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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. What does Shanahan use as a gauge of a disaster?

2. How does Mary Roach describe the air with which dissections were performed in the 18th century?

3. What kind of resistance did DeMaio meet over using cadavers, according to Mary Roach?

4. What does Mary Roach wonder about the cadavers?

5. What does Mary Roach say patients at teaching hospitals would get, before 1800?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Dennis Tobin say people fall down when shot?

2. What kinds of incidents does Dennis Shanahan investigate?

3. Describe the procedure in which UM006 was used.

4. Why was TWA Flight 800 so emotional for Shanahan?

5. How does Mary Roach describe making cadavers bearable?

6. How does Mary Roach describe the smell of dead bodies?

7. What kinds of signs did the cadavers from Flight 800 have?

8. What are the three stages of decay, as Mary Roach describes them?

9. What part of the embalming procedure did Mary Roach witness?

10. How does Mary Roach say that the British circumvent consent laws for using cadavers for research or training?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What techniques does Mary Roach use for keeping you interested as a reader? Is there an arc to this book? Does it build in intensity? Does it wander? How much did you, as a reader, have to work to remain interested and attentive?

Essay Topic 2

What is Mary Roach's relationship with the experts she consults with? What authority does her status as 'writer' give her on the question of cadavers and dead bodies? Does she have more or less authority than certain experts? What could she do with the authority she gained by writing the book?

Essay Topic 3

How does Mary Roach use voice and tone to probe into and back away from the complexities surrounding cadavers? What are her primary tones, and how does she modulate them to handle different emotional situations?

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