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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. When did Joe Lacks turn himself into the police for the murder of Eldridge Lee Ivy?

2. How old was Lawrence when he an Bobbette moved in together?

3. When was Johns Hopkins Hospital founded?

4. What was the name of the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Henrietta Lacks?

5. What was Henrietta Lacks's name at birth?

Short Essay Questions

1. What led up to Joe Lacks's imprisonment for second-degree murder?

2. What did Henrietta's doctors at Johns Hopkins find during her repeated visits in June of 1951?

3. How do you think Henrietta Lacks's life would have been different if her mother had not died when Henrietta was still a child? Why?

4. How did Henrietta meet David Lacks? How did their early relationship develop?

5. How is Henrietta Lacks's early childhood described in the book? When and where was she born? Where did she grow up?

6. What did George Gey do with the HeLa cells that he obtained and cultured at his labs? What were Gey's objectives?

7. How did Lawrence Lacks deal with the death of his mother? What led Lawrence into the military?

8. How did the doctors at Johns Hopkins treat Henrietta Lacks after her recurrence of cancer in June of 1951?

9. What was the objective for Dr. Richard TeLinde in using cancer cells and samples from Howard Jones in his research?

10. What unethical actions were committed by virologist Chester Southam in his research with HeLa cells?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the impact of the Rolling Stones article that focused on the Lacks family in the 1970s. How did this article impact the family? How did Americans respond to the article? Why?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the themes of abuse, family, and loss in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. What symbolism and imagery support these themes? What abuses were suffered by the Lacks family? How did the family members cope with grief and loss?

Essay Topic 3

Examine the theme of poverty in the narrative. What role did poverty play in the lives of the Lacks family? How does the author juxtapose this poverty with the successes of HeLa?

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