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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. How does Gawande characterize the “newest view” about why we age (32)?
(a) Aging is genetically programmed.
(b) Aging is based on economic class.
(c) Aging is environmentally determined.
(d) Aging is a sum of wear and tear.

2. How does Gawande characterize the corpse he was given to work with, his first semester of medical school?
(a) Stringy.
(b) Leathery.
(c) Tough.
(d) Juicy.

3. How does Gawande characterize the trend among geriatrics departments in hospitals?
(a) Closing more than opening.
(b) Mostly closing down.
(c) Opening in more and more hospitals.
(d) No change from the past 30 years.

4. Who does Keren Wilson say assisted living facilities are ultimately built for?
(a) Older people’s children.
(b) Investors.
(c) Elderly people.
(d) Administrators.

5. What system did the U.S. join Europe in implementing in 1935?
(a) Social Security.
(b) Medicare.
(c) The New Deal.
(d) Medicaid.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Gawande characterize the state of the medical profession in the face of scientific advances that prolonged life and made dying a medical decision?

2. What was the default option for poor elderly people in the time of Mabel’s study?

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

4. Where does Gawande say he witnessed the most hellish conditions of his life?

5. What made the Harry Truman Gawande describes a hero in his townspeople’s eyes?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the challenges Gawande describes in Alice Hobson’s declining health?

2. How does Gawande explain the fact that our culture has not developed methods for providing better care for the elderly?

3. What happened to Keren Wilson’s vision of assisted living facilities, as the idea took off?

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

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

6. How does Lou Sanders’ story mark a development of Gawande’s argument in Being Mortal?

7. How does Gawande characterize the future of geriatrics as a field?

8. What critique does Gawande make of his colleagues in the medical field?

9. What perspective does Gawande’s father offer on Alice Hobson’s aging process?

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

(see the answer keys)

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