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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 did Maclean and the others agree was the second key point on the hillside they needed to locate?

2. How did Maclean compare the death of his wife and the death of the Smokejumpers?

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

4. What did Mike Mansfield accomplish for the families of the fallen Smokejumpers?

5. What was one of many reasons Maclean thought Henry Thol, Sr. should be proud of his son?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the author describe the final moments of the men's lives before the fire overtook them? What elements of nature were prominent in their lives just before their deaths? How did they actually die?

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

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

6. 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?

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

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

9. 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?

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Maclean stated that one important part of his investigation was to learn if anything good had come from the Mann Gulch fire. What were some of the changes made by the foremen, spotters, pilots, and Smokejumpers to ensure their safety during a fire? What was the logic behind these changes?

Essay Topic 2

Point of view is important in any storytelling. What is this story's point of view? Does the author display particular bias toward one theory or another? One group or another? Has Maclean been trustworthy as a storyteller? Discuss using examples.

Essay Topic 3

When speaking about the young men who were Smokejumpers in the 1940s, Maclean explains that these men wanted to make it clear "to themselves and to the universe that they love the universe but are not intimidated by it and will not be shaken by it, no matter what it has in store." Discuss this quote in light of the profile of a typical smokejumper, and the specific Smokejumpers who landed in Mann Gulch into the fire.

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