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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 early were synonyms used for tuberculosis, according to the Oxford English Dictionary?

2. In Chapter 2, according to what ancient physician did tumors resemble crabs?

3. When did Tom Moore visit Byron in Patras?

4. In what work did Nietzsche write about how interesting the sick were?

5. How old was Marie Bashkirtsev when she died?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did "romantic agony" (29) derive from tuberculosis and its metaphors?

2. How was TB seen as a disease of passion?

3. How does Sontag compare illness to a kingdom?

4. Why did Insarov, the hero in Turgenev's On the Eve, get TB and die?

5. What is the history of the use of a synonym for TB?

6. What stages does cancer have and how does it progress?

7. What does Sontag want to debunk about illness as a metaphor in her book?

8. What was the earliest literal definition of cancer?

9. What conversation did Byron have with his friend Tom Moore in 1828?

10. Why does Sontag believe that cancer patients were not told about their illness, but patients with cardiac disease were told about their condition?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How did the idea that man created his disease lead to the concept that the sick person caused his illness? What dangers were there in this concept?

Essay Topic 2

Some metaphors for TB and cancer were taken from economics. What metaphors for TB and cancer were taken from economics? Is economics a more apt metaphor for TB or for cancer?

Essay Topic 3

Some scientific studies seemed to link emotion and cancer. How did some scientific studies seem to link emotion and cancer? Why does Sontag believe that any apparent link between cancer and emotion is due to incomplete knowledge about cancer, its causes, and a cure?

(see the answer keys)

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