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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 was the one thought the Smokejumpers shared as they ran from the fire?
(a) To find Sallee and Rumsey.
(b) To find a way back to their foreman.
(c) To find some water.
(d) To find some place cool.

2. What emotion did Maclean believe was the last one felt by those still living when young people have died?
(a) Pity.
(b) Damnation.
(c) Sadness.
(d) Confusion.

3. Why did Laird Robinson stop smokejumping?
(a) He injured himself while working in Missoula.
(b) He injured himself while hiking.
(c) He injured himself in a car accident.
(d) He injured himself landing on a fire.

4. Who was Arthur P. Brackebush?
(a) A former pilot of a Smokejumper's plane.
(b) A former Forest Service ranger.
(c) A former student of Gisborne's.
(d) A former foreman for the Smokejumpers.

5. How many Smokejumpers have died from fire since the Mann Gulch fire?
(a) Five.
(b) Two.
(c) Ten.
(d) None.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who was Henry Thol, Sr.?

2. When on the ridge in Mann Gulch, what did Maclean witness Sallee and Rumsey argue about?

3. What well-known magazine had a lead article entitled "Smokejumpers Suffer Ordeal by Fire?"

4. What did Maclean believe the Smokejumpers had accomplished spiritually at the time of their deaths?

5. Where did Maclean finally locate Walter Rumsey?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. 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?

3. 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?

4. Why did both parents and the Forest Service hope for silence after the court judgments concerning suits filed against the Forest Service?

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

6. What were Sallee and Rumsey arguing about as Maclean approached them on the ridge? What did they agree on?

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

8. To what did the author compare the cloud of smoke atop the Mann Gulch fire when the blowup rose out of the gulch?

9. What did the land in Mann Gulch look like in the aftermath of the fire?

10. How did Maclean explain the picture of a big fire? What was it made up of in his opinion?

(see the answer keys)

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