View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was Destot's space?
(a) The space from which a person's last gasp comes when crucified.
(b) The place in the wrist where a nail could support a person's weight.
(c) The space between a person and their clothes, which allows them to lose their clothing in an airline disaster.
(d) The area around the facial features in the Shroud of Turin.

2. How does Mary Roach characterize the brain?
(a) As the last thing to die.
(b) As the heart of the soul.
(c) As the seat of consciousness.
(d) As the location of the soul.

3. What was George Hay's 1888 proposal for human remains?
(a) Medical training.
(b) Fertilizer.
(c) Building material.
(d) Scientific study.

4. Where does the recipe for a mellified man come from?
(a) The Old Testament.
(b) The Chinese Materia Medica.
(c) The Book of the Dead.
(d) The Bible.

5. Who is Kevin McCabe?
(a) A researcher at Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital.
(b) A farmer.
(c) Another writer.
(d) A funeral home owner.

6. Why does Mary Roach decide not decide to give her body to The University of New Mexico?
(a) They do not articulate bodies into skeletons.
(b) They do not use bodies in ballistics tests.
(c) They do not study land mine mitigation with cadavers there.
(d) They do not plasticize tissues for study.

7. What does Mary Roach go to Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital to explore?
(a) How animal bodies were used as food for other animals.
(b) How animal bodies were used for tests.
(c) How animal bodies' death was defined.
(d) How animal bodies were disposed of.

8. What did Frederick Zugibe say about Dr. Pierre Barbet's work?
(a) That he had used the wrong chemicals in his analysis.
(b) That he had been unethical in his use of cadavers.
(c) That tests in which live people are strapped to crosses are ineffective.
(d) That he had incorrectly located Destot's place.

9. What is the result of water reduction?
(a) Shorter periods of bloat in decomposition.
(b) Sterile liquid.
(c) Tissue that does not decompose quickly.
(d) Preserved tissue.

10. What was surprise supposed to have done to a body before death?
(a) Concentrate the spirits.
(b) Activate the spirit.
(c) Purge the spirit.
(d) Drive out demons.

11. What replaces water in tissue in plastination?
(a) Polymer.
(b) Acetone.
(c) Gas.
(d) Oxygen.

12. What ingredient is used in water reduction?
(a) Acid.
(b) Oxygen.
(c) Lye.
(d) Polymers.

13. How did Barbet test his skepticism?
(a) He attached weights to amputated arms to see how much a nail could hold.
(b) He strapped volunteers to crosses to see how much movement they could make.
(c) He crucified monkeys and other animals.
(d) He performed a chemical analysis of the Shroud of Turin.

14. What did father Armaillhac want to prove about the Shroud of Turin?
(a) That it was a forgery.
(b) That it was of recent origin.
(c) That it was not the burial cloth of Christ.
(d) That it was the burial cloth of Christ.

15. What almost prevented cremation from getting off the ground?
(a) Laws governing disposal of human remains.
(b) The personalities of the people who ran it.
(c) Ties to Catholicism.
(d) The sense of secularism.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did people believe they might do with severed heads?

2. What is 'water reduction'?

3. Where does Mary Roach say medical school skeletons used to come from?

4. When did Father Armaillhac subject the Shroud of Turin to scientific study?

5. When was the first crematory built?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 552 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample