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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. Approximately what percentage of Americans move at any given time?

2. To what animal did Lynch allude in making his analogy about living at the midpoint?

3. Where was Reader when he died?

4. What poet is quoted at the beginning of "Tract"?

5. In what year did John Hillenbrand purchase the Batesville Coffin Company?

Short Essay Questions

1. What characteristic of "successful" suicides did Lynch say he admired?

2. Why have more and more Americans opted for cremation, according to Lynch?

3. What did Lynch see as the advantage of being at the midpoint of one's life?

4. What did Lynch mean when he said that "in even the best of caskets, it never all fits"?

5. How does Lynch view the current state of debate over abortion?

6. How does Sweeney approach the consuming of food delicacies?

7. How did Lynch feel about the prospect of his loved ones feeling guilt at his funeral?

8. How does Lynch describe people's different approaches to living life at the end of Chapter 8 and which approach did Sweeney take?

9. Why did Lynch suggest February as a good month for his death and burial?

10. How did the funeral processions through town change when the Oak Grove bridge collapsed?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Lynch described the toilet as an invention that was essential in robbing us of our ability to deal directly with the less savory aspects of life, including the eventuality of death for us all. Do you agree with this? Does the fact that we no longer have to deal in an intimate manner with our life cycle make it more difficult to deal with that cycle? Has death become something we are embarrassed by? If so, how does that affect our attitude toward the dead?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the significance of Wesley Rice's work on the young girl who had been brutally murdered. How important was it that this work be done? Why did the mother insist on seeing her daughter one last time? How did Rice's "repair" work give the girl's body back to her family? Is the work done on corpses "barbaric," as Jessica Mitford claimed, or a kindness, as Lynch saw it? What kind of person does it take to do this kind of work?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the artichoke poem described in Chapter 5. How did the poet use sexual imagery in describing the vegetable? Why did he choose to describe an artichoke instead of a woman? Why did so many people respond to the poem in the way the author clearly intended? Is there some unspoken connection between food and sex?

(see the answer keys)

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