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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 is Chandler planning as he spots Joanna?
(a) How to tortue information out of her.
(b) How to make her murder look like an accident.
(c) To give her half the diamonds if she will leave the canyon.
(d) To hold her hostage to force Billy to talk to him.

2. 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 mark the slot entrance in order to find it again.
(d) To get Chee and Cowboy.

3. Who does Bernie hear as she is about to leave the cave?
(a) Cowboy and Chee.
(b) Chee.
(c) Billy Tuve.
(d) Chandler and Joanna.

4. What do Chandler and Joanna think happened to the Shaman?
(a) Chandler thinks he killed himself and Joanna thinks he died by an accident.
(b) Chandler thinks he was murdered but Joanna thinks it was just his time.
(c) Chandler thinks he was murdered but Joanna thinks he had an accident.
(d) Chandler thinks he had an accident and Joanna thinks he was murdered.

5. Why does Bernie start exploring?
(a) She hears a sound in the brush.
(b) She sees a man on a ledge.
(c) She becomes intrigued by the natural beauty around the area.
(d) She hears someone whistling.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Bernie demand?

2. What does Chee see shooting out of the slot?

3. Who does Joanna spot on the canyon floor by the river?

4. For what else does Bernie ask?

5. Who abandons Joanna?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 18, the Arizona death penalty is again mentioned as a reason to make a murder look accidental; does this seem like something a criminal would really be thinking?

2. How does Chee view the Colorado river?

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

4. Why do you think Joanna avoids the violent death that may be awaiting Chandler at the hand of the water?

5. After Joanna passes Chandler's hiding place, he calmly confronts her--why do you think she is so careless after having spotted Chandler on the canyon floor earlier?

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

7. What seems surprising in this story at this point in the book?

8. Why do you think Hillerman has Tuve disappear?

9. What seems incongruous about Bernie avoiding looking at the shaman?

10. In Chapter 16, the reader learns more about the Hopi legend of the Skeleton Man, for which the book is named; what is this legend?

(see the answer keys)

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