SS Super Quiz Practice 1&2

Complete the sentence: Just as __________ opened the way for the black pilots,

the Triple Nickles opened the way for blacks to become paratroopers.

• A) the NAACP

• B) the Tuskegee Airmen

• C) the Black Panthers

• D) the Jim Crow Laws

• E) General Gavin

Instead of the steel paratrooper helmets, what did the Triple Nickles use for their

jumps into the forests?

• A) gas masks

• B) football helmets

• C) down feather padding

• D) firefighting helmets

• E) hockey helmets

What adjective does the author use to describe Walter Morris and his Service

Company's duties?

• A) dull

• B) important

• C) repetitive

• D) Both (B) and (C)

• E) Both (A) and (C)

What did Morris decide one day while watching the white students go through

their routine paratrooper training?

• A) The soldiers were not taking all the safety precautions that they should

  be taking.

• B) He really wanted to become a paratrooper to eventually become a

  smokejumper.

• C) That his troops were already completing much of the same strength

  training.

• D) That their standards were much higher than those expected from the

  black soldiers.

• E) He could have his men mimic the training in everything but the tower and

  plane jumping.

Answer explanation

"While watching the white students go through their routine, Morris had an idea. What if he had his men mimic the training of the white paratroopers? They could learn everything the paratroopers were learning aside from jumping." (19-20)

What honor did President Bill Clinton award to seven African-American soldiers

from WWII in 1997, over 52 years after the end of the war?

• A) The Purple Heart

• B) The Medal of Honor

• C) The Distinguished Service Cross

• D) The Distinguished Flying Cross

• E) The Air Medal

Answer explanation

"Although not a single African American solider from WWII had eve been given a Medal of Honor...President Bill Clinton awarded seven of these medals to WWII veterans in 1997" (104)

What pulls the parachute from the pack tray on the jumper’s back?

• A) the bungee

• B) the ripcord

• C) a pack pin

• D) static lines

• E) para-weights

Answer explanation

"Static line pulls the parachute from the pack tray on the jumper's back" (3)

What are the common causes of forest fires which the text mentions?

• A) extreme heat

• B) careless campers

• C) heavy lightning season

• D) All of the above

• E) Both (B) and (C)

Answer explanation

"I wasn't merely a heavy lightening season or careless campers that caused the Forest Service to need extra help" (67)

What would happen if your practice jump included eyes closed, hands grabbing

for air, or legs askew?

• A) You became the unit cook.

• B) You earned bad marks.

• C) You had to do manual labor the following day.

• D) You were no longer allowed to jump.

• E) You received a warning letter.

Answer explanation

"Plenty of ways to get it wrong. Jumping with your eyes closed...and jumping with your hands grabbing fro air or with your legs askew were just some examples of jumps that didn't receive a good mark." (34)

Where was the scariest of all the places that Americans found bomb-balloons?

• A) in the water, almost drowning a fellow soldier

• B) next to a civilian hospital

• C) tangled in the powerlines of the atomic energy plant

• D) on a school playground

• E) near an extinguished campfire

Answer explanation

" The scariest moment may have been when a balloon got tangled in the electrical lines of an atomic energy plant" (76)

Who broke the news to Morris of the secret behind the highly classified mission

that the Triple Nickles were headed towards in Oregon?

• A) General Gavin

• B) President Truman

• C) President Roosevelt

• D) a logger at the general store

• E) a waitress at the local diner at Fort Pendleton

Answer explanation

"A few white loggers were sitting around a potbellied stove.....'Oh, yeah, you colored soldiers, paratroopers, are going to fight forest fires for us. You're going to be smokejumpers." (65)