"The Leap" In-Text Analysis

In “The Leap,” what does the narrator suggest is the main reason that her

mother, now blind from cataracts, can still safely negotiate her New Hampshire

home?

• She has lived there a long time.

• She once saved the narrator’s life.

• She was once part of a blindfold trapeze act.

• She has a highly developed sense of hearing.

As explained in “The Leap,” what causes the circus disaster in which Harry

Avalon dies?

After the narrator’s mother in “The Leap” is injured in the accident,

why is the narrator’s father called to the hospital to help her?

• He teaches people to read and write.

• He has experience in circus disasters.

• He wants to make amends for starting the fire.

• He is familiar with treating her sort of injury.

In “The Leap,” after the mother marries for the second time, what

seems to be her attitude toward her early years as a circus performer?

• She enjoys recalling her days as a famous acrobat.

• She seems to have put her past behind her.

• She longs for the romance of those years.

• She deeply regrets her early career.

Which means of transportation would most Americans today consider to be

superannuated?

• airplane

• spaceship

• automobile

• stagecoach

Which phrase best describes the mother in “The Leap” when she jumps

onto the burning house to rescue her daughter?

• calm and capable

• caring but hesitant

• nervous and embarrassed

• frightened but determined

What do the details in this excerpt from “The Leap” most clearly

foreshadow?

[S]ometimes, as I sit sewing in the room of the rebuilt house in which I slept as a

child, I hear the crackle, catch a whiff of smoke from the stove downstairs, and

suddenly the room goes dark, the stitches burn beneath my fingers, and I am

sewing with a needle of hot silver, a thread of fire.

• the narrator’s returning to live with her elderly mother

• the revelation of the mother’s blindness in later life

• the memory of the fire that the narrator escaped

• the story of the mother’s time in the hospital

In speaking of her mother, the narrator of “The Leap” says, “I owe her my

existence three times.” To which of the mother’s actions does the narrator most

clearly refer? Choose three options.

• saving herself in the circus disaster

• staying in the narrator’s hometown

• rescuing the narrator in the fire

• giving birth to the narrator

• learning to read and write