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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is another word for "abseil"?
(a) Traverse.
(b) Bivi.
(c) Climb.
(d) Rappel.

2. When Joe knocks down a row of large icicles, he curses the pain of a...
(a) Cracked tooth.
(b) Broken knee joint.
(c) Broken heel.
(d) Shattered femur.

3. What is Joe attempting to do when he falls and injures himself?
(a) He is attempting to reverse-climb a small cliff.
(b) He is attempting to look over the edge of a cornice.
(c) He is attempting to slide down a scree slope.
(d) He is attempting to jump a crevasse.

4. Where do Joe and Simon first meet Richard?
(a) In Zaire.
(b) On the mountain.
(c) In a hotel in Lima.
(d) On the beach.

5. What is the elevation of Siula Grande?
(a) 29,000 feet.
(b) 4,500 feet.
(c) 21,000 metres.
(d) 21,000 feet.

Short Answer Questions

1. As Simon lowers Joe down the mountain, how is Joe facing?

2. Why does Simon cut the rope?

3. What object does Joe have trouble with in the beginning of the story?

4. When Joe and Simon move together along the ridge, how far behind Simon does Joe follow?

5. What is the name of the rock that Joe and Ian climb?

Short Essay Questions

1. Joe describes the beginning of their practice climb on Yantauri as 'inauspicious' (p24). Why?

2. When beginning his climb for the summit from the bivouac site 300 feet below the summit, what pros and cons does Joe mention about climbing in the daylight?

3. What is Joe's plan of action if Simon falls through, or off, the ridge again?

4. Why is Joe nervous about the first bivouac site?

5. When Joe and Simon start their ascent of the first ice wall on Siula Grande, what is Joe's attitude toward what they are doing?

6. At the beginning of "Disaster", what is Joe's attitude?

7. On the eve of the summit conquest, what does Simon do that leaves Joe in disbelief?

8. Describe Simon's feelings at the end of "The Final Choice".

9. In "Disaster", Joe says, 'In an instant an uncrossable gap had come between us and we were no longer a team working together.' In "The Final Choice", how has Joe's view changed?

10. After Joe tells Simon that he has broken his leg, he describes the pitiful look that Simon gives him as, 'a distance given to a wounded animal which could not be helped' (p74). From Simon's point of view, why does he give him this look?

(see the answer keys)

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