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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 would Harold show the audience members during part of their act?
(a) His wedding ring.
(b) Anna's smear of lipstick near his mouth.
(c) A card trick.
(d) His blindfold.

2. What did Harold and Anna do in midair during their act according to paragraph 5?
(a) Tell a joke.
(b) Change costumes.
(c) Embrace.
(d) Kiss.

3. What phrase is used to describe the narrator's mother's movements in paragraph 2?
(a) Like a bull in a china shop.
(b) Stealthlike manner.
(c) Catlike precision.
(d) Graceless fumbling.

4. What is the narrator's mother's name?
(a) Abbeth.
(b) Alice.
(c) Anna.
(d) Agnes.

5. What does the narrator sometimes do in her childhood room?
(a) She talks on the phone.
(b) She paints.
(c) She reads.
(d) She sews.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many times does the narrator say she owes her existence to her mother?

2. Who is the author of "The Leap"?

3. What metaphor is used in paragraph 5 to describe the way Anna and Harold would drop through the air during their act?

4. What does the narrator suggest may have been Harold's final thought as he fell into the crowd on the day of the disaster?

5. Where does the narrator say she used to live in paragraph 4?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is the scene at the circus before the disaster described? What was the weather like? What was the audience doing?

2. What events followed lightning striking the main tent pole while Harold and Anna were performing?

3. Why does the narrator sometimes forget that her mother was part of the Flying Avalons?

4. What type of performer was the narrator's mother? Where does she live and what is her medical condition?

5. How does the narrator describe the way her mother moves through their home in New Hampshire in paragraph 1?

6. Why does the narrator say people in the East are at a disadvantage regarding weather changes than those in the West, where she used to live?

7. Describe Anna and Harold's typical trapeze performance.

8. What stands in the center of town as a reminder of the disaster? Where does the narrator find out about the events that day?

9. What detail about Anna was not mentioned in the newspaper accounts of the disaster?

10. Why does the narrator find it unsurprising that her mother was able to perform while seven months pregnant?

(see the answer keys)

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