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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. Where is Bernie going after finding the stuff in the cave?
(a) To call the Park Service.
(b) To find the old Hopi woman.
(c) To get Chee and Cowboy.
(d) To mark the slot entrance in order to find it again.

2. Why does Chee call the Park Service?
(a) For a rescue helicopter.
(b) To tell them they have found a body.
(c) To ascertain their position.
(d) To tell them they will not be climbing out that day as planned.

3. What does Chandler manage to do while they are talking?
(a) To stash his gun in his boot so Joanna does not know he has one.
(b) Get his hunting knife into the hand that is hidden from Joanna's sight.
(c) To take Joanna's gun from her backpack.
(d) To hit a high powered alarm that will bring Plymale right to the two of them.

4. What is a bane to sheep and cattle herders throughout the American Southwest?
(a) Cat's Claw Acacias.
(b) Dry waterholes.
(c) Cacti.
(d) Rattlesnakes.

5. What is Cowboy Dashee trying to do?
(a) Flag down Bernie.
(b) Shoot Chandler.
(c) Catch Billy Tuve.
(d) Remove one of his boots.

Short Answer Questions

1. When does Mary become cooperative with Bernie?

2. What does Bernie realize after seeing the gun?

3. Why is Bernie so excited about her find?

4. Who abandons Joanna?

5. Why is Bernie told she should not be there?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Chandler unconsciously give away his intentions in the scene where he and Joanna discover the snuff cans?

2. In Chapter 21, why do you think Chee is alarmed that none of the tracks comes back out of the canyon?

3. How is Bernie's assurance about Chandler highly ironic in the scheme of the history of Native Americans?

4. What do you think Joanna's decision to continue down to the canyon floor indicates?

5. What does Chee find that probably points to future events?

6. What reveals Bernie's training as a tribal police woman?

7. What is incongruous in Chapter 26 that conflicts with something narrated in Chapter 14?

8. Why do you think Hillerman has Tuve disappear?

9. What do you think is the purpose in Chapter 15 of the narrator reiterating many facts already known to the reader?

10. Do you think the scene of Bernie finding the diamonds and arm is anti-climatic and why?

(see the answer keys)

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