View a FREE sample

This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 5 — A Better Life.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Gawande say Laura Carstensen found in terms of people’s values in life?
(a) Your needs depend on who needs you.
(b) Your needs depend on how many people you love.
(c) Your needs depend on how much pain you are in.
(d) Your needs depend on how much time you have.

2. How did Alice Hobson lose her car?
(a) She parked it in the wrong parking lot.
(b) She left the keys in it and it was stolen.
(c) She forgot to make her car payments.
(d) She got in a small accident and lost her license.

3. Where does Gawande say he witnessed the most hellish conditions of his life?
(a) A nursing home in the American South.
(b) A prison in Portugal.
(c) An elder home in India.
(d) An insane asylum in Belgium.

4. How does Gawande characterize the decline of health for the majority of people who age normally with modern medicine?
(a) A high line that runs flat then falls quickly.
(b) A high line that ends abruptly.
(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. What does Gawande say drives youth to seek their own opportunities as opposed to caring for their elders?
(a) Political conflict.
(b) Emigration.
(c) Prosperity.
(d) Famine.

Short Answer Questions

1. What diagnosis did Lou Sanders get after he had a fall at age 88?

2. How does Gawande characterize Thomas’ staff’s reaction to his plan to introduce pets to Chase Memorial?

3. By what age does Gawande say most people have functional dementia?

4. What does Gawande say are the three plagues of nursing homes?

5. How did Bill Thomas overcome the institutional inertia that might have complicated his plans to introduce animals?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 338 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample