do Cape Canaveral and its surroundings remind the pilots of?
(a) Langley Air Force Base.
(b) Patrick Air Force Base.
(c) Muroc Army Air Base.
(d) Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

2. What recent invention makes Program Mercury possible at all?
(a) The high-carbon fuel.
(b) The launch software.
(c) The rocket propulsion system.
(d) The high-speed, electronic computer.

3. What record does Bob White set during one of his X-15 flights?
(a) The new altitude record.
(b) The new speed record.
(c) The new distance record.
(d) The new longest flight duration record.

4. Why do the volunteers report to Lovelace?
(a) For flight training.
(b) To observe rocket testing.
(c) For psychological testing.
(d) For medical testing.

5. How many test pilots are in the original group in Jacksonville?
(a) 8.
(b) 20.
(c) 12.
(d) 35.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many planes does a pilot have to shoot down in combat to be considered an "ace"?

2. Scott Carpenter is the only astronaut who has a touch of what in him?

3. What does the author compare the career path of a fighter pilot to?

4. What does every fighter jock also think of himself as?

5. What is focused on as being the pilots' best qualification for their selection to the Project Mercury astronaut program at the press conference?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the procedures trainer?

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

3. Contrast flight training with astronaut training.

4. NASA originally needs six astronauts for the Mercury program, but is going to take twelve astronauts. Why?

5. Name three tests conducted at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base on the pilots.

6. Why does Gus Grissom find the selection of Scott Carpenter as an astronaut odd?

7. 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?

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

9. Why don't the wives ever discuss the dangers their husbands face each day?

10. As the number of killed pilots rises, how does that affect the mood of Pete Conrad?

(see the answer keys)

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