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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. Where did Maclean place the ashes of his wife Jessie when she died?
(a) On the western bank of the Missouri.
(b) On Mount Helena.
(c) At Seely Lake.
(d) On Mount Jessie.

2. What was the Board of Review?
(a) The board appointed by the Forest Service to review the fire.
(b) The board appointed by Jansson to learn the truth about the fire.
(c) The board appointed by the president to study smokejumping.
(d) The board appointed by the governor to investigate Thol.

3. Who did Maclean meet who finally makes the connection for him to Robert Sallee?
(a) A personnel director.
(b) A French-Canadian nurse.
(c) A policeman.
(d) A registrar.

4. What common portrayal of death did Maclean believe did not occur for the Smokejumpers?
(a) To see the people waiting for them in Heaven.
(b) To see the people they love.
(c) To see their whole lives in review.
(d) To see the future.

5. Of what material are the Mann Gulch crosses made?
(a) Concrete.
(b) Plastic.
(c) Wood.
(d) Marble.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did the blowup and its fire rising out of Mann Gulch look like?

2. To what does a woodsman look for both the questions and their answers?

3. How did Maclean explain the change in the world after compassionately studying the fire at Mann Gulch?

4. What happened to the Smokejumpers once they left Dodge and his escape fire?

5. What did thinking about the struggle for oxygen that the Smokejumpers' experienced remind the author of?

Short Essay Questions

1. As Maclean began his comparison of the Smokejumpers' run to the top of the ridge to a race run on a track, how did he compare the race run by the Smokejumpers and that of the athlete on a track?

2. How did the Forest Service receive Maclean when he began searching for the documentation on the Mann Gulch fire? Why?

3. Why did both parents and the Forest Service hope for silence after the court judgments concerning suits filed against the Forest Service?

4. When Maclean and his group began their trek to Mann Gulch, how did Maclean respond to those who were concerned about his heart being strong enough to make it to the site of the fire?

5. What did the land in Mann Gulch look like in the aftermath of the fire?

6. To what did the author compare the cloud of smoke atop the Mann Gulch fire when the blowup rose out of the gulch?

7. What happened to the men when they left the foreman, Dodge, at the site of the escape fire? What name did the author give to the point at which the men left? From what perspective did the author tell the story of their assent?

8. Whom did Maclean find at the Hoerner Waldorf-Champion paper mill? What information did this person give Maclean to move him along in his search for Sallee and Rumsey?

9. How did Dr. Hawkins describe the death process the Smokejumpers underwent in the final moments of their lives? To what did Maclean compare their suffering?

10. How did the author describe the final moments of the men's lives before the fire overtook them? What elements of nature were prominent in their lives just before their deaths? How did they actually die?

(see the answer keys)

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