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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 schooling.
(b) His grades.
(c) His heart.
(d) His relationships with girls.

2. What symbol represents the willed silence mark?
(a) An upside down triangle.
(b) A blackened square.
(c) A circle with an X in it.
(d) An hand silhouette.

3. During what type of conversation with his grandmother does the speaker say the silence mark most often appears?
(a) When discussing her heart condition.
(b) When discussing her life in Europe before the war.
(c) When discussing her children.
(d) When discussing his grandfather's illness.

4. Upon whom does the speaker often "inflict willed silences" (2)?
(a) His father.
(b) His mother.
(c) His brother.
(d) His grandmother.

5. What did the man continue to yell at the speaker's father in the example he uses of the extra exclamation point?
(a) Get over it, loser.
(b) Go away, asshole.
(c) Out of my way, jackass.
(d) Give it up, fucker.

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

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

8. What were the stranger and the narrator's father arguing over in the example he uses of the extra exclamation point?
(a) Politics.
(b) A tip.
(c) A parking space.
(d) A sport's game.

9. Which of the speaker's family members most uses the pedal point with him?
(a) His brother.
(b) His mother.
(c) His grandmother.
(d) His father.

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

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

12. What was the weather like when the narrator's grandmother was driving him somewhere in the example he uses of the unxclamation point?
(a) Sunny.
(b) Snowy.
(c) Rainy.
(d) Overcast.

13. What shape symbolizes the silence mark?
(a) Square.
(b) Triangle.
(c) Rhombus.
(d) Circle.

14. 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.

15. Who is the author of "A Primer for the Punctuation of Heart Disease"?
(a) Jonathan Safran Foer.
(b) Jonathan Franzen.
(c) Jonathan Sears.
(d) Jonathan Swift.

Short Answer Questions

1. During what conversation with his father does the speaker say the silence mark most often appears?

2. What does the narrator say he has never had with any member of his family?

3. How many heart attacks does the speaker say his family has "and counting" (1)?

4. When discussing the extraexclamation point, what does the speaker say he and his family never do "with any passion" (3)?

5. What punctuation is used the double question mark as its symbol?

(see the answer keys)

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