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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Gawande say he connected himself and his father to, by scattering the ashes in the Ganges?
(a) Mother Earth.
(b) Their ethnic people.
(c) Father Time.
(d) Something larger than themselves.

2. Why does Gawande say he and his father preferred Doctor Benzel to the neurosurgeon at Gawande’s hospital?
(a) He paid close attention to their needs.
(b) He had more experience with Gawande’s father’s type of tumor.
(c) He made the better promises for the outcome of a surgery.
(d) He was more of an expert.

3. What was Thomas’ first project when he arrived at Chase?
(a) To bring in children and relatives.
(b) To examine each resident and review their medical file.
(c) To introduce dogs and cats.
(d) To give each resident house plants.

4. How does Gawande characterize the phase of cultural development we are in, with regard to care for the sick and dying?
(a) Transitional.
(b) More spiritualized.
(c) More institutional.
(d) More medicalized.

5. What does Gawande say is most important about the end of Jewel Douglas’ story?
(a) She was alert to the end.
(b) She decided how it would go.
(c) It was painless.
(d) It was brief.

6. What was the second place Gawande’s father wanted his ashes scattered?
(a) The city his ancestors came from.
(b) The village where he grew up.
(c) The city where he got married.
(d) The town where he went to college.

7. What percentage of doctors in Nicholas Christakis’ study overestimated their patients’ survival time?
(a) 49%.
(b) 37%.
(c) 19%.
(d) 63%.

8. How does Gawande characterize Jewel Douglas’ temperament in the depths of treatment?
(a) Greedy for time.
(b) Hospitable.
(c) Depressed.
(d) Fearful.

9. What was the third place Gawande’s father wanted his ashes scattered?
(a) Germany.
(b) South Africa.
(c) India.
(d) London.

10. What does Gawande say doctors have to do as people get closer to death?
(a) Consider the effect of treatment on their family units.
(b) Weigh the cost effectiveness of each treatment.
(c) Resist the urge to toy with their health.
(d) Find the most drastic cures and treatments.

11. What is a pandit?
(a) A holy man.
(b) A boatman.
(c) A professional mourner.
(d) A funeral guide.

12. What does Gawande say is the problem with courage?
(a) It can be manifested in opposite ways, in different circumstances.
(b) It depends on your information-gathering skills.
(c) It is always open for interpretation.
(d) It is hard to tell what the wide course is.

13. When did Bill Thomas take over as director of the Chase Memorial Nursing Home?
(a) 1998.
(b) 1991.
(c) 1986.
(d) 1972.

14. How does Gawande characterize “the average of a life’s moments” (238)?
(a) Bothers and irritations punctuated by meals.
(b) One or two exceptional experiences with a lot of drudgery.
(c) Mostly nothing plus some sleep.
(d) A lot of ennui with nice sunsets thrown in.

15. What does Gawande say the surgeon at his hospital recommended for his father’s tumor?
(a) Palliative surgery.
(b) Treatment with radiation.
(c) Waiting and watching.
(d) Immediate operation.

Short Answer Questions

1. Of the people who died in hospice care in the U.S. in 2010, what percent does Gawande say died at home?

2. How does Gawande say his father found peace and gave him and the other around him peace as well?

3. What does Gawande say the surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic recommended for his father’s tumor?

4. Where does Gawande say his father’s pains began?

5. What did Gawande see stacked along the river bank when he and his guide set out to dispose of his father’s ashes?

(see the answer keys)

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