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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 are some things the narrator says her mother has not kept from her youth?
(a) Essays or awards.
(b) Old clothes and old friends.
(c) Journals or news clippings.
(d) Sequined costumes or posters.

2. What did Anna and Harold do "openly" as they performed according to paragraph 5?
(a) Fumble and fall.
(b) Sing and dance.
(c) Laugh and flirt.
(d) Yell and argue.

3. What is the narrator's mother's name?
(a) Alice.
(b) Abbeth.
(c) Agnes.
(d) Anna.

4. After reading paragraph 1, what do readers learn about the narrator's mother's former partner?
(a) He was unkind.
(b) He lives with them.
(c) He has died.
(d) They had a falling out.

5. How many times does the narrator say she owes her existence to her mother?
(a) 2.
(b) 9.
(c) Dozens.
(d) 3.

Short Answer Questions

1. What would Harold show the audience members during part of their act?

2. What did Harold and Anna do in midair during their act according to paragraph 5?

3. What detail about Anna does the narrator note was not mentioned in the newspaper accounts of the disaster?

4. What does the narrator point out in paragraph one about how her mother moves through the house?

5. What was the narrator's mother's former career as stated in the first sentence?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator describe the way her mother moves through their home in New Hampshire in paragraph 1?

2. Why does the narrator sometimes forget that her mother was part of the Flying Avalons?

3. Why does the narrator find it unsurprising that her mother was able to perform while seven months pregnant?

4. What events followed lightning striking the main tent pole while Harold and Anna were performing?

5. Why does the narrator say people in the East are at a disadvantage regarding weather changes than those in the West, where she used to live?

6. Describe Anna and Harold's typical trapeze performance.

7. How is the scene at the circus before the disaster described? What was the weather like? What was the audience doing?

8. What type of performer was the narrator's mother? Where does she live and what is her medical condition?

9. What stands in the center of town as a reminder of the disaster? Where does the narrator find out about the events that day?

10. What detail about Anna was not mentioned in the newspaper accounts of the disaster?

(see the answer keys)

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