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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. According to the Introduction author Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D. is the literary editor of what periodical?
(a) The Journal of Atlantic Medicine.
(b) Connecticut Medicine.
(c) The East Coast Journal of Medicine.
(d) The New York Medical Review.

2. What is the title of Chapter 2 of the book?
(a) “The Life of a Virus and the Death of a Man.”
(b) “A Valentine—and How it Fails.”
(c) “Doors to Death of the Aged.”
(d) “Murder and Serenity.”

3. Dr. Nuland theorizes that 85% of the aging population will die from one of seven primary causes, which he refers to as what in Chapter 4?
(a) The Grim Reaper’s seven sons.
(b) The seven horsemen of death.
(c) The seven doors to the afterlife.
(d) The seven knives of doom.

4. How old was the author when his mother died of cancer?
(a) 3.
(b) 19.
(c) 11.
(d) 7.

5. From what author does the following quote come that opens the Introduction: “… death hath ten thousand several doors / For men to make their exits”?
(a) Rainer Maria Rilke.
(b) Phil Whiting.
(c) John Webster.
(d) Harvey Nuland.

Short Answer Questions

1. What refers to neurotransmitters that are produced by the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus in vertebrates during exercise, excitement, pain, consumption of spicy food, love and orgasm?

2. The human heart has a mass between how many grams?

3. Who wrote Researches into the Physical History of Mankind?

4. Dr. Nuland states that in another era, death was determined by the lack of a heartbeat. Today, however, death is equated with what?

5. While in the midst of doing his admission paperwork, Dr. Nuland observed James McCarty begin to do what, according to the author in Chapter 1?

Short Essay Questions

1. What information does the author relate of stroke fatalities in Chapter 4? Whose assistance does he cite in this chapter?

2. How has the determination of death changed over time, according to the author in Chapter 2? What are Dr. Nuland’s conclusions of the determination of death?

3. What statistics does Dr. Nuland provide relating to ischemic heart disease in Chapter 1?

4. What medical progress has been made in the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, according to the author in Chapter 5?

5. What happened when Dr. Nuland was doing Mr. McCarty’s paperwork, according to the author in Chapter 1?

6. What does the author beseech of the reader in his Introduction to How We Die?

7. What are the processes universal to dying described by the author in his Introduction?

8. What case study does the author use as an example in his discussion of Alzheimer’s in Chapter 5?

9. What differences does the author cite between the young and the old in dealing with the seven causes of death in Chapter 4?

10. How is “legal death” defined by the author in Chapter 6?

(see the answer keys)

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