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

2. What magazines did Lynch find on the wife's side of the bed?

3. What is the name of the river that divides Milford in half?

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

5. Approximately how many suicides had Kevorkian assisted in by the end of 1996?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Why did authors such as Jessica Mitford attack the funeral industry?

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

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

6. What statement does a casket, versus a simple coffin, make?

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the assisted suicide doctor, Jack Kevorkian. Why were so many people willing to allow him to "assist" them in killing themselves? How does Lynch view the notion of providing someone with assistance in suicide? How did the general public react to Kevorkian and why was he not convicted? Is there an absolute value of life or can society reach an agreement about when people may choose to end theirs?

Essay Topic 2

Houses used to be the location of many of life's most significant occurrences (birth, courtship, marriage, death and funeral preparation). Today, many American homes have rooms that are rarely used (living rooms) and rooms that appear to be nothing more than trophies (huge kitchens in homes where eating out is the norm). How has this change affected society? How has it affected the ability of families to remain close to one another? Are there any benefits to this arrangement? How has isolating key aspects of life from one another affected us?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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