The Leap'

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.

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.

• staying in the narrator’s hometown

• giving up her circus career

• saving her husband in the circus disaster

• giving birth to the narrator

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

• human error

• a lightning bolt

• unruly spectators

• a faulty piece of equipment

The narrator of “The Leap” describes walking to a gravesite just down the highway when she was growing up. Who is buried in that gravesite?

• her father

• her mother’s first husband

• the spectators who were lost in the circus disaster

• the unborn daughter whom her mother lost in the circus disaster

In “The Leap,” which of the following seem especially important to the narrator’s mother after her second marriage? Choose two options.

• fame

• sewing

• reading

• remembering

Which type of person would most likely be described as encroaching?

• a spectator

• a professor

• a trespasser

• a homemaker

To answer an e-mail instantaneously, what must you do?

• answer immediately

• answer humorously

• answer unclearly

• answer angrily

Which means of transportation would most Americans today consider to be superannuated?

• airplane

• spaceship

• automobile

• stagecoach

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 is familiar with treating her sort of injury.

• He wants to make amends for starting the fire.

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.