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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where did Maclean first go in the hopes of finding Robert Sallee?

2. According to Sallee and Rumsey, toward the end of their run, how many times did the smoke part in order for them to see the top of the ridge?

3. What did Maclean believe the Smokejumpers had accomplished spiritually at the time of their deaths?

4. What was the name of the doctor who went in with the rescue crew the night of the fire?

5. Who is one of the best bibliographical references about the Mann Gulch fire available to Laird and Maclean?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

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

3. 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?

4. 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?

5. What did Maclean mean when he said, "viewing total conflagration is literally blinding, as sight becomes sound."

6. When did Maclean begin research on the Mann Gulch fire? What where his first steps?

7. Maclean believed that the Smokejumpers did not see their lives in review as they died. What did he believe their final thoughts to be? How was he able to confirm his idea?

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

9. What did the gulch look like forty years after the fire? Was there any living vegetation?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Richard Rothermel constructed a graph to elucidate the tragedy of the fire at Mann Gulch. What did this graph show Maclean and Laird about the fire and the escape route the Smokejumpers had taken? According to Rothermel, what specific influences were in play the day of the fire? What specific gap in Smokejumper training did Maclean note due to Rothermel's graph?

Essay Topic 2

Maclean speaks throughout his book about the importance of studying and understanding the Mann Gulch fire of 1949. Discuss why Maclean believes it is important to understand this disaster completely.

Essay Topic 3

When speaking about the young men who were Smokejumpers in the 1940s, Maclean explains that these men wanted to make it clear "to themselves and to the universe that they love the universe but are not intimidated by it and will not be shaken by it, no matter what it has in store." Discuss this quote in light of the profile of a typical smokejumper, and the specific Smokejumpers who landed in Mann Gulch into the fire.

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