View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What is the narrator's mother's name?

3. What was the narrator's mother's former career as stated in the first sentence?

4. What does the narrator say audience members ate while waiting for the act to begin?

5. What did Harold and Anna use for part of their act?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay discussing the setting and time period of “The Leap." In what ways does the time period and setting impact your understanding of the story as well as the themes?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay examining the ending of “The Leap." How did the ending fit into the storyline? Do you think the ending was effective? What theme might the ending represent? What might the author have done differently?

Essay Topic 3

Genre is a category assigned to a literary work, like a novel. What are some genres that could be used to classify the story? Explain.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 730 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample