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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. Why did Beck decide to stay put for a while?

2. Whom did Rob get to talk with before he died?

3. What does Peach say Beck's obsession with climbing was doing?

4. What does the caller tell Peach about Beck?

5. What does Peach do to help Beck?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did the search party leave Beck and Yasuko where they found them?

2. What does Beck learn about his rescue as he reaches Kathmandu?

3. Whom did Peach and her friends contact to get Beck off the mountain?

4. How does Beck contrast current weather conditions with the conditions when he started up the summit eighteen hours earlier?

5. Describe the storm that pummels Beck's tent as he lay helpless inside.

6. What astonishes the climbers at Camp IV as they prepared to descend to Camp II, and what did the climbers do?

7. What did Beck do while waiting to travel to base camp on Everest?

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

9. What was Peach told about Beck in a phone call, and what happened just as she was relaying the news to the children?

10. What is the date at the opening chapter and what is Beck doing?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

Left for Dead ends on a happy note. Discuss the following:

1. Why do you think many (most?) people want what they perceive as a happy or good ending to a book? Explain your opinion. Do you? Why or why? not?

2. What are at least three reasons to read non-fiction? Discuss each one in light of Left for Dead and if it fulfills some or all of the reasons you mention. Give examples as to why Left for Dead is or is not successful in fulfilling the reasons you discuss.

3. Do you think reading solely for entertainment is as good a reason to read as any other? Why or why not? Can any work of fiction or non-fiction, no matter how poorly written, enlighten, teach, stimulate thought? Why or why not?

4. Would you have wished the ending to be different? Why or why not? Would that have changed what the author wished to convey with the book?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss one of the following:

1. Trace and analyze the theme of growth in Left for Dead. Consider the following questions as you write: What characters are most concerned with growth? Why? What are some symbols of growth? Symbols of rigidity? What characters seem rigid?

2. Trace and analyze the theme of courage in Left for Dead. Which characters struggle with this issue? Why? Which characters seem to possess courage? Why?

3. Trace and analyze the theme of death in Left for Dead. Consider the death of some of the climbers as an random act of nature and the near death of Beck as the result of poor choices.

(see the answer keys)

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