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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Sacks hope to see when he reached the mountain's summit?

2. Where did Sacks finish writing his book?

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

4. Who came up with the phrase "quickening art" which described Sacks's use of music to move down the mountain?

5. The night after his surgery, what was the first of Sacks's nightmares?

Short Essay Questions

1. All of Chapter Five is devoted to the moment Sacks took his first step. What literary effect does this have on the book?

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

3. As Sacks began to regain freedom and move around the hospital, he frequently mentioned natural elements: the birds, sun, and wind. Given what you know of his personality, why are these things important?

4. During the late afternoon, what silence did Sacks experience? Why was this terrifying?

5. 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?

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

7. When touching his left leg for the first time after surgery, what did Sacks feel? How does his description of this moment pave the way for the truth about the leg?

8. Sacks notes that "body-image is dynamic and plastic" (Afterword, pg 194). What does this mean?

9. The night before his cast was taken off, Sacks repeatedly dreamed a nightmare. What was this nightmare? How did it reveal the conflict in his mind?

10. What is anosognosis? What problem does this state present to medical researchers?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sacks says that during his descent from the mountain, his awkward way of moving became natural (Chapter One, pg 10). He stopped thinking about it as the action became automatic. In what ways is this phenomenon exhibited throughout the book?

Essay Topic 2

Note Dr. Swan's attitude toward Sacks's injury compared to Sacks's attitude. How do they differ? In Sacks's attitude toward his own injury, what are the elements of a physician? What are the elements of a patient? What does he think of Dr. Swan's professional opinion?

Essay Topic 3

How did Sacks achieve the certainty which "bypassed the most complex mathematics" (Chapter Five, pg 121)? Was there any element of divinity in this certainty? How did this certainty relate to his idea of the world as a whole?

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