The Ultimate Death Quiz

Estimated Completion Time
1 min
The Ultimate Death Quiz
Image: iStockphoto/Dodorema

About This Quiz

The Grim Reaper is a personification of death that has been invented and refined over the years to help humans make sense of their own mortality. How much do you know about your own mortality? You can't cheat death, and you can't cheat on this quiz about death, either. So sharpen your scythe and get started.
What causes a death rattle?
fluid built up in the lungs
erratic heartbeat
the kidneys shutting down
Which of the following is not one of the top five causes of death in high-income countries?
stroke
lung cancer
HIV/AIDS
How long can the brain survive after the heart stops beating?
30 seconds to one minute
Three to seven minutes
10 minutes

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Do hair and fingernails continue to grow after death?
Yes; tissue from hair and fingernails is indestructible.
Yes; any oxygen in the room spurs fingernail and hair growth.
No; it only looks that way because skin shrivels up.
Psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross defined grief as a progression through five distinct stages. What's the correct order for these stages?
Anger, bargaining, anger, bargaining, acceptance
Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance
Anger, bargaining, depression, denial, elation
What is algor mortis?
the stage right before a person dies
stiffening of the body after death
cooling of the body after death

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What is Balfour's test?
a specific series of procedures that ascertain brain death
an 18th-century means of determining death
a way to check if cardiopulmonary resuscitation was effective
Which medical school wrote the standard definition of death in 1968?
Johns Hopkins
Duke
Harvard
Who portrayed Death in Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal"?
Bengt Ekerot
Max von Sydow
Gunnar Olsson

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How many people perished during the Black Death?
25 million
50 million
250 million