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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. Who witnesses two climbers in Europe fall to their deaths the year before?
(a) Simon Yates and Joe Simpson.
(b) Simon Yates and Jon Sylvester.
(c) Al Rouse and Maurice Herzog.
(d) Richard Hawking and Ian Whittaker.

2. Before recounting the Mont Blanc incident, Joe determines that Simon...
(a) Is indeed frostbitten.
(b) Is going to leave without him.
(c) Is suffering from altitude sickness.
(d) Has broken his leg.

3. Where does Richard sleep on the way up to base camp?
(a) In his tent.
(b) In a pigsty.
(c) In a snow cave.
(d) In a hammock.

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

5. What is verglas?
(a) A thin glaze of glass-like ice covering the rock.
(b) Vertical ice.
(c) A type of eye lens used to help climbers with vertigo.
(d) Vertical scree.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Joe compare his fitness with Simon's?

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

3. Who is the first character mentioned by the author?

4. What do the climbers call their melted-snow drinks?

5. What is directly under Joe when he hangs in front of the ice wall?

Short Essay Questions

1. What observation does Joe make about tents in the opening scene of the book?

2. On the first practice climb to Seria Norte, Joe loses sight of base camp and immediately notices what?

3. Compare or contrast the influence of the incident on The Bonatti Pillar on the climbing careers of Joe Simpson and Ian Whittaker.

4. On page 65, Joe says, 'I knew it would be a good day.' By the end of the day, how and why does his view of the day change?

5. Explain how Joe feels for the two days immediately prior to setting out for Siula Grande.

6. Why does Joe consider standing on the summit an unsettling anticlimax?

7. Why does Simon cut the rope?

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

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

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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