View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Gawande characterize Thomas’ staff’s reaction to his plan to introduce pets to Chase Memorial?
(a) Reluctant.
(b) Optimistic.
(c) Ambivalent.
(d) Hostile.

2. What does Gawande say doctors have to do as people get closer to death?
(a) Resist the urge to toy with their health.
(b) Consider the effect of treatment on their family units.
(c) Weigh the cost effectiveness of each treatment.
(d) Find the most drastic cures and treatments.

3. What definition of courage does Gawande arrive at, after considering Plato’s dialogue “Laches”?
(a) Endurance of the soul.
(b) Discrimination to understand what should be hoped or feared.
(c) Strength in the face of knowledge of what is to be feared or hoped.
(d) Wise endurance.

4. How did Bill Thomas overcome the institutional inertia that might have complicated his plans to introduce animals?
(a) He talked to key opinion leaders and got buy-in.
(b) He overwhelmed people with big changes quickly.
(c) He fired anyone who refused to go along.
(d) He kept his plans secret and hatched them all at once.

5. What was the second place Gawande’s father wanted his ashes scattered?
(a) The town where he went to college.
(b) The village where he grew up.
(c) The city his ancestors came from.
(d) The city where he got married.

6. What does Gawande say Josiah Royce described as the heart of a meaningful life?
(a) Loyalty to a higher cause.
(b) Self-actualization.
(c) Community and history.
(d) Comfort and predictability.

7. How many parakeets did Bill Thomas introduce to Chase Memorial?
(a) 100.
(b) 2.
(c) 25.
(d) 60.

8. What does Gawande say is the “third type of doctor-patient relationship” (201)?
(a) Mr. Information.
(b) The Expert.
(c) The Companion.
(d) The Interpretive Doctor.

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

10. What argument does Gawande give for allowing people to die with prescription drugs?
(a) No laws, even the prohibition of murder, are absolute.
(b) People know their desires better than their doctors.
(c) It is merciful to end someone’s suffering.
(d) People have the right to stop treatment, so they should have the right to end their lives.

11. What does Jewel Douglas want Gawande to avoid in his operation?
(a) Long shots.
(b) Heroic measures.
(c) Risky chances.
(d) Painful moments.

12. How many spoonfuls of Ganges water did Gawande drink, as part of his father’s funeral service?
(a) 4.
(b) 1.
(c) 3.
(d) 7.

13. Why does Gawande say he and his father preferred Doctor Benzel to the neurosurgeon at Gawande’s hospital?
(a) He paid close attention to their needs.
(b) He made the better promises for the outcome of a surgery.
(c) He was more of an expert.
(d) He had more experience with Gawande’s father’s type of tumor.

14. What does Gawande say has provided him with the most meaningful experiences as a doctor?
(a) Helping patients deal with questions of philosophy and the spirit.
(b) Helping patients deal with questions of ethics and the good life.
(c) Helping patients deal with what medicine cannot do.
(d) Helping patients deal with limitations imposed by of mortality.

15. How does Gawande say insurance companies respond after the Nelene Fox case found insurance companies at fault for not paying for expensive treatments?
(a) They hid cost controls in finer small print.
(b) They developed complex algorithms to make their decisions less personal.
(c) They made hospice care available.
(d) They started to demand accountability from drug companies.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was the third place Gawande’s father wanted his ashes scattered?

2. What do the doctors from Uganda and the writer from South Africa say about American medical care?

3. What does Gawande say the surgeon at his hospital recommended for his father’s tumor?

4. Who did Gawande’s father want to see in his final bout of wakefulness?

5. What does Gawande say his father always understood about life?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 690 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample