The Leap by Louise Erdrich Selection Test

Read this description of Anna from paragraph 1.

"She has never upset an object or as much as brushed a magazine onto the floor. She has never lost her balance or bumped into a closet door left carelessly open."

The description suggests that Anna has retained her —

• graceful acrobatic skills

• matter-of-fact approach to challenges

Read this sentence from paragraph 5. 

"They loved to drop gracefully from nowhere, like two sparkling birds, and blow kisses as they threw off their plumed helmets and high-collared capes."

What is suggested about the Flying Avalons by the simile used in the description?

• How small and fragile they seemed to be

• How skillful and natural their acrobatics were

Read how the words unnoticed in paragraph 4 and unseen in paragraph 12 are used in context. What is the meaning of the prefix un-?

• B. Not

• C. Never

The phrase one form of flight for another in paragraph 15 suggests that the —

• A. ability to read allows the imagination to soar

• B. mother is willing to exchange excitement for safety

The narrator implies that the main reason she moved back to her childhood home to care for her mother was due to her feeling of —

• gratitude

• obligation

Part A

Which theme is conveyed in the selection?

• We rely on our sense of sight more than any other sense.

• Sometimes a moment in time can seem longer than it actually is.

Which quotation best supports the answer to Part A?

• "She is one with the constant dark now, just as the air was her home, familiar to her, safe, before the storm that afternoon."(paragraph 6)

• "My mother once said that I’d be amazed at how many things a person can do within the act of falling." (paragraph 9)

Most of “The Leap” is narrated as a series of flashbacks. What does the use of flashbacks allow the author to do that could not have been done without this technique?

• B) Control the pacing to increase the tension of the story’s climactic moment

• C) Slow down significant moments of the story and speed up less significant moments

Which inference can you make about the narrator as a child?

• B) She was easily frightened.

• C) She had complete faith in her mother.

Which element makes it difficult to identify the climax in 'The Leap'?

• The use of two main characters, the narrator and her mother

• Two plot lines, one involving the Flying Avalons and the other involving the narrator as a child