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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the speaker call the severed web symbol?
(a) A Hardly Acceptable Replacement.
(b) A Barely Tolerable Subsitute.
(c) An Inadequately Worded Idiom.
(d) A Scarcely Salvageable Sentence.

2. How is this sentence spoken by the speaker's mother changed when the back up is used: "It pains me to think of you alone" (7).
(a) It pains me to think you will not have anyone to take care of you in old age.
(b) It pains me to think you will never know a child's love.
(c) It pains me to think you may never understand how much I love you.
(d) It pains me to think of me without any grandchildren to love.

3. What is the subject of the discussion the speaker uses to exemplify use of the low point?
(a) His depression.
(b) His lack of a good job.
(c) His inability to community with candor.
(d) His lack of a girlfriend.

4. How many heart attacks had the speaker's father suffered when he told his son the secret to his successful marriage?
(a) 4.
(b) 22.
(c) 1.
(d) 19.

5. What does the speaker say low points tend to do in his communication with family?
(a) Not change anything.
(b) Make things better.
(c) Confuse the situation.
(d) Make things worse.

6. What are some things the speaker might be doing when he imagines his family's versions of the should-haves?
(a) Having sex or driving.
(b) Taking a walk or a shower.
(c) Shopping or doing his taxes.
(d) Reading a book or making dinner.

7. What is the speaker's response to "Jonathan" when followed by a pedal point in the example he uses?
(a) Say no more.
(b) I know.
(c) Leave me alone.
(d) Be quiet.

8. Why did the speaker's brother go to the university health center a few weeks ago?
(a) He suffered panic attacks.
(b) He had a high fever for several days.
(c) He was having chest pains.
(d) He was depressed.

9. How early on in the marriage did the speaker's parents have their first fight?
(a) On their first anniversary.
(b) During the first week.
(c) After their first year.
(d) The first day.

10. Which of his family members does the speaker say he loved more than he loved himself?
(a) His mother.
(b) His father.
(c) His brother.
(d) His grandmother.

11. What example does the speaker use as a familial conversation in which one party understands the words but not the meaning?
(a) When his father told him his brother had become a yes man.
(b) When his mother told him it pained her to think of him alone.
(c) When his grandmother told him she hopes he never loves anyone as much as she loves him.
(d) When his brother told him he had been having a heart attack for six years.

12. What recurring dreams did the speaker's father have?
(a) Pulling weeds from his chest.
(b) Hiding from Nazis.
(c) Running for president.
(d) Playing on the Orioles.

13. The speaker uses a conversation between himself and which relative as an example of the low point?
(a) His mother.
(b) His father.
(c) His grandmother.
(d) His brother.

14. What did the speaker's brother learn after he ended up in intensive care several weeks ago?
(a) He had cancer.
(b) He had contracted Lyme disease.
(c) He had been having one long heart attack for six years.
(d) He had been experiencing panic attacks for six years.

15. How many heart attacks has the speaker's father suffered?
(a) 8.
(b) 22.
(c) 14.
(d) 41.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do the should have brackets denote?

2. What does the narrator's father attribute to his successful marriage?

3. What symbol represents "the low point" in the speaker's familial communication?

4. What does the speaker acknowledge about the should-have brackets in the final paragraph of the story?

5. What is the purpose of the backup?

(see the answer keys)

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