To Build a Fire

Reading Check

1. The Yukon Trail (Paragraph 1)

2. Henderson Creek (Paragraph 2) 

3. Below -50° (Paragraph 5)

4. Snow (Paragraph 34)

Short Answer

1. The man ignores the advice that "no man should travel alone in that country after 50 below zero." (Paragraph 31)

2. The dog understands "cold, real cold," while the man does not take it seriously at first. (Paragraph 24)

3. He falls through the ice on a river into water up to his knees. (Paragraph 25)

4. The matches burn his numb hands, first producing the smell of burning flesh and then producing pain—pain that becomes unendurable and causes the man to drop the matches. (Paragraphs 44-45)

5. He attempts to kill the dog to warm his hands inside the corpse, but because his hands are frozen he has no way to kill the dog. (Paragraph 46)

6. The man finally accepts that he is freezing to death. (Paragraph 57)