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

2. What was the narrator's mother's former career as stated in the first sentence?
(a) Fire breather.
(b) Ringleader.
(c) Trapeze artist.
(d) Ballerina.

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

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

5. Where does the narrator say the tabloids carried the story of their town's disaster?
(a) Chicago and L.A.
(b) Boston and New York.
(c) Cincinatti and New York.
(d) Boston and L.A.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the narrator say her mother did the first time she owes her existence to her?

2. What condition does the narrator's mother have as explained in paragraph 1?

3. What did the ringmaster do to introduce the Flying Avalons on the day of the disaster?

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

5. How many acts performed before Anna and her husband's act on the day of the disaster?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9. 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?

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

(see the answer keys)

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