Into the Lifeboat

What is the most likely reason the author includes her observations in paragraph 3?

As I turned I ran into Jock, the band leader, and his crowd with their instruments. "Funny, they must be going to play," thought I, and at this late hour! Jock smiled in passing, looking rather pale for him, remarking, "Just going to give them a tune to cheer things up a bit," and passed on. Presently the strains of the band reached me faintly as I stood on deck watching a young woman excitedly remonstrating with an embarrassed young officer. He wanted her to get into the lifeboat he was trying to fill but she refused to go without her father.

• to express her fear of sailing

• how to do CPR

• to show how passengers and crew first reacted when the ship began to sink

• to introduce all the characters

Which of the following is the best definition of reluctance?

• steady and easy going

• unwilling

• excited and ready

• confused

In paragraph 7 of the selection, how do passengers react when they are asked to board lifeboats?

One boat was already being lowered with very few people in it. When this was pointed out as a shining example for backward souls by the officer near me, he got a rather alarming response as the crowd surged forward to embark. The boat was lowered very full, almost too full this time: and so on. Always some held back in need of coaxing while a few were too eager.

• The passengers think the sinking is a joke.

• All the passengers get in the lifeboats in a swift and easy way.

• Some passengers eagerly board lifeboats, while others need encouragement

• The passengers wait for the helicopters and skydivers.

Read the sentences from paragraph 15 of the selection

Looking along the length of the ship, I noticed the forward part of her was lower now, much lower! For a fraction of a second, my heart stood still, as is often the case when faith, hitherto unshaken faith, gets its first setback

Those lines reflect the narrator's __

• fear of heights

• sense of time

• faith that all will be fine

• first feelings of alarm

Read the sentence from paragraph 22 of the selection.

"Surely it is all a dream," I thought as I looked up the side of the ship, beautifully illuminated, each deck alive with lights; the dynamos were on the top deck.

Which phrase from the sentence helps the reader understand the meaning of the word illuminated?

• Surely it is all a dream

• as I looked up the side of the ship

• each deck alive with lights

• the dynamos were on the top deck

Groaning, the boat descended a fearful distance into that inky blackness beneath, intensified as the lights fell on it occasionally.

Is this quote a description of

• the lifeboat

• the Titanic

We touched the water with a terrific thud, a bone-cracking thud which started the baby crying in earnest. Somebody in the forepart ordered oars out and we slowly pulled away from the side of the ship. I noticed one of the few men in the boat rowing; he was a fireman who had evidently just come up from the stokehold, his face still black with coal dust and eyes red-rimmed wearing only a thin singlet to protect him from the cold.

Is this a description of

• the lifeboat

• the Titanic

No, I had made no mistake. There were only five decks now; then I started all over again- only four now. She was getting lower in the water. I could not any longer deny it.

This is a description of

• the lifeboat

• the Titanic

As if all could read my mind, the women in the boat started to weep, some silently, some unrestrainedly. I closed my eyes and prayed, prayed for one and all but dared not think of anyone in particular. I dared not visualize those people I had just left, warm and alive as I was. I tried to busy myself with the baby, but could not refrain from looking up again. Only three decks now, and still not a list to one side or the other.

This is a description of

• the lifeboat

• the Titanic

The author wrote this selection most likely to --

• record her personal experience during an important event

• to convince people to try a cruise

• to reveal a mystery

• to convince people that the captain didn't know what to do