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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 did Harold and Anna do in midair during their act according to paragraph 5?
(a) Change costumes.
(b) Embrace.
(c) Tell a joke.
(d) Kiss.

2. What does the narrator sometimes do in her childhood room?
(a) She talks on the phone.
(b) She sews.
(c) She paints.
(d) She reads.

3. Who was the other half of her mother's act?
(a) Henry Allen.
(b) Harold Avalon.
(c) Herman Adams.
(d) Hank Allendale.

4. What detail about Anna does the narrator note was not mentioned in the newspaper accounts of the disaster?
(a) She was pregnant.
(b) She was blind.
(c) She was badly injured.
(d) She was Harold's wife.

5. What phrase is used to describe the narrator's mother's movements in paragraph 2?
(a) Stealthlike manner.
(b) Graceless fumbling.
(c) Like a bull in a china shop.
(d) Catlike precision.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the narrator say audience members ate while waiting for the act to begin?

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

3. What did Anna and Harold do "openly" as they performed according to paragraph 5?

4. Where does the narrator and her mother live?

5. What is the name of the narrator's mother's act?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

7. 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?

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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