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

Short Answer Questions

1. What happened when Margaret tried to cross the mountain?

2. Hw many other people died the night Dolan died?

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

4. Why was Jean Baptiste Trudeau poking through the snow with a stick?

5. What was life like for the Donner Party survivors in California?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the members of the Donner Party interact when they reached California?

2. What tragedy struck once the first group of survivors made it safely to Johnson's Ranch?

3. How did Virginia tell her cousin about the personal atrocities that happened on the trail?

4. What happened to Mary Murphy?

5. How did Virginia deal with the idea of cannibalism?

6. What troubles did they face as they waited out the winter?

7. What did they decide to do for food in order to survive?

8. Why didn't the starving people hunt for food?

9. Why didn't Tamsen Donner allow herself to be rescued for a second time?

10. How did the Donner party story affect emigrants traveling West?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe in detail why James Reed was banished and what the team promised to his family. Then comment on how they treated the family in actuality.

Essay Topic 2

Describe what the rescuers found when they came across the survivors. What condition were the people in? Use specifics.

Essay Topic 3

Several people in the party died between the Great Salt Lake Desert and the Sierra Nevada. Name some of these people and explain how they died and how the group dealt with their deaths.

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