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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What topic typically results in willed silence on the part of the speaker?
(a) His grades.
(b) His schooling.
(c) His relationships with girls.
(d) His heart.

2. The narrator says he has never had sex with whom?
(a) Someone who knew his name.
(b) Someone who did not love him.
(c) Someone who loved him.
(d) Someone from his hometown.

3. What did the speaker's father say to his children after the argument with the stranger as he held his hand to his heart?
(a) It's never, ever worth it.
(b) I should have stood up to him.
(c) That guy was a jerk.
(d) Don't be a whimp like your old man.

4. What does the silence mark signify?
(a) Confusion.
(b) Absence of language.
(c) Quieting someone.
(d) A moment of meditation.

5. What was the speaker's grandmother listening to in the car in the example he uses of the unxclamation point?
(a) National Public Radio.
(b) A meditation tape.
(c) Barry Manilow.
(d) An audio version of Shoah.

6. Which punctuation mark does the speaker say is the "staple of familial punctuation"(1)?
(a) The insistent question mark.
(b) The confusion mark.
(c) The willed silence mark.
(d) The silence mark.

7. What symbol denotes the extraunxclamation point?
(a) Two exclamation points.
(b) Four exclamation points.
(c) Two upside down exclamation points.
(d) Two exclamation points, one up and one upside down.

8. What symbol represents the pedal point?
(a) The square with an X in it.
(b) The blackened start.
(c) The wavy line.
(d) The half moon.

9. During what conversation with his father does the speaker say the silence mark most often appears?
(a) When discussing life in Europe before the war.
(b) When discussing his relationship with his wife.
(c) When discussing family history of heart disease.
(d) When discussing his work.

10. What did the speaker's grandmother say to him in his example of the unxclamation point?
(a) The grandmother told him she hoped he never loves anyone as much as she loves him.
(b) The grandmother told him she hoped he had his old grandchildren someday.
(c) The grandmother told him she hoped someday he loves someone as much as she loves him.
(d) The grandmother told him she hoped he had a nice piano lesson.

11. What were the speaker and his father discussing on the phone when the silence mark was used as per his example?
(a) His father's recent job loss.
(b) His brother's upcoming wedding.
(c) His father's recent angioplasty.
(d) His own grades in college.

12. What does the unxclamation indicate?
(a) Annoyance.
(b) A whisper.
(c) Disappointment.
(d) Shooshing someone.

13. What punctuation is used the double question mark as its symbol?
(a) The ignorant question mark.
(b) The insistent question mark.
(c) The irate question mark.
(d) The interrogating question mark.

14. When discussing the extraexclamation point, what does the speaker say he and his family never do "with any passion" (3)?
(a) Smile.
(b) Say I love you.
(c) Hug.
(d) Argue.

15. What does the pedal point signify?
(a) An incomplete thought.
(b) A thought that never ends.
(c) An interrupted thought.
(d) A thought that dissolves into a suggestive silence.

Short Answer Questions

1. What symbol represents the unxclamation point?

2. How often does the narrator say his family uses the extraexclamation point?

3. Which of the speaker's family members most uses the pedal point with him?

4. What were the stranger and the narrator's father arguing over in the example he uses of the extra exclamation point?

5. What symbol denotes the extraexclamation point?

(see the answer keys)

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