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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. What does Susie offer to get for Vivian to comfort her?

2. What reason does Vivian give for her explanation?

3. What does Susie rub on Vivian's hands?

4. How does Jason describe clinicians?

5. Who interrupts Vivian's lecture when she imagines she is teaching?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the parallel between Vivian and Jason's careers?

2. Why does Vivian allow Susie to call her “sweetheart?”

3. Why is Vivian so upset at her imaginary lecture being interrupted by Susie?

4. Why does Vivian's pain management have an effect on the play?

5. What are the three points Vivian emphasizes in Donne's poem during her imaginary lecture?

6. Why does Susie tell Vivian that she and Jason are inserting a catheter even though she can't hear Susie?

7. What is Salvation Anxiety?

8. What is the joke that makes Vivian laugh when Susie gives her morphine?

9. Why is Vivian scared?

10. Why does Jason simplify the explanation of Vivian's kidney function?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain the title of the play. What is wit? How is it used in literature? Whose wit is being referred to by the title of the play? What role does wit have throughout the play?

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast Susie and Jason. How are they alike? How are they different? Explain each of their relationships with Vivian.

Essay Topic 3

Explain the importance of John Donne to the play. What role does Donne play in the story? What is Vivian's relationship with Donne? What is the parallel between Donne's works and Vivian's experience with cancer?

(see the answer keys)

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