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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 does Gawande characterize the effect of introducing animals to Chase Memorial?

2. In what way do doctors “inflict deep gouges at the end of people’s lives,” in Gawande’s opinion?

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

4. Where had Thomas worked before Chase Memorial?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Sara Monopoli’s story illustrate?

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

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

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

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

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

7. How does Gawande say that end-of-life care costs affect the American medical system?

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

9. What stance does Gawande take on the concept of “assisted suicide” (243)?

10. How did Bill Thomas’ idea play out?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Evaluate the ending of Being Mortal. Does it ring true to you? Does the act of scattering Gawande’s father’s ashes successfully wrap up the book? What would you change about the ending, if anything? What are you left wishing for closure on, if anything?

Essay Topic 2

What is the reform you would suggest or support, to change the nature of elder care in our culture? What problem would your reform address, and what are the potential complications it would create? Who would be in favor of your reform, and who would not? Why?

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)

This section contains 1,141 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample