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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. In what year was Matthew Sweeney born?

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

3. What kind of car crushed a worker at a scrap metal yard in Lynch's story?

4. Before Kevorkian, how many "successful" suicides were men?

5. Where was Reader when he died?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. How did Lynch react to the body of the young man who shot himself in Chapter 9?

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

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

7. Describe Lynch's grandmothers.

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

9. What perspective did Lynch reach on the night his mother was buried?

10. What kind of music did Lynch want at his funeral?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the first chapter, Lynch repeatedly states that "the dead don't care" and that only the living care what happens to the body. Why are the dead valuable to the living? Why do the living feel the need to have ceremonies and other ways to recognize someone who no longer cares? In what ways are funeral services really for the living? Would it really matter what we do with the dead?

Essay Topic 2

Lynch discussed the criticisms faced by his profession from various authors and the media. Were these criticisms justified? Is there something inherent in the field that makes it impossible for "customers" to get a fair deal? Does preplanning a funeral help avoid some of the more difficult issues? Why do people criticize the profession as a whole while insisting that they themselves had a positive experience in the past? How does Lynch defend his profession?

Essay Topic 3

In discussing the divorce of his friend, Henry Nugent, Lynch said divorced men in our society are seen as damaged goods. What did he mean by that? In what ways was the divorce easier on Nugent's ex-wife? How does divorce affect the father's relationship with the children? How did Lynch's divorce differ from many other American divorces?

(see the answer keys)

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