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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 does Simon say the mountain has taken?
(a) His dignity.
(b) Everything.
(c) Joe.
(d) His achievement.

2. After reciting a soliloquy as a preoccupying game, Joe realizes what?
(a) That he hates Shakespeare.
(b) That he's in a snow cave.
(c) That last night's storm is not over.
(d) That he is desperately thirsty.

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

4. Joe reaches an open void while abseiling deep into the crevasse, and he struggles to continue. He compares the sensation to which experience?
(a) Standing in the doorway of a plane, wearing a parachute.
(b) The moment before saying "yes" in a marriage ceremony.
(c) Standing on a diving board and staring into the pool.
(d) Riding a bike for the first time.

5. When reaching the "floor" of the crevasse, Joe determines his depth to be...
(a) About 100 feet.
(b) About 50 feet.
(c) About 150 feet.
(d) Below sea level.

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. What are the bas-relief figures doing?

4. After seeing that the rope had been cut, Joe falls asleep. What wakes him?

5. What is the 4-step pattern of movement that Joe perfects to get through the moraines?

Short Essay Questions

1. Before setting out across the moraines, what does Joe do with his Karrimat?

2. What are some of the reasons Richard gives for their expeditious departure?

3. As Simon turns for one last look at Siula Grande, what goes through his mind?

4. When Simon sees the cliff over which Joe had been hanging, how does he feel?

5. Why does Joe decide to descend deeper into the crevasse?

6. While trying to reach base camp, what single thought springs Joe into action, but also holds the possibility of being the final death of him?

7. How does Joe describe his night in the moraines under the stars?

8. While abseiling to the right of the wall over which Joe had tumbled, why does Simon suddenly stop his descent?

9. After discovering that Simon had cut the rope, Joe turns off his head torch and cries himself to sleep. When he awakens, what are his immediate thoughts?

10. Joe tells of the most difficult thing he has ever done, and the best view he has ever seen. What are these?

(see the answer keys)

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