View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why does Vivian go into the hospital at the beginning of Scene 8?
(a) She has a fever.
(b) She wants to say hello to Susie.
(c) She was in a car accident.
(d) She is scheduled for her fifth cycle of chemotherapy.

2. What word does Vivian struggle with as she reads on her birthday?
(a) Soporific.
(b) Crocuses.
(c) Vintage.
(d) Sanguine.

3. What organ will be monitored during Vivian's treatment cycles?
(a) Lungs.
(b) Heart.
(c) Kidneys.
(d) Liver.

4. What kind of cancer does Vivian have?
(a) Bone.
(b) Lung.
(c) Ovarian.
(d) Breast.

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

6. What does Vivian want to document to the audience before grand rounds?
(a) The loneliness that exists during cancer.
(b) Her loss of hair.
(c) The strange quietness of hospital rooms.
(d) The times between the dramatic climaxes.

7. What example does Vivian's father give her to help her understand the definition of the word she struggles with?
(a) Vivian's mother's flower-bed.
(b) Boring dinner conversation.
(c) Deer ticks.
(d) His Victorian Era settee.

8. Who did Vivian study Donne under?
(a) Ashford.
(b) Kelekian.
(c) Bearing.
(d) Posner.

9. How does Vivian occupy herself while she waits for her physical exam?
(a) She sings.
(b) She speculates how her career path would have gone if she had not gotten cancer.
(c) She imagines she is giving a lecture.
(d) She recites a sonnet by John Donne.

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

11. How many cycles of treatment will Vivian undergo?
(a) 8.
(b) As many as nedded.
(c) 4.
(d) 6.

12. What sonnet is Vivian's paper about that must be done over?
(a) Holy Sonnet Six.
(b) Holy Sonnet Ten.
(c) Lady Lazarus.
(d) Holy Sonnet Five.

13. What side effect of Vivian's medication trips up the fellows during grand rounds?
(a) Fatigue.
(b) Psychological depression.
(c) Hair loss.
(d) Nausea and vomiting.

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

15. What does Vivian say about medical terms in comparison to the words of Donne?
(a) They are less evocative.
(b) They are more clinical.
(c) They are more weighty.
(d) They are less poetic.

Short Answer Questions

1. What literary device does Vivian reference in her opening monologue?

2. Why does Vivian ring the bell after she vomits?

3. How does Vivian think her colleagues would honor her memory?

4. What does Vivian describe as “mildly uncomfortable” in Scene 5?

5. Who presents Vivian's case during grand rounds?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 512 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample