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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why was Sacks so happy that he could do fifty chin-ups?
(a) He did not have to get out of bed to exercise.
(b) If his torso were strong again, his legs would regain strength more quickly.
(c) Only fifteen hours earlier, he had been delirious with fever.
(d) He wanted to impress the nurse.

2. How did Sacks meet the bull?
(a) He rounded a boulder and it was lying in the path.
(b) He came over a small rise and the bull was lying in the grass.
(c) The bull walked out of a stand of trees.
(d) The bull looked like a boulder until he got close to it.

3. According to Sacks, why does he not end his story after his rescue?
(a) The accident is closely connected to the story of recovery.
(b) The book was not long enough to stop.
(c) The focus of the book is the recovery, not the accident.
(d) He had so many ideas left to convey.

4. What did Sacks experience with the father and son, which he had not experienced all day?
(a) Laughter.
(b) Inhibitions.
(c) Fear.
(d) Anger.

5. How long did Sacks think about his injury before he began writing about it?
(a) Six years.
(b) Eight years.
(c) Four years.
(d) Ten years.

6. What would happen if Sacks were not found by nightfall?
(a) He would die of blood loss.
(b) The bull would trample him to death.
(c) He would freeze to death.
(d) He would most likely go crazy.

7. Why was Sacks grateful to Dr. Henry Fleck?
(a) The doctor first explained Sacks' body-ego alienation.
(b) The doctor provided valuable support during therapy.
(c) The doctor performed electrical studies on Sack's damaged leg.
(d) The doctor's book was influential in Sacks' understanding of himself.

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

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

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

11. What was the primary reason that Sacks and his friends celebrated the evening after his surgery?
(a) Sacks' recovery was expected to take two short months.
(b) Sacks had not died on the operating table.
(c) They were drunk and did not care what they celebrated.
(d) They were alive and together.

12. The night after his surgery, what was the first of Sacks's nightmares?
(a) His injured leg was made of marble and he could not lift it.
(b) He was being trampled by a fish with hooves.
(c) He was running from the bull but could not move anywhere.
(d) He was again on the Mountain and his leg had lost all its nerves.

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

14. Essentially, why could Sacks not tense up the quadriceps?
(a) He had forgotten how.
(b) His brain could not communicate with either leg.
(c) His tendon had not been fully reconnected.
(d) The muscle was completely wasted away.

15. When riding to the hospital where he would be operated on, Sacks felt dread. How was this different from the dread he had felt on the mountain?
(a) This dread was distorted and nameless.
(b) This dread was fear of man rather than fear of natural consequences.
(c) This dread was less human and more animalistic.
(d) This dread was deeper than the first.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. How has Sacks written the book A Leg to Stand On?

3. What time of day did Sacks awake from his feverish delirium?

4. What analogy does Sacks use to describe his left leg's failure during therapy?

5. In what publication did Sacks's first article about his injury appear?

(see the answer keys)

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