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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 does the narrator say her mother did the first time she owes her existence to her?
(a) She saved her daughter's life.
(b) She was born.
(c) She saved herself.
(d) She met her first husband.

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

3. What does the narrator point out in paragraph one about how her mother moves through the house?
(a) She barely moves so as not to disturb anything.
(b) She is quite clumsy.
(c) She acts as though her daughter is not there.
(d) She never bumps into anything or knocks anything over.

4. Where does the narrator say she used to live in paragraph 4?
(a) The South.
(b) The North.
(c) The West.
(d) The Far East.

5. What condition does the narrator's mother have as explained in paragraph 1?
(a) She has dementia.
(b) She is paralyzed.
(c) She is blind.
(d) She is deaf.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Harold and Anna use for part of their act?

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

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

4. In paragraph 3, where does the narrator say she gets her information about her mother's disaster?

5. According to paragraph 4, during what month did Anna experience her disaster?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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