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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. What does the author say a "four plus" did at the hospital?
(a) Instructed how much coffee was needed.
(b) Informed how long an operation would be.
(c) Indicated the number of surgeons required to attend neurosurgery grand rounds.
(d) Galvanized everyone into action.

2. What did the author find a technique for that involves placing metal rings on the back and front of the skull?
(a) Curing headaches.
(b) Taking better x-rays of the brain.
(c) Removing brain tumors.
(d) Finding the foramen ovale.

3. How many applications for neurosurgery residency does the author say Johns Hopkins averaged?
(a) 125.
(b) 2.
(c) 10,000.
(d) 1,976.

4. Why did Teresa Binder consider overdosing on sleeping pills in "Separating the Twins"?
(a) She was addicted to sleeping pills.
(b) She was suspersticious about giving birth to twins.
(c) She could not bear the idea of giving birth to conjoined twins.
(d) She was having relationship problems.

5. What happened to Craig Warnick on June 19, 1988, in "Craig and Susan"?
(a) He had surgery on his tumor and cyst.
(b) He was admitted to the hospital through the emergency room.
(c) He graduated from college.
(d) He found out he out he had Von Hippel-Lindau.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did patient Danielle's mother first learn about the author, in "Three Special Children"?

2. What significant sign of recovery did Maranda show after her hemispherectomy?

3. What does the author say was a "golden opportunity," where there would be no outcries over Denise Baca's hemispherectomy?

4. In "A Special Year," why was the author concerned about his wife traveling to Australia?

5. In "Separating the Twins," where were the twins, Patrick and Benjamin, conjoined?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who does the author say he feels a self-imposed obligation to act as a role model for?

2. Why did some doctors oppose a craniectomy for a patient named Charles in "Three Special Children"?

3. Why did the author tell a resident at the hospital in Australia that he came from a large family?

4. What is Rasmussen's encephalitis?

5. What were some of the possible outcomes of Maranda's hemispherectomy, in "A Girl Named Maranda"?

6. What was controversial about Denise Baca's hemispherectomy?

7. What was unusual about Craig being able to eat a whole plate of spaghetti, six weeks after his surgery?

8. What challenge did Patrick face after his surgery, in "The Rest of Their Story"?

9. How did the chief of surgery at Provident Hospital try to lure the author to work for him?

10. How does the author explain the phenomenon of plasticity?

(see the answer keys)

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