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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 Gawande say your chances of avoiding a nursing home depend on?

2. How does Gawande characterize the plot of a person’s health for most of history?

3. What does Gawande say tormented Ivan Ilych most?

4. How much of the population does Gawande say is over 65 in Germany, Italy and Japan in 2017?

5. What does Gawande say Wilson’s assisted living facilities protected?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Gawande characterize the finances of geriatrics?

2. What does Gawande say about the theory that we just “fall apart” as we age?

3. How is the story of Lou and Shelly different from Alice Hobson's death?

4. How does Gawande describe his personal reaction to his patients’ deaths?

5. How does Gawande use graphs to characterize the decline of people’s health?

6. How does Gawande describe the development of this problem in medicine?

7. What conclusions does Gawande draw from the case of Joseph Lazaroff?

8. What does Gawande say he learned from Mabel Nassau’s study of elderly people in Greenwich Village?

9. How does Gawande characterize the future of geriatrics as a field?

10. Who was the first person Gawande says he personally witnessed get old and decline?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Gawande does not say too much about the economic aspects of the questions he addresses, but families from different economic classes experience these problems differently. How does economics affect the outcome for aging and dying? How different are the poor from the middle class or from the wealthy, in this regard? Why do you think Gawande neglected to discuss class as an aspect of this problem?

Essay Topic 2

“Happiness” seems to be an important concept in Being Mortal, as some people, like Alice Hobson, cannot be happy with their lot as their families move them to institutions. How do you measure happiness, and how do you factor happiness into decisions about your own future medical care? What needs to happen for happiness to be factored into the decision making around aging and dying? Choose three different scenarios from the stories Gawande describes, to say how happiness can be included, or what are the consequences if it is not included in planning.

Essay Topic 3

How do the problems Gawande describes in health care relate to other problems that are characteristic of American culture? Are American attitudes to health care related to attitudes about climate change? Environmentalism? Labor or environmental regulations? Pick an issue and show how the Americanness is similar or different.

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