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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How did Sacks descend the mountain?
(a) By hobbling on his right leg.
(b) By "rowing" with his arms.
(c) By crawling.
(d) By rolling and sliding.

2. Where did Sacks finish writing his book?
(a) On a mountain in Nicaragua.
(b) In a meadow in New Yor.
(c) On a mountain in Costa Rica.
(d) In a village in Norway.

3. What book of the Bible does Sacks quote at the beginning of Chapter Three?
(a) Ecclesiastes.
(b) Job.
(c) Psalms.
(d) Proverbs.

4. When Nurse Solveig returned to take out Sacks's thermometer, what emotion did she convey?
(a) Concern.
(b) Rage.
(c) Pity.
(d) Disinterest.

5. What time of day did Sacks awake from his feverish delirium?
(a) Early morning.
(b) Late afternoon.
(c) Near midnight.
(d) Evening.

Short Answer Questions

1. What would happen if Sacks were not found by nightfall?

2. Why did Sacks dedicate his book to Luria?

3. What did Sacks think when he woke from the surgery?

4. What did Sacks think about as he moved down the mountain?

5. Sacks climbed a particular stretch of ground in just over an hour. How long did it take him to descend this same stretch?

Short Essay Questions

1. What differences exist between the 1993 edition of the book and the previous editions? Without having read the previous edition, do you think these changes are positive?

2. How was Miss Preston, the physiotherapist, more understanding than the surgeon had been? How did her understanding still fall short of the problem?

3. During his descent off the mountain, what is Sacks's connection to humanity? How does this contrast to nature's impersonality?

4. Through what physical senses does Sacks reenter the world of men?

5. Leontev and Zaporozhet's book dealt with two hundred soldiers who suffered hand injuries. What was Sacks's reaction to the book? How did it help his healing process?

6. What distinction does Freud make between types of paralyses? How did the distinction pave the way for a significantly narrow view of neurology?

7. What did Sacks do when he finally wanted to escape the convalescent home? How did the woman he met treat him differently than the hospital nurses had?

8. At his arrival to the Odda hospital, what was Sacks's experience with Nurse Solveig? How did this exemplify the prostration he began to feel in the hospital?

9. Sacks discovered, to his horror, that his mental and moral boundaries had shrunk to the limits of the hospital. What does this mean? How did this differ from his mindset before the accident?

10. How did Sacks treat the warning sign about the bull? What does this reveal about his attitude?

(see the answer keys)

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