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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 1 — The Independent Self.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Gawande characterize his exposure to death and the dying as a child?
(a) He had almost no exposure.
(b) He had a grandfather living with him and saw his decline in detail.
(c) He was surrounded by rural poverty and high mortality.
(d) He had a period when a lot of his friends’ grandparents and relatives were sick or died in a cluster.

2. What does Gawande say is the biggest difference between how people age today and how they used to age?
(a) They used to be much more private.
(b) They used to die much earlier.
(c) They used to be cared for in multi-generational systems.
(d) They used to be much more independent.

3. How did Gawande’s grandfather and his wife avoid starving to death as newlyweds?
(a) They appealed to a wealth uncle who bailed them out.
(b) They came to America and worked their way up.
(c) They speculated in land and their gamble paid off.
(d) They harvested a bumper crop that paid their debts.

4. What does Gawande say modernization replaced the veneration of family with?
(a) Veneration of cultural traditions.
(b) Veneration of the independent self.
(c) Veneration of prosperity.
(d) Veneration of religious figures.

5. How does Gawande characterize both Lazaroff and the doctors?
(a) Delusional.
(b) Miserable.
(c) Faithful.
(d) Desperate.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Gawande’s relation to Alice Hobson?

2. What does Gawande say has increased along with our reluctance to honestly examine the experience of aging and dying?

3. How old was Alice Hobson when she was widowed?

4. How much of the population does Gawande say was over 65 in 1790?

5. How much of the population does Gawande say was over 65 in 2017?

(see the answer key)

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