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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) Cooking dinner or cleaning the house.
(b) Driving during rush hour or answering the phone.
(c) Running or arguing with his wife.
(d) Watching Orioles games or thinking of the current administration.

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

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

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

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

4. When is the reversible colon used?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the final words that remain unspoken, as shown by the use of the should-have brackets, between father and son in the final conversation of the story?

2. What is something the speaker and his brother do not discuss? How do you know?

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

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

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

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

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

8. What are the should-have brackets?

9. What is one example the speaker gives of the use of a reversible colon?

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

(see the answer keys)

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