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

2. Who is the author of "The Leap"?
(a) Eleanor Lee.
(b) Louise Erdrich.
(c) Leonora Ellis.
(d) Leslie Eldridge.

3. Where does the narrator say she used to live in paragraph 4?
(a) The West.
(b) The North.
(c) The Far East.
(d) The South.

4. What condition does the narrator's mother have as explained in paragraph 1?
(a) She has dementia.
(b) She is deaf.
(c) She is blind.
(d) She is paralyzed.

5. What metaphor is used in paragraph 5 to describe the way Anna and Harold would drop through the air during their act?
(a) Like two peas in a pod.
(b) Like two doves in love.
(c) Like two sparkling birds.
(d) Like dragonflies in the night.

Short Answer Questions

1. What stands "cast in concrete" (para. 3) to commemorate the accident?

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

3. What are some things the narrator says her mother has not kept from her youth?

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

5. In paragraph 2, what does the narrator say she sometimes thinks her mother has no memory of from her youth?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

6. 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?

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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