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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Sacks climbed a particular stretch of ground in just over an hour. How long did it take him to descend this same stretch?
(a) Three hours.
(b) Half an hour.
(c) Nearly seven hours.
(d) Two hours.

2. What analogy does Sacks use to describe his left leg's failure during therapy?
(a) A cliff with an impossibly smooth face.
(b) A city with deserted streets.
(c) A car with an empty gas tank.
(d) A flat pasture with lazy cows.

3. How is the material in the last chapter presented?
(a) Randomly.
(b) Systematically.
(c) Poetically.
(d) Concisely.

4. After he fell, what story did Sacks recall the villagers telling him?
(a) A Pole had been gored by the bull and bled to death.
(b) A Scotsman had died on exposure on the mountain exactly one year previously.
(c) An Englishman had died on the mountain two weeks earlier.
(d) An Englishman had broken both legs on the mountain earlier, though he survived.

5. What would make the state of limbo tolerable?
(a) The ability to communicate with others.
(b) The concern of a fellow person in limbo.
(c) The knowledge of an end to this state.
(d) The ability to examine one's own thoughts.

6. What was the first exercise that Sacks tried to do with the physiotherapist?
(a) Bend his knee.
(b) Lift his leg.
(c) Tense up his quadriceps.
(d) Swing his leg to the left.

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

8. Who came up with the phrase "quickening art" which described Sacks's use of music to move down the mountain?
(a) Harvey.
(b) Nietzsche.
(c) Kant.
(d) Pavlov.

9. What does the word scotoma mean?
(a) Being utterly alone in the world.
(b) The depression following surgery.
(c) Emptiness and images of emptiness.
(d) Darkness of soul.

10. How old was Sacks when he discovered the beauty of the world through the Pythagorean theorem?
(a) Twelve.
(b) Five.
(c) Eight.
(d) Twenty-one.

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

12. When the father and his son rescued Sacks, what had they been doing just a moment before?
(a) Searching for him.
(b) Listening to the mass wafting up from the church.
(c) Sleeping.
(d) Hunting reindeer.

13. What did Sacks hope to see when he reached the mountain's summit?
(a) The bull that lived there.
(b) A good view of the surrounding mountains.
(c) The temple at the top.
(d) A good view of the city.

14. Who has written about the "occasions of poetry" (pg 9)?
(a) Thomas Gunn.
(b) Admiral Nelson.
(c) T. S. Eliot.
(d) William Shakespeare.

15. What was Luria's response to Sacks's story?
(a) Fascinating but not completely useful to modern doctors.
(b) Such effects are widely studied in the medical field.
(c) Such effects often happen but the stories are not told.
(d) Such effects rarely ever occur.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did Sacks write to A. R. Luria?

2. Why did the staff nurse laugh at Sacks when he arrived in his room?

3. What was the date when Sacks climbed the mountain?

4. Why was Sacks so happy that he could do fifty chin-ups?

5. What instrument did Sacks have for listening to music?

(see the answer keys)

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