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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. When did Marie Bashkirtsev die?

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

3. When did Keats write a letter to Fanny Brawne?

4. How many organs can TB affect?

5. In Chapter 3, what type of diseases are TB and cancer understood to be?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Sontag reveal about metaphor and tuberculosis (TB) and cancer?

3. What example does Sontag provide of sex being prescribed to tuberculars as therapy?

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

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

6. How does Sontag compare illness to a kingdom?

7. How did Sontag see people treated who had cancer, and why?

8. When was it possible to separate the conception of TB and cancer?

9. What did Marie Bashkirtsev write about having tuberculosis?

10. How might the name of a disease seem to have a magic power?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Military metaphors were often used for cancer. What were some military metaphors that were used for cancer? Why were military metaphors used for cancer?

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

Footnotes are notes, explanations, or comments usually shown at the bottom of a page of text. What is the purpose of footnotes? What benefits are there to using footnotes? How and why does Sontag use footnotes in the text?

(see the answer keys)

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