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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. Who is Madan?

2. What does Dan learn about as much as possible?

3. What had Peach planned to tell Beck after his climbing Mount Everest before Beck was injured?

4. What gave Beck motivation?

5. What is the date when the book opens?

Short Essay Questions

1. What route did Beck's group take, and what was the first tragedy on the climb?

2. How did Beck's longtime recovery proceed?

3. What does Beck say about hiking the Khumbu trail on his way to base camp?

4. How did Beck communicate with his family during most climbs, and how did he do so on the Everest expedition?

5. How did Beck end up making it back to Camp IV?

6. What does Peach say about Beck's and her relationship in Chapter 8?

7. What is the purpose of the climbers' stay at Base Camp?

8. What did three Sherpas and Stuart Hutchinson find after they set out to locate Yasuko and Beck?

9. What happened after Mike Groom arrived?

10. Why did Dan fly to be with Beck while Beck was in a hotel recovering?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the following:

1. What do you think are the characteristics of a successful work of non-fiction/memoir?

2. Analyze and discuss Left for Dead based upon the criteria you decide upon in #1 and judge if Left for Dead is a successful work of non-fiction/memoir.

3. Is Left for Dead a book you would recommend to a friend? Why or why not? Explain.

4. Can a novel be successful and yet many readers not enjoy it? Explain your response.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the following:

1. Compare/contrast Beck Weathers at the beginning of the novel to him at the end of the novel. How are they alike? How are they different? Are they both sympathetic characters? Which "Beck Weathers" would you most likely have as a friend? Why?

2. Compare/contrast Beck Weathers at the beginning of the novel to Beck Weathers at the end of the novel. How are they alike? How are they different? Are they sympathetic characters? Who would you most likely have as a friend? Why?

3. Compare/contrast Beck Weathers to Peach Weathers. How are they alike? How are they different? Are they sympathetic characters? Who would you most likely have as a friend? Why? Is each one compassionate? Honorable? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss one of the following:

1. Define irony in literary terms. Discuss the irony of the situation whereby Beck Weathers says that climbing Everest is not dangerous and yet he barely survived.

2. Define symbolism in literary terms. Discuss the use of and meaning of five symbols found in Left for Dead. Symbols are inherent in any work of literature, whether fiction or non-fiction, though in non-fiction, the use of symbols is not always intentional.

3. Discuss the use of foreshadowing in non-fiction. What is the purpose of foreshadowing in non-fiction? Cite 3 examples of foreshadowing and how it is indicates events to come in Left for Dead. Can you as the reader see ways that what Weathers writes about his early life foreshadows what will happen in his later life?

(see the answer keys)

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