View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Gawande say he answered when his patient’s family asked if his patient was dying?
(a) He could not bring himself to tell the truth.
(b) He could only explain all the variables.
(c) He lied and said no.
(d) He could not answer.

2. 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.

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

4. What does Gawande say are the three plagues of nursing homes?
(a) Medicalization, standardization and efficiency.
(b) Boredom, loneliness and helplessness.
(c) Resentment, dread and indifference.
(d) Abandonment, fear and confusion.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What definition of courage does Gawande arrive at, after considering Plato’s dialogue “Laches”?

2. What value did Thomas espouse in running his farm?

3. What does Gawande say Ronald Dworkin says is the heart of a meaningful life?

4. What does Gawande say a person is assured of, if their ashes touch the Ganges River?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the instructions Gawande’s father left, for the disposal of his remains?

2. What triumph of Gawande’s was Gawande’s father able to witness, in his declining health?

3. What does Gawande say was the mistake his father made in his medical care?

4. What does Gawande say goes into a “comfort pack” (162)?

5. How did Gawande and his mother differ on the question of how to handle Gawande’s father’s care as death came closer?

6. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Gawande ending on a personal note?

7. What does Daniel Kahneman’s research tell Gawande about painful experiences?

8. What definition of courage does Gawande arrive at, from his discussion of Plato’s Laches dialogue?

9. What compromises does Gawande make, to give Jewel Douglass a “palliative operation” (240)?

10. How do Gawande’s father’s two doctors approach his condition differently?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,134 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample