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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. What does Joe lack the courage to do?
2. What does Simon do with Joe's clothes?
3. Who narrates the chapter "Silent Witness"?
4. What does Joe do to find out if Simon has fallen to his death?
5. What is the weather like when Simon begins to descend the mountain alone?
Short Essay Questions
1. 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?
2. As Simon descends Siula Grande at the beginning of "Silent Witness", how does he feel about the mountain?
3. What does Joe discover upon reaching the "bottom" of the crevasse?
4. Why is Joe so worried about losing Simon's tracks?
5. In the moraines, what device plays a crucial role in Joe's survival?
6. While crawling away during his escape from the crevasse, what is Joe's most common excuse for stopping, and what persuades him to continue?
7. When does the "voice" utter its first words of discouragement? What does it tell Joe?
8. What are some of the reasons Richard gives for their expeditious departure?
9. After he sees the frayed ends of the cut rope, what goes through Joe's mind?
10. Why does Joe decide to descend deeper into the crevasse?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
At seven o'clock on the night before their departure, Simon and Richard hear an 'eerie wail' that Richard dismisses as a dog (p172). Study the time line of events. Is it possible that the wail they hear is Joe's first cry for help that he howls into the night from the highest point of the moraines? Why or why not? Support or refute this with evidence.
Essay Topic 2
Throughout the second half of the book, Joe continually refers to two minds. In the chapter, 'Mind Games', Joe says he is 'split in two' (p145). He labels one of these minds 'the voice'. What does Joe hear from his bifurcated inner self, and how does he react to each 'half'?
Essay Topic 3
Joe mentions more than once in the book that he has strange feelings of dread or uneasiness before bad things happen. Why do you think this is? What are Joe's ambiguous feelings on the summit? Research other climbers' similar comments, and compare. Why does he continue to climb mountains if he is so dubious about the ultimate objective? Is the journey more important, or the destination, or even the return journey? Do you think the unspoken final objective of mountain climbers is the summit, or actually making it back alive to tell about it?
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This section contains 1,064 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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