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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Vivian consider her life's work?
(a) Education.
(b) Poetry.
(c) Donne.
(d) Words.

2. Where will Vivian stay during each cycle of treatment?
(a) At a hotel near the hospital.
(b) At her home.
(c) At a friend's home.
(d) At the hospital.

3. How many nightgowns does Vivian say she wears all day?
(a) Two.
(b) One less than is comfortable.
(c) One, as well as a bathrobe.
(d) One.

4. What false name does Vivian give a technician?
(a) Duke Jasper Fforde.
(b) Lucy, Countess of Bedford.
(c) Kristin Lavransdatter.
(d) Jane Eyre.

5. What about Vivian's condition does she think Donne would revel in?
(a) The possibility for a sonnet.
(b) The closeness to death.
(c) The paradox of it.
(d) Her vulnerability.

6. How long does Vivian say the attention of chemotherapy was flattering?
(a) Three seconds.
(b) One hour.
(c) A cycle.
(d) Five minutes.

7. What percentage of the chemotherapy dose does Vivian have to take?
(a) 85%.
(b) It will vary based on the cycle number.
(c) 100%.
(d) 25%.

8. What does Susie take with her when she leaves Vivian's room at the end of Scene 5?
(a) The wheelchair.
(b) The IV.
(c) Vivian's washbasin.
(d) Vivian's hospital bed.

9. What does Vivian think would be a great loss to her discipline?
(a) Retiring.
(b) Barfing her brains out.
(c) Allowing her colleagues to hear her vocabulary.
(d) Her death.

10. What is the title of the book Vivian published?
(a) Made Cunningly.
(b) A Biography of John Donne.
(c) Death Be Not Proud.
(d) Donne and Death: a Comprehensive Text.

11. Who does Vivian ask Susie to call for her when Susie offers?
(a) Mr. Bearing.
(b) One of her students.
(c) Ashford.
(d) No one.

12. How would Vivian tell her students to think of her situation?
(a) As wit.
(b) As a puzzle.
(c) As irony.
(d) As allusion.

13. Why does Vivian have to wait for her physical exam?
(a) Jason has to find Susie.
(b) She wants to create suspense for the audience.
(c) Kelekian is with another patient.
(d) She is early for her appointment.

14. What causes Jason to lose his composure at the end of Vivian's physical exam?
(a) Susie's outburst.
(b) Vivian's response to his exam.
(c) The size of the mass in Vivian's body.
(d) The fact that she is a professor he had as an undergraduate.

15. What was Vivian's principal task during her time with Ashford?
(a) Organizing manuscripts.
(b) Grading freshman essays.
(c) Responding to fan mail.
(d) Alphabetizing index cards.

Short Answer Questions

1. What example does Vivian's father give her to help her understand the definition of the word she struggles with?

2. What turn does Vivian's vocabulary take in Scene 5?

3. What year dates Gardner's source materials?

4. What fruit is the same size as Vivian's tumor?

5. What is the struggle in the beginning of the sonnet, according to Ashford?

(see the answer keys)

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