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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many varieties of chemotherapy did Sara Monopoli try?

2. How does Gawande characterize the operation he ultimately performed on Jewel Douglas?

3. What does Gawande say happens in the third stage of a country’s health care development?

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

5. How many oncologists does Gawande admit to providing treatments they know will not work?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Gawande describe what the real job of people in medicine should be?

2. What was Bill Thomas’ experience prior to starting as the director at the Chase Memorial Nursing Home?

3. What are the three stages Gawande describes in medical development countries go through?

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

5. How does Gawande characterize the work that remains to be done in medicine?

6. How does Gawande characterize his daughter’s piano teacher Peg Bachelder’s final days?

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

8. In the metaphor of death as the enemy, which general’s philosophy does Gawande say patients should want to emulate?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What health care proposals currently in the political discourse are most likely to provide for a good death for the greatest number of people? Who is proposing that legislation, and who is opposed to it? What are the reasons for the opposition’s dissent? Who do the parties on either side speak for (who are their backers/donors)?

Essay Topic 2

Gawande does not say too much about the economic aspects of the questions he addresses, but families from different economic classes experience these problems differently. How does economics affect the outcome for aging and dying? How different are the poor from the middle class or from the wealthy, in this regard? Why do you think Gawande neglected to discuss class as an aspect of this problem?

Essay Topic 3

Write a character sketch of the author based on her style and content. What can we tell about him, based on the choices he makes in terms of description, characterization and information presentation? What values does he hold dear? What are his hopes and fears? What kind of person do you think he is? Anchor your sketch in passages in the book.

(see the answer keys)

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