View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the original use of a lowpoint then to create?
(a) The low point silence.
(b) The low point challenge.
(c) The low point chain.
(d) The low point lull.

2. What does the father say in should have brackets to Jonathan about his dreams during the final conversation in the story?
(a) Jonathan's mother was crying while pulling weeds from his chest.
(b) Jonathan was laughing as he pulled weeds from his chest.
(c) His father was really pulling weeds from his brother's chest.
(d) Jonathan was the one pulling weeds from his chest.

3. Which member of the speaker's family do you attribute this sentence to: "I didn't die in the Holocaust, but all of my siblings did, so where does that leave me" (5)?
(a) His great-aunt.
(b) His father
(c) His grandmother.
(d) His mother.

4. What life changing event was going to happen to the speaker's brother a few weeks after the speaker and his father were weeding?
(a) He was graduating college.
(b) He was moving abroad.
(c) He was getting married.
(d) He was having heart surgery.

5. What example does the speaker use of the should have brackets when his father asks him if he hears static in the phone?
(a) {I'm no longer listening}.
(b) {I cannot hear anything}.
(c) {I'm hanging up the phone}.
(d) {I'm crying into the phone}.

6. What phrase can the low point replace?
(a) It couldn't possible be worse.
(b) This is as good as it gets.
(c) Nowhere to go but up.
(d) What goes up must come down.

7. What discussion between the speaker's father and mother does he use to exemplify the corroboration mark?
(a) A talk about their marital problems.
(b) A talk about what to watch on TV.
(c) A talk about what to cook for dinner.
(d) A talk about groceries.

8. What sentence is NOT used as an example of when the reversible colon is appropriate?
(a) Sex::yes.
(b) I want a better life::my family.
(c) I've never felt loved by anyone outside of my family::my persistent depression.
(d) My eyes water when I speak about my family::I don't like to speak about my family.

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

10. What were the speaker and his father recently doing, despite his father's doctor telling him not to?
(a) Lifting weights.
(b) Running.
(c) Stacking wood.
(d) Pulling weeds.

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

12. What symbol represents the "backup"?
(a) An upside down arrow.
(b) A left arrow.
(c) A right arrow.
(d) An upright arrow.

13. What does the speaker acknowledge about the should-have brackets in the final paragraph of the story?
(a) They are used more often between him and his father.
(b) They rarely exist in conversations between himself and his brother.
(c) Each family member's sense of the should-haves is different.
(d) They are used less frequently among his family members lately.

14. What do the should have brackets denote?
(a) Words you know you were expected to say but could not.
(b) When you realize what you should have said after the fact.
(c) Words that were not spoken but should have been.
(d) Words someone thinks you should have said but did not.

15. How may fights have the speaker's parent had in all of their marriage?
(a) Dozens.
(b) 1.
(c) 10.
(d) Hundreds.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many heart attacks had the speaker's father suffered when he told his son the secret to his successful marriage?

2. What are some things the speaker might be doing when he imagines his family's versions of the should-haves?

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

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

5. What did the speaker's brother learn after he ended up in intensive care several weeks ago?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 695 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample