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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. 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 children.
(c) When discussing her life in Europe before the war.
(d) When discussing his grandfather's illness.

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. The narrator says he has never had sex with whom?

4. What shape symbolizes the silence mark?

5. Where was the narrator's grandmother driving him to in the example he cites of her use of the unxclamation point?

Short Essay Questions

1. What conversation does the speaker use to exemplify the silence mark? To whom is he speaking? What is the subject of their conversation?

2. What do readers learn of the grandmother's life in the first paragraph? Describe the context.

3. How does the speaker's father engage with the angry man in the example he uses of the extra exclamation points?

4. Which member of the family uses the pedal point most with the speaker? Why?

5. How often does the speaker say the extra exclamation points are used in his family? Based on your understanding if his family, is this surprising? Explain.

6. What symbol represents the extraexclamation points?

7. Who is yelling at the speaker's father and why in the example he uses of the extraexclamation points?

8. What is the insistent question mark? When is it used per the speaker's example?

9. How did the exchange between the speaker's father and the stranger end? What conclusion did the father come to in regards to his handling of the situation?

10. What does the silence mark symbolize? How often does the speaker say it exists in his family's history?

(see the answer keys)

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