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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 Sacks think about his injury before he began writing about it?
(a) Eight years.
(b) Six years.
(c) Ten years.
(d) Four years.

2. Since his accident, what has Sacks been aware of?
(a) The shallowness of human experience.
(b) The wonder and horror which are an everyday part of life.
(c) The shallowness of everyday life.
(d) The wonder and horror which lie just behind life.

3. How is the material in the last chapter presented?
(a) Randomly.
(b) Concisely.
(c) Systematically.
(d) Poetically.

4. What did not occur to Sacks until he injured his leg?
(a) How utterly alone he was.
(b) That he had forgotten to take extra water.
(c) That the bull might be following him.
(d) How far he had climbed up the mountain before falling.

5. Where did Sacks's accident occur?
(a) In the hills of Germany.
(b) On a mountain in Norway.
(c) On a mountain in Finland.
(d) In the Swiss Alps.

Short Answer Questions

1. When did Sacks begin writing to Luria?

2. What was Luria's response to Sacks's story?

3. What book of the Bible does Sacks quote at the beginning of Chapter Three?

4. What would happen if Sacks were not found by nightfall?

5. The night before the operation, Sacks called up his family and friends. What did he tell them could happen if he were to die during the operation?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the detail from Sacks's journal explain? How does this excerpt capture the split between doctor and patient, which is captured in one person?

2. As Sacks began to regain freedom and move around the hospital, he frequently mentioned natural elements: the birds, sun, and wind. Given what you know of his personality, why are these things important?

3. Through what physical senses does Sacks reenter the world of men?

4. How did Sacks treat the warning sign about the bull? What does this reveal about his attitude?

5. When Sacks was in the hospital, why did he hesitate to write about his experience? What mindset change enabled him to write?

6. Sacks discovered, to his horror, that his mental and moral boundaries had shrunk to the limits of the hospital. What does this mean? How did this differ from his mindset before the accident?

7. During the late afternoon, what silence did Sacks experience? Why was this terrifying?

8. Who visited Sacks the evening after his operation? Why does he not mention these people again?

9. While in the hospital, Sacks felt morally and physically prostrate before the doctor. How do you think this happened?

10. What meals does Sacks describe most from his time in the hospital? What do these meals say about his frame of mind at each time?

(see the answer keys)

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