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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 Ronald Dworkin says is the heart of a meaningful life?
(a) The ability to be the author of your own story.
(b) To be free from fear.
(c) To be well respected by good people.
(d) To have material stability and comfort.

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

3. What percent of Americans does Gawande say died at home in the 1980s?
(a) 44%.
(b) 32%.
(c) More than half.
(d) 17%.

4. What percent of Americans does Gawande say died in hospice in America in 2010?
(a) 24%.
(b) 64%.
(c) 32%.
(d) 45%.

5. What do the doctors from Uganda and the writer from South Africa say about American medical care?
(a) It is biased against people of color and the poor.
(b) No one in their countries could afford it.
(c) It clearly benefits the rich.
(d) It is obviously wasteful.

6. What does Gawande say a person is assured of, if their ashes touch the Ganges River?
(a) Reincarnation.
(b) Eternal salvation.
(c) Forgetfulness.
(d) Eternal peace.

7. Of the people who died in hospice care in the U.S. in 2010, what percent does Gawande say died at home?
(a) 30%.
(b) 40%.
(c) 20%.
(d) More than half.

8. What was Thomas’ explanation for the decline in the death rate?
(a) Laughter at the animals was therapeutic.
(b) Sicker patients avoided the facility.
(c) He had given people a reason to live.
(d) The animals gave people stronger antibodies.

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

10. What does Jewel Douglas want Gawande to avoid in his operation?
(a) Long shots.
(b) Painful moments.
(c) Risky chances.
(d) Heroic measures.

11. What argument does Gawande give for allowing people to die with prescription drugs?
(a) No laws, even the prohibition of murder, are absolute.
(b) People know their desires better than their doctors.
(c) It is merciful to end someone’s suffering.
(d) People have the right to stop treatment, so they should have the right to end their lives.

12. In what way do doctors “inflict deep gouges at the end of people’s lives,” in Gawande’s opinion?
(a) By denying the importance of the dying role.
(b) By inflicting needless treatments.
(c) By drugging people so that they do not have their own experiences.
(d) By allowing the most fearful voices to dominate discussions about mortality.

13. How often does Gawande say he thought about elderly patients before the issue of geriatrics became an interest for him?
(a) He had done his residency in a geriatrics unit.
(b) He was always passingly interested in geriatrics.
(c) He had watched his father practice in geriatrics.
(d) He never thought about them.

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

15. How does Gawande characterize the hope of a cure that entices people into what he calls the multitrillion-dollar medical system?
(a) A snake oil sales pitch.
(b) A pretty fairy tale.
(c) A rigged gambling table.
(d) A lottery ticket.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Dave Galloway say he does not want to take his pain medication when his cancer is troubling him?

2. What does Gawande say is the “third type of doctor-patient relationship” (201)?

3. What other pets did Chase Memorial also eventually adopt?

4. How old was Sara Monopoli when she was diagnosed with incurable cancer?

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

(see the answer keys)

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