View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did the travelers encounter as they climbed the Sierra Nevada?
(a) A burning sun
(b) Snow
(c) New friendships with the Native Americans
(d) Illness

2. How fast was the Donner Party moving as they blazed through the Wasatch?
(a) 10 miles a day
(b) 2 miles a day
(c) 8 miles a day
(d) 15 miles a day

3. How deep was the snow by the time they reached Truckee Lake?
(a) 1 foot deep
(b) It was up to their thighs.
(c) There wasn't any snow.
(d) 5 feet

4. What did the interior of the wagon remind Virginia of?
(a) A garbage heap
(b) A stuffed closet
(c) A living room
(d) Organized chaos

5. How did the Murphy clan and the Reeds and Donners get along?
(a) They seemed wary of each other.
(b) They were like a big family.
(c) They were outrightly hostile to each other.
(d) They were constantly bickering.

6. How many states were in the Union in the spring of 1846?
(a) 52
(b) 20
(c) 28
(d) 13

7. How old was Virginia Elizabeth Backenstoe Reed when the family left Illinois?
(a) Almost 7
(b) Almost 25
(c) Almost 13
(d) Almost 18

8. What did the first group find that pioneers had left the winter before?
(a) Maps
(b) Weapons
(c) Food
(d) A cabin

9. What was the hardest part of the trip?
(a) Dealing with death
(b) Ascending the Sierra Nevada
(c) Leaving home
(d) Keeping up with Hastings

10. How many wagons did each family have?
(a) 5
(b) 2
(c) 3
(d) 1

11. How did Virginia spend her days after leaving Missouri?
(a) Steering the wagons
(b) Minding the little ones
(c) Reading to her grandmother
(d) On her pony

12. How did the Reed women feel about the trip?
(a) They thought they would regret it.
(b) They were very excited about the adventure.
(c) They braced themselves for the harshness of it.
(d) It was going much better than they expected.

13. What was used to wash the dishes?
(a) Soap and water
(b) They were wiped out with leaves.
(c) Sand or gritty dirt
(d) They never washed dishes.

14. What was James Reed's occupation?
(a) He ran mills and made furniture.
(b) He ran a grocery store.
(c) Lawyer
(d) Farmer

15. How many wagons did the Reeds lose in the desert?
(a) 1
(b) 3
(c) 2
(d)

Short Answer Questions

1. Independence, Missouri known for all of these except what?

2. How with the group feeling by the time they reached the shore of the Great Salt Lake?

3. How do people get across the great Salt Lake Desert in today's world?

4. How did they get the wagons down the canyons?

5. What was the Hastings Cutoff trail like?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 482 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample