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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 medical topic did Sweeney broach when eating rainbow trout?

2. When did Lynch feel his midpoint had arrived?

3. What did Lynch want his loved ones to do at the graveside?

4. What distinguishes coffins from caskets?

5. What did Reader want done with his body after death?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. Why do people feel the need to memorialize the dead?

5. How do most people view undertakers, according to Lynch?

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

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

8. Why did Janet Adkins ask Jack Kevorkian to assist in her suicide?

9. What lesson did Lynch want to teach Sweeney with his story of the man killed by the falling vehicle at the scrap metal yard?

10. How do Lynch and his wife differ in their views of Milford as they walk through town in Chapter 7?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Lynch and his brothers embalmed their father's body at his request. What was the significance of this act? Do you think it was painful or satisfying? Why did the father want his sons to do this? Why did the sons agree to it rather than hire another undertaker from outside the family? How did the father benefit from knowing that his sons would be there for him at his death? And how did the sons benefit from this act?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the significance of the rebuilding of the Oak Grove bridge. Why was Mary Jackson so determined to have her funeral procession take the traditional route across the bridge to the cemetery? What sentiments did Lynch express in his poem for the dedication? How is a town affected by its proximity to the dead and its willingness to acknowledge, rather than hide, the dead? How were the older funeral processions (past houses rather than businesses) superior to the ones after the bridge collapsed? Why is it important that the dead be remembered?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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