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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. Why does Joe turn off his head torch?
(a) So he can go to sleep.
(b) So he can see out better.
(c) To save the batteries.
(d) He can't stand the looks of his injury.

2. When Joe falls into the crevasse, what is the first thing he does when he realizes he is alive?
(a) He pulls on the rope.
(b) He yells for Simon.
(c) He laughs.
(d) He looks for his head torch.

3. After waking from his nightmare, what does Joe see?
(a) Sunlight reflecting off of his crampons.
(b) His breath against the snow roof.
(c) A way out.
(d) Stars.

4. What does Joe not want to lose sight of on the glacier?
(a) Base camp.
(b) Simon's tracks.
(c) The lake.
(d) The North Star.

5. What are the bas-relief figures doing?
(a) Copulating.
(b) Carving.
(c) Pointing toward God.
(d) Gawping.

Short Answer Questions

1. When Simon reaches base camp, what is the first thing he says to Richard?

2. Upon clearing the crevasses and reaching the moraines, what does Joe realize?

3. After close inspection, what does Joe determine the "floor" of the crevasse to be?

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

5. 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?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. As Simon descends Siula Grande at the beginning of "Silent Witness", how does he feel about the mountain?

3. Why is Joe so worried about losing Simon's tracks?

4. Through the moraines, Joe's watch is a strong preoccupation. Besides pain, what is his obsession?

5. When does the "voice" utter its first words of discouragement? What does it tell Joe?

6. The morning after arriving back at base camp, Simon revisits his feelings about the place while urinating on a boulder. How does he describe these emotions?

7. While preparing for his escape attempt up the snow cone towards the light, how does Joe's view towards the crevasse briefly change?

8. While crawling away during his escape from the crevasse, what is Joe's most common excuse for stopping, and what persuades him to continue?

9. What does Joe discover upon reaching the "bottom" of the crevasse?

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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