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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When Gus Grissom's wife gives birth to their first child, where is Gus?
(a) Fighting overseas in Korea.
(b) On base, completing his flight training.
(c) In the delivery room.
(d) On a top-secret mission.

2. What does the author compare the career path of a fighter pilot to?
(a) A journey.
(b) A sprint.
(c) A marathon.
(d) A pyramid.

3. When do the pilots wear their bridge coats?
(a) When they are on patrol.
(b) When it is raining.
(c) When they attend another pilot's funeral.
(d) When superior officers visit the base.

4. How many test pilots are in the original group in Jacksonville?
(a) 12.
(b) 20.
(c) 8.
(d) 35.

5. What is the name Yeager gives to his plane?
(a) Soaring Eagle.
(b) Rocketing Rickshaw.
(c) Glamorous Glynnis.
(d) Guns of Death.

6. What is Chuck Yeager's signature flying move?
(a) Shooting straight up before leveling off.
(b) He has no signature move.
(c) Pulling out of a steep dive just before crashing.
(d) A slow roll, sixty feet off the deck.

7. When Chuck Yeager is interviewed by reporters in Phoenix, what do the reporters want to know about?
(a) The sound barrier.
(b) The astronauts.
(c) How Yeager's family is.
(d) The next plane Yeager will be testing.

8. Why does Janet Conrad support her husband's decision to join the astronaut program?
(a) She wants her husband to be a famous astronaut.
(b) She thinks it will be safer than flying high-performance jet fighters.
(c) She wants to move out of the desert.
(d) She thinks it will vault his career to the top.

9. At the insistence of the astronauts, what feature is finally designed into the capsule?
(a) A window.
(b) A homing device.
(c) A mayday beacon.
(d) A lavatory.

10. Which of the astronauts had separated from his wife, but reconciles with her after the psychological interviews at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base because he thinks it will improve his chances for astronaut selection?
(a) Scott Carpenter.
(b) Deke Slayton.
(c) John Glenn.
(d) Gordon Cooper.

11. What is focused on as being the pilots' best qualification for their selection to the Project Mercury astronaut program at the press conference?
(a) Their piloting skills.
(b) Their extraordinary combat accomplishments.
(c) Their physical fitness.
(d) Their superior adaptability.

12. Who originally pilots the X-1 aircraft?
(a) Pete Conrad.
(b) Chuck Yeager.
(c) Jim Lovell.
(d) Slick Goodlin.

13. Where is Cape Canaveral located?
(a) Cocoa Beach, Florida.
(b) Jacksonville, Florida.
(c) Miami Beach, Florida.
(d) Destin, Florida.

14. Who is the only Marine in the group of seven astronauts?
(a) Gus Grissom.
(b) John Glenn.
(c) Pete Conrad.
(d) Alan Shepard.

15. The pilots hold Konakai seances. What is Konakai?
(a) The bar the pilots gathered at after work.
(b) The title of one of Glenn's philosophical books.
(c) A Japanese warrior tradition.
(d) A hotel near Cape Canaveral.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why is Gus Grissom uncomfortable during the press conference?

2. Who is known as the "king of the test fighter pilots"?

3. Why should Yeager be grounded and not allowed to fly the test flight to break the sound barrier on October 14th?

4. When Jane Conrad realizes the cavalier manner in which the pilots discuss their killed comrades, what does she liken their discussion to?

5. Why do the pilots report to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base?

(see the answer keys)

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