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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When is the reversible colon used?
(a) To show that one side of a sentence does not need the other.
(b) To show that one side of a sentence is better than the other.
(c) To show that both sides of the sentence cancel each other out.
(d) To show that two sides of a sentence explain each other.

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

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

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

5. 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) My eyes water when I speak about my family::I don't like to speak about my family.
(d) I've never felt loved by anyone outside of my family::my persistent depression.

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

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

8. In the final conversation in the story, what is Jonathan's response to his father's {I love you}?
(a) {Help}.
(b) {I love you too, so much}.
(c) {Let me be}.
(d) {I'm crying into the phone}.

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

10. Which symbol represents the corroboration mark?
(a) The exclamation point.
(b) The heart.
(c) The smiley face.
(d) The snowflake.

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

12. What does the narrator's father attribute to his successful marriage?
(a) Being a yes man.
(b) Being a little deaf sometimes.
(c) Open communication.
(d) Giving each other room to grow.

13. 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 groceries.
(c) A talk about what to watch on TV.
(d) A talk about what to cook for dinner.

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

15. What does the severed web mean, approximately?
(a) I see you.
(b) I need you.
(c) I loathe you.
(d) I love you.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did the speaker call his brother and say after finding out he was in intensive care?

2. What did the narrator's father realize after his first fight with his wife?

3. What do the should have brackets denote?

4. What were the speaker and his father recently doing, despite his father's doctor telling him not to?

5. Why does the speaker think he has become a yes man?

(see the answer keys)

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