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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. When did Sacks begin writing to Luria?

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

3. What was the name of the surgeon who performed Sacks's knee surgery?

4. According to Sacks, why does he not end his story after his rescue?

5. Following the surgery, how did Sacks's cast fit his leg?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Sacks think when he saw his left leg for the first time in two weeks? How did his own thoughts tie into the doctor's summary of the recovery?

2. What differences exist between the 1993 edition of the book and the previous editions? Without having read the previous edition, do you think these changes are positive?

3. 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?

4. 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?

5. On page 167, how is the account of this man's body-agnosia similar to Sacks'? How is it different?

6. Who visited Sacks the evening after his operation? Why does he not mention these people again?

7. What was the life voice which Sacks heard on the mountain? How was this voice stronger than his circumstances?

8. What obvious differences existed between the injuries in Sacks's left leg and his right leg? What was the difference in their effects?

9. 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.

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

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 2

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 3

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?

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