Print
Word
PDF
|
| Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. The night after his surgery, what was the first of Sacks's nightmares?
2. When did Sacks write the preface to the book?
3. Who wrote the book which was the model for Sacks's own book?
4. What analogy does Sacks use to describe his left leg's failure during therapy?
5. What name did Sacks give his windowless hospital room?
Short Essay Questions
1. Sacks says that simply his ability to stand changed the world and his place in it. How did this happen?
2. 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?
3. What is the most basic purpose of classical neurology? As can be inferred from the purpose of Sacks's book, how does classical neurology fall short?
4. What is the literary effect of Sacks's description of his injury? Why do you think the injury is not detailed later?
5. How did Sacks treat the warning sign about the bull? What does this reveal about his attitude?
6. With what quote does Sacks begin Chapter Three? How does this set the tone for the entire chapter?
7. What obvious differences existed between the injuries in Sacks's left leg and his right leg? What was the difference in their effects?
8. At the beginning of Chapter One, Sacks quotes Thomas Mann to say that the silent world receives and tolerates man but always remains menacing (pg 1). How does this relate to Sacks's experience in the world?
9. 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?
10. How did Sacks move from the world of freedom into the world of the hospital? How might this have contributed to his thought that the operation on the following day would actually be an execution?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
As Sacks was being pressured to begin walking, what miracle occurred? How was this miracle the same thing he had been working toward since his accident?
Essay Topic 2
What was Sacks's opinion of his leg while it was in the cast? Why did he have this opinion? Given what he says about his second injury some ten years later, how might he have changed this errant perception of his left leg in a cast?
Essay Topic 3
What is the main point of A Leg to Stand On? In other words, what does Sacks most want his readers to learn? How does he illustrate or argue for this point throughout the book?
|
This section contains 1,705 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) |
|
