Isaac's Storm

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following is the strongest example of the theme of The Effects of Politics on Severe Weather?

A) The US Weather Bureau is transferred to the Department of Agriculture.

B) Moore dispatches Dunwoody to Havana to undermine the Cuban forecasters.

C) The US Weather Bureau heeds the Cuban meteorologist’s warning about the storm.

D) Isaac gives a speech at the local YMCA claiming that a devastating hurricane is unlikely to ever ravage Galveston.

2. Which of the following best states what the repeated references to the barometer’s readings symbolize?

A) The true severity of the approaching storm

B) The triumph of scientific understanding over nature

C) The cowardice of the US Weather Bureau

D) Isaac’s stubborn denial that hurricanes are dangerous

3. What object metaphorically represents the loss of innocence caused by the storm?

A) Ritter’s Café

B) The collapse of the bathhouses

C) The death of Joseph’s dog

D) The rocking horse

4. What is notable about Dr. Samuel O. Young?

A) He is a meteorology enthusiast and realizes Galveston is in danger before Isaac admits it.

B) He is the secretary of Galveston’s Cotton Exchange and keeps quiet about the storm to increase profits.

C) Unlike most of Galveston’s inhabitants, he is excited about the approaching storm.

D) He loses his entire family in a train crash on the same day of the Galveston hurricane.

5. As the head of the US Weather Bureau’s central office, Willis Moore insists that only his headquarters can approve which of the following?

A) Tornado warnings

B) Storm warnings

C) Blizzards

D) Severe weather alerts

6. What important decision do Isaac and Joseph disagree on?

A) When to warn the people of Galveston of the impending storm

B) When to leave the Weather Bureau offices to check on family

C) That the family should evacuate Isaac’s house to seek higher ground

D) That Isaac should accept sole responsibility for the deaths of thousands in Galveston

7. When does Isaac first acknowledge that he has gravely misjudged the power of the storm?

A) When he wakes up at 4:00 a.m. to the pounding of deep-ocean swells

B) When the Central Office orders him to raise the storm flag at 9:30 a.m.

C) Around 2:30 p.m. after seeing that many of the streets are impassable

D) Around 5:30 p.m. when his house starts to drift

8. What other tragic event is Larson alluding to when he writes, “Forty-five steamship lines served the city, among them the White Star Line, which provided service between Galveston and Europe and in just over a decade would lose a great ship to hubris and ice”?

A) The sinking of the Titanic

B) The sinking of the Lusitania

C) The sinking of the Endurance

D) The sinking of the Britannic

9. How do the people of Galveston successfully dispose of the overwhelming number of corpses in the city?

A) Bury them at sea

B) Bury them in mass graves

C) Burn them

D) Send them away

10. What happens to Isaac’s three daughters?

A) Rosemary and Allie May survive the storm, but Esther does not.

B) All three of them survive the storm.

C) Only Allie May survives the storm.

D) Rosemary and Esther survive the storm, but Allie May does not.

11. What technique is used in the following sentence: “Many years later he would write, ‘If we had known then what we know now of these swells, and the tides they create, we would have known earlier the terrors of the storms which these swells…told us in unerring language was coming’”?

A) Hyperbole

B) Understatement

C) Sarcasm

D) Foreshadowing

12. Who are Piddington, Redfield, and Dampier?

A) Science-minded men who advanced the field of atmospheric sciences

B) Meteorologists in the US Weather Bureau in Washington, DC

C) Patrons that financed Columbus’s exploratory ventures in the West Indies

D) Politicians that put no faith in the mission of the US Weather Bureau

13. What technique is used when John Blagden says, “Galveston became Atlantis”?

A) Oxymoron

B) Alliteration

C) Allusion

D) Symbolism

14. Where does Louisa’s husband, August, take shelter during the storm?

A) The YMCA and Ritter’s Café

B) The city’s waterworks building and a grocery store

C) The Weather Bureau and St. Mary’s orphanage

D) Judson Palmer’s house and Rabbi Cohen’s house

15. How do most journalists react to Isaac’s report of the storm?

A) They accept the positive spin on how the storm transpired, asking few questions.

B) They call into question the Bureau’s efficacy based on the number of fatalities.

C) They incite panic about the increasing number of severe weather events and demand action from Washington.

D) They generally ignore the report, focusing instead on more pressing news.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. What is the lasting impact of the 1900 hurricane on Galveston’s rivalry with Houston for economic domination in the region?

2. Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle theorized that history is best explained by the impact of a few great heroes and leaders whose actions turned the wheel of history. Consider this theory in light of Larson’s exploration of Isaac’s version of events. Does Larson consider Isaac one of the “Great Men of History” as described in Carlyle’s theory?