View a FREE sample

This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 5 — A Better Life.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Lou Sanders’ daughter Shelley compare him to when he comes to live with her and her family?
(a) A kid getting on the bus.
(b) A cornered old turtle.
(c) A restless dog that cannot settle.
(d) A nervous girl making new friends.

2. How does Gawande characterize his grandfather Sitaram Gawande’s elder years?
(a) Traveling independently.
(b) Alone in an asylum.
(c) Bouncing back and forth between family members.
(d) Surrounded by family.

3. How does Gawande characterize the decline of health for the majority of people who age normally with modern medicine?
(a) A high line that ends abruptly.
(b) A series of dips followed by recoveries that approach the horizontal axis of death.
(c) A series of minor decreases in a slow decline toward death.
(d) A high line that runs flat then falls quickly.

4. How does Gawande characterize his exposure to death and the dying as a child?
(a) He had a period when a lot of his friends’ grandparents and relatives were sick or died in a cluster.
(b) He was surrounded by rural poverty and high mortality.
(c) He had almost no exposure.
(d) He had a grandfather living with him and saw his decline in detail.

5. What was the default option for poor elderly people in the time of Mabel’s study?
(a) State-sponsored retirement communities.
(b) Live with family.
(c) Homelessness.
(d) Poorhouse.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Royce say is the problem with desires as a guide for life?

2. By what rate did the death rate decline at Chase, after the introduction of animals?

3. What does Gawande say is the first part of the brain to shrink with aging?

4. What does Gawande say Laura Carstensen found in terms of people’s values in life?

5. How does Gawande characterize the similarity between nursing homes and prisons?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 358 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample