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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 name did Sacks give his windowless hospital room?
2. What was the primary reason that Sacks and his friends celebrated the evening after his surgery?
3. Who has written about the "occasions of poetry" (pg 9)?
4. Why did the staff nurse laugh at Sacks when he arrived in his room?
5. What would make the state of limbo tolerable?
Short Essay Questions
1. While Sacks was lying in his small hospital room, what happened to his eyes? How was this transformation similar to his leg's injury?
2. 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?
3. What paradoxical command did Sacks find while he was in Limbo? How do you think this contrasted with his previous way of living?
4. Through what physical senses does Sacks reenter the world of men?
5. What meals does Sacks describe most from his time in the hospital? What do these meals say about his frame of mind at each time?
6. While in the hospital, Sacks felt morally and physically prostrate before the doctor. How do you think this happened?
7. How does Sacks describe his first few steps? How might this description be applied to another time in life, one which has never been described?
8. At his arrival to the Odda hospital, what was Sacks's experience with Nurse Solveig? How did this exemplify the prostration he began to feel in the hospital?
9. 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?
10. During his first night out of the hospital, Sacks wept in the doorway of the convalescent home. Briefly summarize his experiences so far to explain the tears.
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
How does Sacks use dialogue throughout the story? How is the dialogue divided among the people in his life? What are the varying tones of the dialogue? What does the use of dialogue contribute to the story?
Essay Topic 2
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?
Essay Topic 3
What aspect of nature had Sacks forgotten about while he lay in his hospital bed? How does this compare to his previous lifestyle: hiking, swimming, etc?
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This section contains 1,908 words (approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page) |
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