Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.

Reading Check

1. What does “Azucena” mean?

2. What caused the mudslide that trapped Azucena?

3. How is Rolf able to reach Azucena so quickly?

4. What equipment does Rolf conclude will be necessary to free Azucena?

5. How does the narrator try to help the rescue efforts?

6. Who was Katharina?

7. Who visits Azucena on the third day of her entrapment?

8. What does Azucena admit to Rolf shortly before her death?

Multiple Choice

1. The sentence, “First a subterranean sob rocked the cotton fields, curling them like waves of foam” contains an example of which of the following (Paragraph 2)?

A) caricature

B) euphemism

C) pathetic fallacy

D) red herring

2. The narrator’s description of the mudslide depicts death as which of the following?

A) indiscriminate and inevitable

B) violent and unjust

C) spiritual and mysterious

D) natural and healthy

3. The early rescue attempts most strongly contrast Rolf’s hopefulness with which of the following?

A) the narrator’s grief

B) Azucena’s resignation

C) the government’s indifference

D) the other rescuers’ pessimism

4. Which of the following passages best captures the role that Azucena plays in the narrator’s relationship with Rolf?

A) "I had no presentiments.