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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What kind of system does Gawande compare human bodies to?
(a) Nuclear power plants.
(b) Automobiles.
(c) Kitchen appliances.
(d) Wind-up toys.

2. When does Gawande say people started to go to doctors, instead of doctors coming to them?
(a) After World War I.
(b) During the Depression.
(c) After the 1970s.
(d) After World War II.

3. How does Gawande characterize the similarity between nursing homes and prisons?
(a) They both house mostly poor people.
(b) They are both total institutions.
(c) They are both punitive.
(d) They are both state-run.

4. What arrangement did Felix have to make when he brought Bella back home from the nursing home?
(a) He invited his daughters to live at home to help him.
(b) He had to have contractors make modifications of their home.
(c) He hired an army of nurses and aides.
(d) He had to return to practicing medicine to pay for her care.

5. How does Gawande say Alice’s family dealt with her depression?
(a) They enrolled her in classes at the local university.
(b) They found her a better situation.
(c) They put her on depression medication.
(d) They brought her a cat and house plants.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Gawande characterize the plot of a person’s health for most of history?

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

3. When does Gawande say he started to experience dead people?

4. What does Gawande say led Keren Wilson to focus on assisted living facilities?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. When did the experience of aging and dying come home for Gawande?

2. How does Gawande describe the transition from traditional forms of elder care to the (failing) modern forms of care?

3. What events led to Alice Hobson saying “I’m ready” to her son, and then dying?

4. What kind of conditions does Gawande witness at the Guru Vishram Vridh ashram in India?

5. How does Gawande use graphs to characterize the decline of people’s health?

6. How does Gawande say Keren Brown Wilson ended up starting her first assisted living facility in the 1980s?

7. How does Gawande characterize the problems surrounding Alice Hobson’s declining health?

8. Who was the first person Gawande says he personally witnessed get old and decline?

9. How is the story of Lou and Shelly different from Alice Hobson's death?

10. What was Lou Sanders’ experience of assisted living like?

(see the answer keys)

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