View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What is the ars moriendi?
(a) The art of medicine.
(b) The art of teaching.
(c) The art of consoling.
(d) The art of dying.

3. What percentage of doctors in Nicholas Christakis’ study overestimated their patients’ survival time?
(a) 37%.
(b) 49%.
(c) 63%.
(d) 19%.

4. How does Gawande characterize the hope of a cure that entices people into what he calls the multitrillion-dollar medical system?
(a) A pretty fairy tale.
(b) A snake oil sales pitch.
(c) A lottery ticket.
(d) A rigged gambling table.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Gawande say he and his father preferred Doctor Benzel to the neurosurgeon at Gawande’s hospital?

2. What does Gawande say your chances of avoiding a nursing home depend on?

3. How old was Sara Monopoli when she was diagnosed with incurable cancer?

4. What does Lou Sanders’ daughter Shelley compare him to when he comes to live with her and her family?

5. What does Gawande say was the concept Wilson incorporated in her assisted living facility idea?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 357 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample