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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Upon whom does the speaker often "inflict willed silences" (2)?

3. What topic typically results in willed silence on the part of the speaker?

4. What was the speaker's grandmother listening to in the car in the example he uses of the unxclamation point?

5. What was the weather like when the narrator's grandmother was driving him somewhere in the example he uses of the unxclamation point?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the extraunxclamation points? What does the speaker think of them?

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

3. What do we learn of the speaker's family health history in the first paragraph? Describe the context.

4. 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.

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

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

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

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

9. How does the speaker describe his relationships with women?

10. When does the speaker most often use the willed silence mark?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Read a review of "A Primer for the Punctuation of Heart Disease." Write an essay about how this review impacted your own views or understanding of the story.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the speaker's depression in Foer's "A Primer for the Punctuation of Heart Disease."

Essay Topic 3

Genre is a category assigned to a literary work, like a story. What are some genres that could be used to classify the story? What is the main genre of the story? Explain.

(see the answer keys)

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