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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. As Sacks notes at the beginning of the Acknowledgments, what has he done since his injury?
(a) Investigated current neuropsychological practice.
(b) Written two other books about medical phenomena.
(c) Interviewed hundreds of similar patients.
(d) Strengthened his legs so he could hike again.

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

3. Shortly after the sun set, what extraordinary auditory experience did Sacks have?
(a) He could not hear anything outside himself.
(b) He could no longer hear himself.
(c) He could hear every living creature in the area.
(d) He could hear the movement of the plants around him.

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

5. After realizing that he was the victim of the fall, what did Sacks do?
(a) Lay down and tried to think what he should do.
(b) Gave himself a pep talk in an attempt to begin moving.
(c) Looked at the leg as though he did not recognize it.
(d) Examined the injured leg as though he were explaining it to a class.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who has written about the "occasions of poetry" (pg 9)?

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

3. What vital support did the surgeon take away when he dismissed Sacks's concerns?

4. What does the word scotoma mean?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. A large portion of the horror Sacks felt in Limbo was the silence. What other time has Sacks experienced such deep silence? How does this connection contribute to Limbo?

2. How does Sacks think of his injury and recovery? Is this what you might have expected?

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

4. How much time does Dr. Swan spend with Sacks prior to the operation? How does this foretell his interactions with Sacks following the operation?

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. Patients in the hospital are treated with fear and sometimes horror by the healthy people who visit them. Using Sacks's thoughts, what might be the reason for this?

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

8. What timeline does Sacks establish for the development of neurology? What is still lacking from this branch of science?

9. What paradoxical command did Sacks find while he was in Limbo? How do you think this contrasted with his previous way of living?

10. What advice did Sacks's maiden aunt give him? How does this advice come across on the printed page?

(see the answer keys)

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