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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How long did Vivian study with Ashford?
(a) One year.
(b) Until she completed her Ph.D.
(c) Three years.
(d) Six years.

2. What advantage do the doctors have over Vivian in the world of vocabulary?
(a) They do not care what words mean.
(b) They only need to rely on what is in their textbooks.
(c) They have a greater arsenal of vocabulary when it comes to medical terminology.
(d) They understand her vocabulary, but she is unable to understand theirs.

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

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

5. What fruit is the same size as Vivian's tumor?
(a) Grapefruit.
(b) Lemon.
(c) Apple.
(d) Kiwi.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Vivian connect her new word with the story she is reading?

2. What year dates Gardner's source materials?

3. Who published Vivian's dissertation?

4. How many nightgowns does Vivian say she wears all day?

5. Why does Vivian go into the hospital at the beginning of Scene 8?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the truth that Ashford refers to in her explanation of Donne's sonnet?

2. Why does Vivian appreciate Kelekian's thoroughness as he explains the situation to her?

3. What does Vivian think the process would be if she barfed her brains out?

4. What is the irony of Vivian's hospitalization during her chemotherapy?

5. Why does Vivian recite Donne's Holy Sonnet Six while she is waiting for Jason to examine her?

6. How does Vivian foreshadow, or hint at, her fever prior to Scene 8?

7. What does Vivian say the audience will see in “this dramatic structure?” What does Vivian want to document?

8. Why does Jason not want to lower Vivian's dose of chemotherapy?

9. How does Vivian's father teach her the word “soporific?”

10. Why is Ashford unhappy that Vivian used the translation of Donne that she did? Why does Ashford prefer Gardner's edition?

(see the answer keys)

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