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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When Deborah took Rebecca Skloot to meet her brother Zakariyya, she reminded her that she should never make the mistake of calling him by what name?
(a) Joe.
(b) Jack.
(c) William.
(d) Jeremy.

2. On what date did Rebecca Skloot meet Deborah in order to see Henrietta Lacks's cells?
(a) October 11, 1996.
(b) June 30, 2002.
(c) May 11, 2001.
(d) July 9, 2000.

3. Where was Bobbette employed when she learned about Henrietta's connection to HeLa cells from Gardenia's brother-in-law?
(a) Costco.
(b) Yale School of Medicine.
(c) Johns Hopkins Hospital.
(d) Baltimore City Hospital.

4. How much money did the NIH invest in 2009 to develop a bank for the samples taken from newborns nationwide in the U.S.?
(a) $10 million.
(b) $13.5 million.
(c) $2.3 billion.
(d) $8.3 million.

5. Rebecca Skloot says in the Afterword that in 1999, the RAND Corporation published a report that estimated "conservatively" that how many tissue samples were stored in the United States alone?
(a) Over 620 million.
(b) Over 307 million.
(c) Nearly 100 million.
(d) Approximately 200 million.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who was the president of the Henrietta Lacks Health History Museum Foundation, Inc., that was established in Turner Station?

2. Who did a fireman say saved Deborah's life by slapping her to keep her awake after she'd had a stroke in Part Three: Immortality, Chapter 37?

3. Who is the director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt that the author cites in the Afterword?

4. What was the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act designed to prohibit?

5. On what date did Rebecca Skloot finally meet face-to-face with Deborah Lacks for the first time?

Short Essay Questions

1. What concerns did Deborah Lacks present to Rebecca Skloot during their first in-person meeting? What were Deborah's fears about HeLa cells and their use?

2. How does Rebecca Skloot describe the financial gains of George and Margaret Gey as a result of the cultivation of HeLa cells?

3. How did Bobbette Lacks respond when she discovered the history of HeLa cells?

4. Discuss the actions of the doctors at Johns Hopkins in obtaining blood samples for research from the Lacks family. What was unethical about these actions?

5. Why did Deborah Lacks fail to attend the Foundation for Cancer Research's event dedicated to her mother in Part Three: Immortality – Chapter 37?

6. How were Deborah and Zakariyya affected by their meeting with Christoph Lengauer at Johns Hopkins?

7. What gift did Rebecca Skloot give to Deborah Lacks when she first met her in person? How did Deborah respond?

8. What are the two main points of controversy regarding tissue research, according to the author in the Afterword?

9. What factors contributed to the Lacks family's distrust of Rebecca and of the scientific community?

10. What caused Deborah Lacks anxiety after her blood sample was collected by Johns Hopkins in Part Three: Immortality – Chapter 23?

(see the answer keys)

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