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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Sigurdur Jonsson is an Iceland resident who works on what?
(a) Fishing boats.
(b) Pumping crews.
(c) Polar bear protection.
(d) Tourism.

2. The Hawaiian Research Association forms for what purpose?
(a) Preventing lava from burying cities.
(b) Studying the nature of lava flows.
(c) Relocating residents directly in the path of flowing lava.
(d) Revisiting Hawaiian legends to learn more about lava.

3. When the author walks the streets of Iceland's Heimaey years after the 1973 eruption, what does he see?
(a) Vacant houses that have never been repaired.
(b) A completely deserted ghost town.
(c) Several new neighborhoods built atop cooled lava flows.
(d) A town twice as large as before the eruption.

4. What does Magnus Magnusson tell Thorbjorn Sigurgeirsson to protect first during the eruptions of 1973?
(a) Fisheries.
(b) Harbor.
(c) City.
(d) Canneries.

5. How does Sigurdur Steinthorsson monitor volcanic gases during the 1973 eruption?
(a) Measuring static electricity.
(b) Infrared glasses.
(c) Particle detector.
(d) Smoking cigars.

6. Even though Hawaii's Hilo is often threatened by lava flows, Hilo has thus far been protected because:
(a) Flows stop within a dozen to one mile of the port.
(b) A freshwater stream slows the lava flow.
(c) A tall mountain stands between Hilo and the lava.
(d) Of man-made barriers.

7. On January 23, 1973, the five thousand residents of Heimaey, the only populated island of Vestmannaeyjar, are threatened by what?
(a) Flu epidemic.
(b) Lava.
(c) War.
(d) Cracking ice shelf.

8. In gallons, how much water is pumped onto the lava flows of Heimaey each day?
(a) Thirteen hundred.
(b) Thirty thousand.
(c) Thirteen thousand.
(d) Thirty million.

9. What childhood fear does Magnus Magnusson share with the author?
(a) Helgafell will erupt.
(b) Heimaey will become a ghost town.
(c) Vestmannaeyjar will fall into the sea.
(d) Iceland will break in half.

10. What ultimately happens to the moving piece of mountain on Vestmannaeyjar?
(a) Falls into the ocean.
(b) Completely destroys the town and stops.
(c) Hits another mountain and stops.
(d) Breaks up into smaller, non-moving pieces.

11. After work crews deal with the moving mountain on Iceland's erupting island, what challenge do they face?
(a) Blinding blizzard that buries the equipment.
(b) Orders from Iceland's government to stop all cooling efforts.
(c) Pumps that fail due to excessive heat.
(d) New lava flow that threatens the town.

12. When workers in Vestmannaeyjar hose down lava, why do they keep moving?
(a) Because the lava flow keeps shifting.
(b) To stay warm in the cold climate.
(c) To keep their boots from burning up.
(d) To cool down other parts of the flow.

13. When does the author visit Vestmannaeyjar?
(a) During the eruption.
(b) When the ice shelf collapses.
(c) Fifteen years after the collapse of the ice shelf.
(d) Fifteen years after the eruption.

14. How are residents and livestock evacuated from Heimaey during the 1973 eruptions?
(a) By boats, trains, and planes.
(b) By trains and planes.
(c) By ships and trains.
(d) By ships, planes, and boats.

15. The Civil Defense Council in the Reykjavik National Emergency Center is established in 1962 as what?
(a) Command-post bomb shelter.
(b) Volcano eruption monitoring station.
(c) Storm-monitoring communication headquarters.
(d) Natural disaster preparedness center.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Heimaey, who is Sveinn Eiriksson?

2. How long does the the Mauna Loa eruption of 1984 last?

3. What nickname do the residents of Heimaey give to Sveinn Eiriksson?

4. After the eruptions of 1973 end, how many of Heimaey's evacuees return?

5. In "Cooling the Lava," when the author redirects his conversation to Hawaii he talks about the The Hawaiian Research Association which formed in:

(see the answer keys)

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