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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 American TV show did Nora Lynch begin watching once she got her first television set?

2. What immigrant group did Lynch say has a fondness for funeral services?

3. In what era did Gladstone live?

4. What kind of service did the Irish priest who married Lynch say he wanted?

5. What kind of food made Lynch and Patterson sick in Ireland?

Short Essay Questions

1. If the dead don't care, why did Lynch get up in the middle of the night to tend to the newly deceased?

2. What was Lynch's view of the notion that the corpse is just an empty shell?

3. Why was Henry Nugent unable to get relief from his heartbreak following his divorce?

4. How did Lynch "resolve" his feelings about the existence of God?

5. Did Lynch profess to a certain fascination with dead bodies?

6. Why did the undertakers at the conference seem intent of developing new language to explain what they did for a living?

7. How did Lynch describe the difference between chance and coincidence?

8. Why do most people never pay attention to the figure Lynch called "The Big One"?

9. Why did the priest insist on a simple funeral and burial service and why was Lynch unimpressed?

10. What did Lynch mean by "the poor cousin of fear is rage?"

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the significance of Stephanie's tragic death. Recall that the name on the stone that killed her was the same as the one on the stone next to which she was buried. Was that significant? Was it merely chance or did it provide some insight into the role of faith and coincidence? Discuss the individual choices mentioned by Lynch (the hand of God, the devil did it, etc.). Are any of them satisfactory? Could all of them be right?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Uncle Eddie's suicide cleanup business (note: there are actual businesses that focus on cleaning up scenes of violent deaths, including suicides and murders). How did Eddie's business provide society with a valuable service? How did the cleanup after these deaths usually get done before such services? How is it an act of kindness for an outsider to clean up the scene so that loved ones do not have to see it? How does this relate to the general services provided by funeral parlors and undertakers?

Essay Topic 3

Lynch wanted to know the day he would die so he could recognize the midpoint when he arrived at it. Do you think it is possible to intuitively know the midpoint of your life? Why did Lynch pick that Halloween as his likely midpoint? What was is perspective on his life at that point? What would be the advantages to knowing the midpoint of your life? Would it affect how you viewed different periods of your life? is there actually an equilibrium that people automatically reach at midlife?

(see the answer keys)

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