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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 film does Smith reference when discussing the station's housekeeping chores in Chapter 10?
(a) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
(b) Sleeping Beauty.
(c) Fantasia.
(d) Cinderella.

2. Approximately how many children were at the ice cream party in Chapter 9?
(a) 200.
(b) 250.
(c) 300.
(d) 120.

3. What did the newspaper article say a firefighter rescued following a rubbish fire?
(a) A raccoon.
(b) A robin.
(c) A squirrel.
(d) A chipmunk.

4. How did Smith march in the St. Patrick's Day parade in Chapter 6?
(a) In an ambulance.
(b) In his firefighter's gear on a fire truck.
(c) In a kilt playing bagpipes.
(d) In a business suit with fellow firefighters.

5. What job did Smith take when he quit high school?
(a) Delivering for a Chinese restaurant.
(b) Delivering flowers.
(c) Delivering food.
(d) Driving a cab.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did the Fire Department persist in holding parties for children who regularly harassed firefighters?

2. For which radical group was the group of Park Avenue residents raising money in the magazine article read by Smith in Chapter 7?

3. What did the welfare inspector recommend to the welfare agency after the visit?

4. Why did it take the firemen longer than usual to reach the large fire on Intervale Avenue in Chapter 10?

5. What disease did one of the firefighters contract?

Short Essay Questions

1. Does Smith feel that society has become more violent over the years, and if so, why?

2. Why had the system of safety inspections changed so radically?

3. Despite the death of the baby in the last fire in the book, Smith was more committed than ever to remaining a firefighter. What did he see at that fire that reinforced his tremendous loyalty to his fellow firemen?

4. Is the poverty seen by Dennis Smith in the South Bronx different than the poverty in which he grew up?

5. How did Dennis Smith feel as a child when the welfare inspector visited his family?

6. Why did Smith think it was useless to argue with the sneering youths hanging around a fireman's car in Chapter 10?

7. How did Smith distinguish between acts of shoplifting and looting within poor neighborhoods?

8. Why does Smith suggest that perhaps even with guidance, South Bronx resident Tina de Vega may still have ended up on drugs and prostituting herself?

9. What was Smith's attitude toward the man hanging around at the Union Avenue fire in Chapter 10? How did he feel about the man screaming that the firemen were not taking fire victims to the hospital because they didn't care about black people?

10. How did Smith convince himself of the need to respond to all calls when he found himself getting fed up with the arson incidents?

(see the answer keys)

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