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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 7 — Hard Conversations.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Gawande say the surgeon at his hospital recommended for his father’s tumor?
(a) Treatment with radiation.
(b) Immediate operation.
(c) Waiting and watching.
(d) Palliative surgery.

2. Why does Gawande say we have not made a better system for caring for people near death?
(a) We do not have the imagination for it.
(b) People have not organized enough to demand it.
(c) There is not enough profit in it.
(d) Powerful interests prevent it.

3. What does Gawande say Lou Sanders was scared of?
(a) Dying.
(b) Losing his ability to drive.
(c) Dying alone.
(d) Suffering with cancer.

4. How does Gawande characterize the plot of a person’s health for most of history?
(a) A high line that ends abruptly.
(b) A high line that runs flat then falls quickly.
(c) A series of minor decreases in a slow decline toward death.
(d) A series of dips followed by recoveries that approach the horizontal axis of death.

5. Where does Gawande say five of the world’s fastest-growing economies are?
(a) Asia.
(b) The Middle East.
(c) South America.
(d) Africa.

Short Answer Questions

1. When does Gawande say Keren Wilson founded the first assisted living facility?

2. What does Gawande say is the “third type of doctor-patient relationship” (201)?

3. How does Gawande characterize the decline of health for people with “chronic illnesses—emphysema, liver disease, and congestive heart failure”?

4. What does Gawande say is the greatest threat elderly people face?

5. Whose story does Gawande say is “going global” (192)?

(see the answer key)

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