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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. What percent of Americans does Gawande say died at home at the end of the second World War?

2. What percent of Americans does Gawande say died at home in the 1980s?

3. What was Thomas’ first project when he arrived at Chase?

4. What does Jewel Douglas say is her lifeblood?

5. What argument does Gawande give for preventing people from committing suicide?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Gawande characterize the ceremony for disposing of his father’s ashes?

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

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

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

5. What technique does Atul Gawande learn from a palliative care physician, and use with Jewel Douglass?

6. How did Bill Thomas’ idea play out?

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

8. How does Gawande say the western medical model is spreading throughout the world?

9. What effect did Thomas’ changes have on the residents?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

Evaluate your own reading of Being Mortal—did you resist it, or were you compelled by the story? What does your reading tell you about yourself and your interests? Use specific examples from the book to describe yourself as a reader.

Essay Topic 3

When is Being Mortal most itself? What is its characteristic passage, or moment? What makes that moment or passage the most representative of the book as a whole? Are there any places where the book seems to depart from its typical self, as if to become a different book?

(see the answer keys)

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