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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 were some things the speaker's father's doctor advised him against doing due to the emotional stress these things caused him?
(a) Running or arguing with his wife.
(b) Watching Orioles games or thinking of the current administration.
(c) Driving during rush hour or answering the phone.
(d) Cooking dinner or cleaning the house.

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

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

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

5. 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 may never understand how much I love you.
(c) It pains me to think you will never know a child's love.
(d) It pains me to think of me without any grandchildren to love.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What recurring dreams did the speaker's father have?

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

4. How many heart attacks has the speaker's father suffered?

5. What is the speaker's response to "Jonathan" when followed by a pedal point in the example he uses?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the snowflake and when it might be used.

2. What does the speaker realize about himself after his father discusses how his brother was already a yes man?

3. What are low points? What conversation between the speaker and his mother does he use to exemplify their use?

4. Describe the conversation the speaker relays between mother and father to show use of the corroboration mark.

5. What does the severed web symbolize? What does the speaker call this?

6. Why did the speaker's father's doctor advise against pulling weeds? What other things did he advice against?

7. Describe the phone call between the speaker and his brother after he ended up in intensive care.

8. What did the speaker's brother learn after first experiencing chest pains and ultimately ending up in intensive care?

9. What are the should-have brackets?

10. What does the speaker's father confess to him about his marriage after his 19th heart attack?

(see the answer keys)

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