The Leap

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?

• Narrate important events of the story in reverse chronological order

• Control the pacing to increase the tension of the story's climactic moment

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

• Use the narrator's adult knowledge to revise unflattering events from her childhood

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

• The use of a narrator who is never named

• 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

• The story ending, in which the narrator and her mother are still descending to safety on the ground

In which sentence about 'The Leap' does the word who or whom function as a relative pronoun at the beginning of a relative clause?

• The narrator did not know who would try to rescue her.

• The story doesn't say who was killed besides Harry Avalon.

• Anna's arm was broken by a rescuer who was trying to help her.

• It seems obvious whom the babysitter telephoned after she awoke.

Which two inferences can you make about the narrator as a child?

• She was obedient.

• She was very curious.

• She was easily frightened.

• She wanted to become an acrobat.

• She had complete faith in her mother.

At the time the narrator tells the story, she is living in--

• her mother's New Hampshire house in the woods.

• North Dakota, where she grew up.

• a tent at the Avalon Circus.

• a hospital where she is recovering from the fall.

Which line in the story most clearly foreshadows the fire?

• "My mother is the surviving half of a blindfold trapeze act..."

• "She has never upset an object or as much as brushed a magazine onto the floor."

• "Suddenly the room goes dark, the stitches burn beneath my fingers..."

• "No hot sun beat upon the striped tent..."

Reorder the following. This list reflects the order in which events in “The Leap” are mentioned in the selection. Order the events in the chronological order in which they actually occurred in the timeline. The first event will be ordered 1, and the last event will be ordered 5.

• The narrator listens to her mother’s heartbeat.

• Anna loses her sight.

• Anna saves herself during a trapeze act when lightning strikes the tent pole.

• The narrator lives in the West.

• Anna leaps into a burning house to save her daughter.

What does the use of flashbacks allow the author to do that could not have been done without this technique?

• Narrate important events of the story in reverse chronological order

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

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

• Use the narrator’s adult knowledge to revise unflattering events from her childhood

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

• The use of a narrator who is never named

• 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

• The story ending, in which the narrator and her mother are still descending to safety on the ground

Which quotation best supports the theme for the story?

• 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)

• I suppose you could call it the egocentrism of a child, of all young children, but I considered her a less finished version of myself. (Paragraph 11)

• I came home to read to my mother, to read out loud, to read long into the dark if I must, to read all night. (Paragraph 15)