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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. _____________. of the seven people in Mukherjee's group continued at the clinic.

2. What question arose from the study of these two genes?

3. How was this letter first seen?

4. This time a significant link was found. Lobbies began to appear to do what?

5. Pott believed that because ________________, that it could be prevented.

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the cure for cancer parallel the story of Achilles?

2. What is the role of a clinician? What type of people are suited for this work?

3. Who was Einar Gustafson? How is this significant?

4. How did the tide begin to turn regarding Americans' view smoking?

5. What is James Watson's quote? How is this significant?

6. What is meant by a "Risky Prediction?"

7. Who were virologists?

8. Who were the successors of Theodor Boveri?

9. Who was Oscar Auerbach? What role did he play in connecting lung cancer to tobacco? Was he a good choice? Why or why not?

10. What are the similarities between AIDS and cancer? Is this important? Why or why not?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Mukherjee ends the book with the tale of Germaine.

Part 1) What is this tale? Who was Germaine? How is this story important to the book? Why might the author end with this story?

Part 2) What does this story say about the author's view of cancer? Is he as optimistic as James Watson? Why or why not?

Part 3) Do you agree with the author's view of cancer? Why or why not? How does this ending affect your feelings towards this book? How does this affect the ultimate mood of the book? Was this a good way to end the book? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

The government has at times been involved in the fight against cancer.

Part 1) When did the U.S. government first get involved in the fight against cancer? What led to this involvement? How was cancer research affected by this involvement? When and why did this involvement and public interest wane? How did this affect cancer research?

Part 2) At what other times did the government get involved in cancer research? How did the fight against cancer benefit from this involvement? How are our own lives affected by this involvement?

Part 3) At this point in our history, is the study of cancer as important to the American people as it was at other times in the past? Why or why not? What issues are most important to Americans today? Why? How might this affect the study of cancer?

Essay Topic 3

In 1775, Percival Pott noticed a shocking number of his patients suffered from scrotal cancer.

Part 1) Why had this increase occurred? Why were many of cases such as these ignored? What does this say about society at this time? How does this lead to studies into the effects of tobacco and cigarettes?

Part 2) When was it finally determined that tobacco and cigarettes cause lung cancer? Why did it take so long? Why is cigarette smoking still allowed, even though it is known that it causes cancer? What role has the tobacco industry played in the continued purchasing and popularity of cigarettes?

Part 3) How has the view of smoking begun to change? How is this seen in our society including restaurants, bars, and even on television and in movies?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,133 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample