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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 the ringmaster do to introduce the Flying Avalons on the day of the disaster?
(a) He announced Anna and Harold to the crowd.
(b) He blew a horn and jumped up and down.
(c) He gave a little background on their love story.
(d) He cracked his whip and pointed to the ceiling.

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

3. In paragraph 3, where does the narrator say she gets her information about her mother's disaster?
(a) Her in-laws.
(b) Her mother.
(c) Her father.
(d) Old newspapers.

4. What stands "cast in concrete" (para. 3) to commemorate the accident?
(a) A replica tent pole.
(b) A statue of trapeze artists.
(c) A sequined costume.
(d) A feather boa.

5. What would Harold show the audience members during part of their act?
(a) His blindfold.
(b) His wedding ring.
(c) A card trick.
(d) Anna's smear of lipstick near his mouth.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does the narrator say she used to live in paragraph 4?

2. Where does the narrator and her mother live?

3. What does the narrator sometimes do in her childhood room?

4. According to paragraph 4, during what month did Anna experience her disaster?

5. Where does the narrator say the tabloids carried the story of their town's disaster?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 sometimes forget that her mother was part of the Flying Avalons?

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

(see the answer keys)

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