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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How did Mary Murphy's first husband treat her?
(a) He spoiled her.
(b) He doted on her and wouldn't let her work.
(c) He expected her to work hard all the time.
(d) He beat her.

2. What role did the granite rock have in constructing dwellings?
(a) It acted as a wall and chimney.
(b) They chipped at the granite to make wall coverings.
(c) They used it to sharpen their knives so they could chop trees for their housing.
(d) It gave them a foundation.

3. What did Virginia write about her father's banishment?
(a) She wrote that his punishment was very unjust.
(b) She didn't write about it at all.
(c) She only said that he had to go on to California for provisions. D
(d) She said it was fair.

4. How did Virginia feel about losing the Pioneer Palace Car?
(a) It made her angry.
(b) She thought it was practical.
(c) It didn't seem to bother her much.
(d) She was devastated.

5. Who did Foster want to kill?
(a) Lem Murphy
(b) William Eddy
(c) Patrick Dolan
(d) Their Native American guides.

6. Where did George and Jacob Donner and their families camp?
(a) In California
(b) At the summit
(c) At Alder Creek
(d) At Tuskegee Lake

7. Why was Jean Baptiste Trudeau poking through the snow with a stick?
(a) He was looking for a forgotten ox.
(b) He was trying to find a lost child.
(c) He was trying to find firewood.
(d) He was hallucinating.

8. What kind of relationship did the survivors have?
(a) They deliberately rejected each other.
(b) They were more like one big family after the experience.
(c) Most survivors who weren't related didn't keep in touch.
(d) They gathered together annually to commemorate their survival and mourn those who died.

9. What happened to the food that the rescuers had stashed along the journey?
(a) It rotted.
(b) Nothing. It was all there.
(c) It was stolen by Native Americans.
(d) Wild animals had eaten it.

10. What kind of soup did they eat daily?
(a) Venison
(b) Bear
(c) Stone soup
(d) Ox hide

11. What is cannibalism?
(a) The eating of human flesh
(b) When you only eat soup
(c) A type of disease that infects children
(d) When you are overly aggressive

12. What instinctive rule comes into play regarding cannibalism?
(a) They kept their eyes shut while eating.
(b) People only ate their loved ones.
(c) No-one talked about it.
(d) Members of a family try not to eat their own dead.

13. Why was it a little difficult to read Virginia's letter?
(a) Her spelling skills were terrible.
(b) The ink smudged.
(c) The paper was torn and mildewed.
(d) She wrote in Spanish.

14. What special meal did the Reed children have for Christmas?
(a) Fresh bones to gnaw on
(b) Beans, rice, and dried apple slices
(c) Venison stew
(d) Bear meat and beans

15. Who is the unofficial untarnished hero of the Donner Party?
(a) Charles Stanton
(b) James Reed
(c) Patrick Dolan
(d) William Eddy

Short Answer Questions

1. How did Mary Murphy feel after her ordeal?

2. How many members of Forlorn Hope survived?

3. Where did one woman think the rescuers came from?

4. Who was the unofficial leader of the snowshoers?

5. Why wasn't William Foster tried for the deaths of Luis and Salvador?

(see the answer keys)

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