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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. After giving up on their original mission in Syangpoche, where did the climbing team decide to walk to in the early pages of the Mount Everest-Fairytale and Reality chapter?

2. In the early pages of the Mount Everest-Fairytale and Reality chapter, Messner needed to leave Nepal because he had a lecture tour beginning. Where did Messner's European lecture tour start?

3. When the British expedition returned to Everest in 1924, how many times were the climbers forced to abandon their higher-elevation camps and return to their base camps because of snowfall and extreme cold?

4. How large is Tibet?

5. According to what Messner learned from his journalist friend in the Mount Everest-Fairytale and Reality chapter, who received permission for a solo assent of Everest during the winter of 1980-81?

Short Essay Questions

1. Because it lies so far above sea level, what is Tibet known as?

2. When the climbing team reached Syangpoche in the early pages of the Mount Everest-Fairytale and Reality chapter, they were unsuccessful in completing their task. What was their task and why were they unsuccessful?

3. What did Messner suspect was the main reason that men often invited him to talk over a beer after hearing Messner's lecture?

4. How did Messner describe the region of Solo Khumba in the early pages of the Mount Everest-Fairytale and Reality chapter?

5. As the book opens, Messner reflects on his first ascent of Everest. What did the mountain mean to Messner?

6. What made Messner's ascent of the Abruzzi Ridge different from that of previous mountaineers?

7. When a tourist at the hotel asked Oelz why he climbed Everest after learning that he and Messner had reached the summit in the early pages of the Mount Everest-Fairytale and Reality chapter, how did Oelz respond?

8. What was the bold plan for the second expedition to Everest that Captain Finch came up with?

9. In the Kanchung chapter, what did the article Messner read in the "Peking Review" state?

10. How did the first person to want to scale Mount Everest alone first learn about Mount Everest?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

There were several people discussed in the book who did not survive their encounter with Mount Everest. Identify at least three people who were killed on the mountain. Compare each of these deaths, being sure to indicate who died, how the person died, and what impact on Messner this person's death had. What did Messner learn from each of these other climbers?

Essay Topic 2

Messner believed that true mountaineering meant playing "fair" and not using technological aids.

a. Explain Messner's reasoning behind why using technological aids was akin to cheating.

b. Identify the technological aids Messner did and did not use during his solo ascent of Mount Everest.

c. Did Messner's use of two technological aids make his ascent to the summit of Mount Everest any less impressive?

Essay Topic 3

Interspersed with Messner's account of his solo climb of Mount Everest, as well as the entire situation surrounding his attempt, Messner shared a great deal of history surrounding the mountain itself and the early attempts to climb Everest. How did the historical accounts support or detract from Messner's solo ascent attempt? Why might Messner have chosen to include all of the historical information in the book?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 865 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample