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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. How did Mary Murphy's first husband treat her?

2. What happened to the food that the rescuers had stashed along the journey?

3. What did Virginia write about her father's banishment?

4. What did the survivors do with the buckskin strings from the rescue party's snowshoes?

5. What happened to the dogs that were traveling with the group?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happened to the members of the Reed family?

2. How did they go about deciding who should be cannibalized?

3. What complications did the group which later became known as Forlorn Hope face?

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

5. Why couldn't all the survivors get rescued at once?

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

7. What happened to Louis Keseberg?

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

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

10. How did the group members respond when it actually came time to eat one of their comrades?

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

How did the descendants of the Donner Party feel about their relatives? What reputations did they have to live down?

Essay Topic 3

Was Lansford Warren Hastings qualified to write his book? Why or why not? What did the man do for a living and what was he like?

(see the answer keys)

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