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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) Like a bull in a china shop.
(b) Catlike precision.
(c) Stealthlike manner.
(d) Graceless fumbling.

2. What does the narrator say audience members ate while waiting for the act to begin?
(a) Popcorn and peanuts.
(b) Ice cream and candy.
(c) Hamburgers and French fries.
(d) Hot dogs and chips.

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

4. Where does the narrator and her mother live?
(a) Vermont.
(b) Rhode Island.
(c) New Hampshire.
(d) Maine.

5. In paragraph 6, what does the narrator say her mother is able to live comfortably in?
(a) The spotlight.
(b) Extreme elements.
(c) Their farmhouse.
(d) Extreme poverty.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What did Harold and Anna do in midair during their act according to paragraph 5?

3. How many times does the narrator say she owes her existence to her mother?

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

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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 say people in the East are at a disadvantage regarding weather changes than those in the West, where she used to live?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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