Life As We Knew It
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50 free Life as We Knew It trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Life As We Knew It starts with a teenager's ordinary worries: grades, friends, a crush, an argument with her mother. Then an asteroid strikes the Moon, and within hours the tides, the weather and the power grid begin to fail. What makes the novel stick is how small it stays. The end of the world is seen from one kitchen table, through one family's dwindling shelves. This quiz follows the story from the night of the impact to its final pages. There are questions on Miranda, her brothers and her parents, on the friends and neighbors who drift away, and on the turning points of the long cold: the rush for supplies, the summer the sky changes, the sickness, the walk into town. A few questions cover the book's author and the sequels. It is written for students reading the novel in class, for book clubs, and for anyone who finished it and went to check the cupboards. The questions give away the plot, so finish the book before you play. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Life As We Knew It, which landmark is reported washed away on the night the Moon is struck?
The Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is swept off by the first giant tides, and the same broadcast reports Cape Cod and the East Coast's barrier islands under water.
Q 02What does the asteroid strike do to the Moon in Life As We Knew It, setting off worldwide disasters?
Knocks it closer to Earth
The impact knocks it closer to Earth because the asteroid is denser than astronomers predicted, and the nearer Moon's stronger pull throws the tides into chaos.
Q 03Which pantry treat does Miranda devour in secret in Life As We Knew It, costing her days of meals?
Chocolate chips
Chocolate chips were being saved for Matt's birthday, and a furious Laura makes Miranda finish the whole bag before barring her from family meals.
Q 04What is the name of the Evans family cat in Life As We Knew It, who vanishes for days one July?
Horton
Horton slips out one night as Miranda comes in, and Matt warns that someone may have killed him for food before he turns up yowling at the door.
Q 05What turns the summer sky permanently gray in Life As We Knew It, killing the family's garden?
Volcanic eruptions
Volcanic eruptions around the world, set off by the Moon's stronger pull, throw up an ash cloud that blocks the sun for months and sends temperatures plunging.
Q 06Which room do the Evanses all move into for winter in Life As We Knew It, relying on its wood stove?
The sunroom
The sunroom holds the house's wood stove, so by November the whole family eats, sleeps and cooks there, and Miranda begs one last night in the house before giving up her privacy.
Q 07What does Miranda use to reach the hospital in Life As We Knew It when snow traps her sick family?
Cross-country skis
Cross-country skis are the family's only way out after four feet of snow, and Matt's New Year's resolution was for all three siblings to master them.
Q 08Which illness sweeps through Miranda's town in Life As We Knew It, sparing her alone in the household?
The flu
The flu empties the hospital of all but two nurses, so Miranda must nurse her mother and both brothers back to health alone.
Q 09What catches Miranda's eye on a deserted street in Life As We Knew It, leading her to food?
A yellow flyer
A yellow flyer stands out because Miranda has seen nothing bright in months of gray, and chasing it stops her from lying down in the snow to die.
Q 10What role does Miranda's stepmother Lisa ask her to take for the coming baby in Life As We Knew It?
Godmother
Godmother is an honor Miranda accepts in the novel's opening pages while feeling overwhelmed, and she wonders why her brothers were not asked too.
Q 11Life As We Knew It is told entirely in which form, written by sixteen-year-old Miranda Evans?
Diary entries
Diary entries were dropped for the sequel, whose author said she could not picture a teenage boy keeping one.
Q 12In which US state is Howell, the fictional hometown of Miranda Evans in Life As We Knew It?
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania keeps the Evanses far enough inland to escape the giant waves that drown the coasts, though not the cold and hunger that follow.
Q 13In Life As We Knew It, which sport does Miranda's younger brother attend summer camp for?
Baseball
Baseball matters so much to him that he worries a poor diet will stop him growing tall enough to play professionally.
Q 21Which figure skater does Miranda idolize in Life As We Knew It and later meet on a frozen pond?
Brandon Erlich
Brandon Erlich once trained with Miranda's old coach, and after their skate together she is never sure the meeting really happened.
Q 22In Life As We Knew It, what name does Miranda give the baby sister she can only imagine?
Rachel
Rachel is the name Miranda invents once her stepmother's due date passes, because no word ever arrives to say whether the baby was born.
Q 23Which late friend appears in Miranda's dreams in Life As We Knew It, guarding the gates of heaven?
Becky
Becky died after a long illness before the story begins, and in the dreams she tells Miranda she cannot come in because she is still alive.
Q 14In Life As We Knew It, whom does Miranda believe her mother is betting on to survive?
Jonny
Jonny, the youngest, is quietly kept on fuller rations while the others skip meals, which Miranda resents before she comes to accept the logic.
Q 15Which friend of Miranda's gives away her school lunch and fasts for her faith in Life As We Knew It?
Megan
Megan follows Reverend Marshall's teaching that the disasters are punishment for sin, and she eventually starves to death.
Q 16In Life As We Knew It, which elderly neighbor joins the Evanses' frantic supermarket trip?
Mrs. Nesbitt
Mrs. Nesbitt grew up with Laura's parents and counts as family, and before she dies she tells Miranda to take every useful thing in her house.
Q 17What is the job of Peter, Laura's boyfriend in Life As We Knew It, whose visits tend to bring bad news?
Doctor
Doctor Peter Elliot closes his own practice to work 18-hour days at the hospital, and he dies in the winter epidemic.
Q 18Miranda Evans belongs to which school team in Life As We Knew It, later practicing at Miller's Pond?
Swimming
Swimming moves outdoors when the school pool cannot be filtered without power, and at the pond Miranda grows close to her teammate Dan.
Q 19Which injury does Laura Evans suffer twice in Life As We Knew It, keeping her downstairs?
A sprained ankle
A sprained ankle sounds minor, but armed guards will not let Miranda into the hospital to fetch help, and she is left begging at the door.
Q 20Which author wrote Life As We Knew It after more than thirty years of writing for young readers?
Susan Beth Pfeffer
Susan Beth Pfeffer had published dozens of books before this one became her bestseller, and three sequels about the same disaster followed.
Q 24Miranda's friend Sammi leaves home in Life As We Knew It with a forty-year-old man bound for which city?
Nashville
Nashville is where George, who has given her parents supplies, promises a better life, and Sammi's own mother urges her to go.
Q 25What do Dan's parents swap their car for in Life As We Knew It so that he can leave town alone?
A motorcycle
A motorcycle gives Dan a chance to survive on his own, and he tells Miranda goodbye at the hospital where his mother lies ill.
Q 26Which illness does Peter warn about in Life As We Knew It when he urges the family to buy bug repellent?
West Nile virus
West Nile virus is spread by mosquitoes, and Peter tells them to pay whatever repellent costs; it later puts Dan's mother in the hospital.
Q 27Which purchase is Miranda proud of thinking up herself on the big shopping trip in Life As We Knew It?
Oil lamps
Oil lamps prove their worth months later, when Miranda stands in a blizzard holding one to guide Matt home from town.
Q 28How does the powerless supermarket charge shoppers in Life As We Knew It the day after the impact?
A flat price per cart
A flat price per cart, $100 in cash, sends Laura's team back for load after load, and one man even tries to steal a full one from them.
Q 29In Life As We Knew It, an elderly neighbor likens the shortages to rationing in which conflict?
World War II
World War II rationing is her proof that ordinary people cope, a reassurance she offers just as the power cuts out again.
Q 30In Life As We Knew It, what do the Evanses store in their emptied dining room to keep it safe?
Firewood
Firewood is too precious to leave outdoors, so Laura moves out her antique furniture and Hal spends his short visit helping Matt cut more.