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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. On their first night on Siula Grande, what do Joe and Simon sleep in?

2. What is another word for "abseil"?

3. When Joe first looks at his knee after his fall, how does he describe it?

4. What is verglas?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. Toward the end of "On the Edge", Joe awakens in the snow hole with what sensation?

2. What worries Joe and Simon the most about the final part of the route to the summit?

3. 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?

4. What does Joe like about Simon's personality?

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

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

7. In "Storm at the Summit", how does Joe get a bloody lip and a cracked tooth?

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

9. 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?

10. Describe the Peruvian family that lives in the huts.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Climbers acclimatize before a climb, meaning that they adjust to the conditions, especially the lower oxygen levels at high altitudes. To what other conditions, either physical or mental or both, does Joe "acclimatize" throughout the story?

Essay Topic 2

What influence does Richard have on the outcome of this story? Is he significant? Would the outcome have been different if Richard had not been with them?

Essay Topic 3

Joe provides a wealth of imagery when describing the figures he sees in the ice cliff shortly after emerging from the crevasse. Comment on these, providing at least five examples. When we read vivid descriptions, this usually leads our minds to other images of things that we have experienced. Describe what you see, as related to your own experience, when you read his descriptions. How do you relate to his descriptions? Do you see any significance in what these figures look like and/or in what the figures are doing? Do you view these figures as ambiguous in any way? If so, how? Which of Joe's primal needs or core beliefs are these figures appealing to or taunting, if any?

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