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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. With "City Flow" moving towards them in Heimaey, what do pumping crews do?
(a) Abandon efforts and run away.
(b) Board a ship and leave.
(c) Send an emergency request for more crews and equipment.
(d) Dismantle and move equipment to save it.

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

3. What do work crews call the two-million ton floating mountain that breaks off during the 1973 eruptions?
(a) Flakkarinn the Wanderer.
(b) Haukadalur the Ominous.
(c) Dettifoss the Mountain.
(d) Surtsey the Fiery.

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

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

6. When the author visits Vestmannaeyjar, what does he notice?
(a) No polar bears are left.
(b) Most residents have moved out.
(c) Few survived the flu epidemic.
(d) Steam still rises from the ground.

7. What does the U.S. Army Air Corps do to an insulating vent on Mauna Loa volcano in 1935?
(a) Floods it with water.
(b) Bombs it.
(c) Attaches vibration sensors.
(d) Fills it with boulders.

8. What position does Magnus Magnusson hold in 1973?
(a) Governor.
(b) Mayor.
(c) Ambassador.
(d) Prime Minister.

9. Vestmannaeyjar holds how much of Iceland's total population?
(a) Two and a half percent.
(b) Forty-two and a half percent.
(c) Twenty-two percent.
(d) Twelve percent.

10. When the author recounts the moments before the 1973 eruption in Heimaey, he describes what?
(a) A loud, deep sound emanating from the volcano.
(b) An uncanny silence settling over the land.
(c) A violent shaking of the ground.
(d) Vibrations that are not unusual for the region.

11. Thorbjorn Sigurgeirsson decides to try to stop the chunk of mountain moving towards Heimaey's town and harbor by:
(a) Blowing up the mountain with a thousand sticks of dynamite.
(b) Ordering a plane to drop a bomb on the mountain.
(c) Blocking the mountain with a natural barrier of cooled lava.
(d) Pumping seawater directly onto the mountain.

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

13. What do doctors dispense to workers who are cooling down the lava in Iceland to soothe their hoarse throats?
(a) Norwegian chest drops.
(b) Icelandic throat lozenges.
(c) Swedish chest lozenges.
(d) Finnish cough drops.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does "City Flow" do in Heimaey?

2. In Heimaey, who is Sveinn Eiriksson?

3. What gives Thorbjorn Sigurgeirsson the idea to cool the oncoming flow of lava?

4. What is Thorbjorn Sigurgeirsson's vocation?

5. The U.S. Army Air Corps' actions on an insulating vent on Mauna Loa volcano in 1935 result in what?

(see the answer keys)

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