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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) Old clothes and old friends.
(b) Essays or awards.
(c) Sequined costumes or posters.
(d) Journals or news clippings.

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

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What does the narrator suggest may have been Harold's final thought as he fell into the crowd on the day of the disaster?

3. What happened during Harold and Anna's act just before they were able to clasp hands in midair?

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

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. 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?

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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