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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 common portrayal of death did Maclean believe did not occur for the Smokejumpers?
(a) To see their whole lives in review.
(b) To see the future.
(c) To see the people waiting for them in Heaven.
(d) To see the people they love.

2. Of what material are the Mann Gulch crosses made?
(a) Wood.
(b) Concrete.
(c) Marble.
(d) Plastic.

3. Where did Maclean place the ashes of his wife Jessie when she died?
(a) On the western bank of the Missouri.
(b) On Mount Helena.
(c) At Seely Lake.
(d) On Mount Jessie.

4. At the end of his life, what did Maclean consider the ultimate drive of the human spirit?
(a) To continue doing what we last hoped to do on earth.
(b) To escape death at any cost.
(c) To die in peace.
(d) To cry out for compassion.

5. When did Maclean begin his research on the Mann Gulch fire?
(a) 1967.
(b) 1987.
(c) 1976.
(d) 1986.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who was the first man to crawl through the crevice at the reef during their escape from the fire?

2. What is a gofer match?

3. Who was the chief forester in Washington D.C. at the time of the Mann Gulch fire?

4. In Maclean's mind, what did the Ponderosa pines look like during the fire?

5. How did Maclean compare the fire at the top of the ridge to a snake?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Jansson's explanation of why the non-flammable objects such as wallets and watches were found uphill from the men's bodies? How did his explanation differ from that of the Forest Service?

2. What happened to the men when they left the foreman, Dodge, at the site of the escape fire? What name did the author give to the point at which the men left? From what perspective did the author tell the story of their assent?

3. What did the gulch look like forty years after the fire? Was there any living vegetation?

4. Who was Henry Thol, Sr.? What was his role in the Mann Gulch fire?

5. Whom did Maclean find at the Hoerner Waldorf-Champion paper mill? What information did this person give Maclean to move him along in his search for Sallee and Rumsey?

6. What did the author mean when he spoke of bi-visual and tri-visual?

7. How did the perspective shift as the author continued his discussion of the fire from looking at the mushroom cloud in the sky? What did he hope to learn by changing perspective?

8. How did the Forest Service receive Maclean when he began searching for the documentation on the Mann Gulch fire? Why?

9. When did Maclean begin research on the Mann Gulch fire? What where his first steps?

10. What different theories did Henry Thol on one side and Carl Gustafson present as to the escape fire set by Dodge? How did Maclean suggest the Review Board of the Mann Gulch fire might have immediately answered the question of the escape fire set by Dodge?

(see the answer keys)

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