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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. While NASA is introducing and promoting Project Mercury, what is the Air Force trying to promote?
(a) The superior hand-to-hand fighting skills of the pilots.
(b) The high number of kills in the Korean conflict.
(c) Their new recruiting practices.
(d) Chuck Yeager's breaking of the sound barrier.

2. How are wives notified if their husband is injured or killed during a test flight?
(a) Another one of the wives goes to the house to break the news.
(b) There is no official procedure for notifying the family of death.
(c) The Navy sends an official letter to the wife.
(d) The Navy sends a man with official or moral authority to the house.

3. Why do the astronauts spend so much time in the procedures trainer?
(a) They simulate various flight scenarios and what to do in the case of emergency.
(b) They are being photographed as part of the Life story.
(c) They are just passing time until they can be cleared for take off.
(d) They are required to stay in the trainer until they successfully complete all of the tasks.

4. Why should Yeager be grounded and not allowed to fly the test flight to break the sound barrier on October 14th?
(a) He has two broken ribs.
(b) His wife is having a baby.
(c) He has the flu.
(d) He has been out drinking the night before.

5. Which astronaut is known as the Icy Commander?
(a) John Glenn.
(b) Pete Conrad.
(c) Deke Slayton.
(d) Alan Shepard.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why do fighter pilots have an intense dislike for flight surgeons?

2. What is Chuck Yeager's signature flying move?

3. In the eyes of the engineers, what are the astronauts?

4. Who runs the Fly Inn near Muroc Field?

5. How many kills does Yeager have by the end of World War II?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What are John Glenn and Alan Shepard in serious disagreement about?

3. Why does the Army fire Slick Goodlin and give the X-1 piloting assignment to Yeager?

4. What is the goal of the pilots in Project Mercury, which is the same goal in every new and important flight project?

5. Name two reasons that fighter pilots hate to declare an emergency.

6. Describe Jane Conrad's nightmares and hallucinations?

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

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

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

10. What does Chuck Yeager become convinced of as he pilots the X-1 at near-Mach I speeds?

(see the answer keys)

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