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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was the name of the BBC documentary that Courtney Speed borrowed from the library to show to Rebecca Skloot when she visited Turner Station?
(a) HeLa: Woman Behind the Mask.
(b) An Error of Cells.
(c) The Way of All Flesh.
(d) Man, the Unknown.

2. What was the first publication to name the woman behind the HeLa cells in 1953?
(a) Science magazine.
(b) Time magazine.
(c) The Minneapolis Star.
(d) The Chicago Tribune.

3. What illness did Hector Henry suffer from during his childhood?
(a) Leukemia.
(b) Epilepsy.
(c) Polio.
(d) Tuberculosis.

4. For how long was Joe Lacks in the military before being discharged?
(a) 3 months.
(b) 9 months.
(c) 2 years.
(d) 6 months.

5. Who was the Harvard anesthesiologist that published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine showing that Chester Southam's cancer research was just one of hundreds of similarly unethical cases?
(a) Henry Beecher.
(b) Harry Eagle.
(c) Emanuel Mandel.
(d) Michael Rogers.

6. How many chromosomes are contained in a human cell?
(a) 42.
(b) 46.
(c) 36.
(d) 52.

7. Who was Henrietta's grandfather that raised her after her mother died?
(a) Johnny Pleasant.
(b) Tommy Lacks.
(c) David Lacks.
(d) William Lacks.

8. What was the birth name of Henrietta Lacks's fifth child?
(a) Joseph Lacks.
(b) Edgar Lacks.
(c) Tommy Lacks.
(d) David Lacks.

9. How old was Deborah Lacks when Rebecca Skloot first called her to talk about her mother?
(a) Almost 60.
(b) Almost 40.
(c) Almost 30.
(d) Almost 50.

10. What was the population of Clover, Virginia, in 1998?
(a) 307.
(b) 198.
(c) 79.
(d) 269.

11. Who was Ethel's husband that sexually abused Deborah Lacks when she was a child?
(a) Cliff.
(b) Cootie.
(c) Joe.
(d) Galen.

12. What does "ATCC" stand for in reference to the federal cell bank established by Lewis Coriell and others?
(a) Arterial Tissue and Culture Collective.
(b) The American Type Culture Collection.
(c) American Technological Culture Containment.
(d) American Technical Control Center.

13. What researcher at the NIH used HeLa cells to develop the first standardized culture medium that could be made by the gallon and shipped ready to use?
(a) Roland Pattillo.
(b) Harry Eagle.
(c) Roland Pattillo.
(d) Charles Bynum.

14. Who was the gynecologist that examined Henrietta Lacks when she first went to Johns Hopkins Hospital to have the knot in her womb seen?
(a) Dr. William Scherer.
(b) Dr. Howard Jones.
(c) Dr. Richard Wesley TeLinde.
(d) Dr. Roland Pattillo.

15. How many people does Rebecca Skloot estimate that Chester Southam injected with living cancer cells during his career?
(a) About 200 people.
(b) About 300 people.
(c) Over 600 people.
(d) Over 800 people.

Short Answer Questions

1. How old was Henrietta Lacks when she became pregnant with her fifth child?

2. What did Joe Lacks change his name to after he converted to Islam in prison?

3. Who wrote the 1976 Rolling Stone article about the Lackses?

4. Who was the director of medicine at the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital in Brooklyn in 1963?

5. What U.S. President created the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis?

(see the answer keys)

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