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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 well-known magazine had a lead article entitled "Smokejumpers Suffer Ordeal by Fire?"
(a) Time.
(b) National Geographic.
(c) Life.
(d) Look.

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

3. What was the name of the doctor who went in with the rescue crew the night of the fire?
(a) Dr. Jansson.
(b) Dr. Thomas.
(c) Dr. Williams.
(d) Dr. Hawkins.

4. What were the only sensations the men running from the fire were aware of?
(a) Heat and loneliness.
(b) Heat and starvation.
(c) Heat and futility.
(d) Heat and thirst.

5. To what did Maclean compare the fire lower on the hillside as it met the escape fire set by Dodge?
(a) Deranged mice running toward a mouse hole and hitting a wall.
(b) Deranged military monsters enraged by the obstacle in front of them.
(c) Deranged soldiers running blindly into the smoke and fire.
(d) Deranged serpents searching for food.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who was Hal Samsel?

2. Who did Maclean watch play billiards nearly every day when he was a young teacher?

3. What did Maclean believe were the final cries of the men who died on the ridge?

4. When Sallee and Rumsey reached Hellman's cross, what did they both say to Laird and Maclean?

5. Who did Maclean meet who finally makes the connection for him to Robert Sallee?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Maclean believe has become the symbol of fear in the late twentieth century? What artist does he site as support for this claim?

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

4. What was it like when the fire reached its height and totally covered the landscape? To what did Maclean compare the fire at this point?

5. What two emotions governed the analysis of the tragedy at Mann Gulch? How did Maclean describe the first emotion among the men in Mann Gulch?

6. How did Dr. Hawkins describe the death process the Smokejumpers underwent in the final moments of their lives? To what did Maclean compare their suffering?

7. Who is the firsthand source of information Maclean and his investigative partner Laird Robinson set out to find before they did anything else? Why? Who were they looking for?

8. 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?

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

10. As Maclean began his comparison of the Smokejumpers' run to the top of the ridge to a race run on a track, how did he compare the race run by the Smokejumpers and that of the athlete on a track?

(see the answer keys)

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