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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Joe land on when he falls into the crevasse?
(a) A snow hole.
(b) A cornice.
(c) An ice bridge.
(d) The bottom of the crevasse.

2. When Joe finally reaches Bomb Alley, he immediately finds a trickle of water. How long has he gone without food or water?
(a) Eight days.
(b) Three days.
(c) "Forever."
(d) One whole day.

3. What is the 4-step pattern of movement that Joe perfects to get through the moraines?
(a) Place-lift-brace-hop.
(b) Hop-fall-retch-curse.
(c) Check-sit-swing-step.
(d) Push-hop-push-hop.

4. Simon feels as if the whole struggle up until he cuts the rope is the deliberate scheme of whom?
(a) Joe.
(b) A bored and evil force.
(c) Himself.
(d) The Peruvians.

5. After seeing that the rope had been cut, Joe falls asleep. What wakes him?
(a) Someone shouting.
(b) The cold.
(c) The sounds of the glacier.
(d) A nightmare of falling.

6. What is a bergschrund?
(a) A burgundy-colored, crunchy type of scree.
(b) The hop of an injured climber.
(c) A natural amphitheatre.
(d) A crevasse at the head of a mountain glacier.

7. After his first night in a snow cave since exiting the crevasse, Joe awakens, screaming from a nightmare about the crevasse, in which he was reciting what?
(a) A Shakespeare soliloquy.
(b) The climber's oath.
(c) A pop song.
(d) His vow of revenge.

8. Besides the commands of the voice, what does Joe rely on to keep him going?
(a) The glacier.
(b) His watch.
(c) Simon.
(d) The heat.

9. What does Joe do to find out if Simon has fallen to his death?
(a) He taps their secret code on the ice wall.
(b) He asks Richard.
(c) He calls him on the radio.
(d) He pulls the rope.

10. When Joe pulls on the rope in the crevasse, what happens?
(a) The rope comes taught from the weight of Simon's body.
(b) The rope slides freely into the crevasse.
(c) Simon yells.
(d) The rope breaks.

11. While abseiling deeper into the crevasse, Joe is certain of two things. What are they?
(a) There is a way out of the crevasse and he will find it.
(b) Simon is alive and will come back for him.
(c) Simon is dead and will never be found.
(d) Simon is gone and will not return.

12. Upon clearing the crevasses and reaching the moraines, what does Joe realize?
(a) That he is snow-blind.
(b) That Simon and Richard have left base camp.
(c) That the lakes are frozen.
(d) That he's going the wrong direction.

13. Who does Richard go to see about getting donkeys for transporting their gear?
(a) Huayallapa.
(b) Spinoza.
(c) Gloria.
(d) Norma.

14. When sorting through Joe's possessions, what does Simon salvage?
(a) A bag from Chamonix.
(b) Joe's clothes.
(c) Miri Smidt's diary.
(d) Joe's hat from Czechoslovakia.

15. When he finds a way out, what does Joe say he has that he didn't have before?
(a) An escape route.
(b) The will to live.
(c) Feeling in his fingers.
(d) A plan.

Short Answer Questions

1. After waking from his nightmare, what does Joe see?

2. What method of movement does Joe first try when he is out of the crevasse?

3. After Bomb Alley, what is Joe's next objective?

4. What name does Joe shout over and over in the crevasse?

5. The morning after Simon cut the rope, he descends down the mountain. What does Simon believe to be Joe's fate?

(see the answer keys)

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