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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the speaker say low points tend to do in his communication with family?
(a) Not change anything.
(b) Confuse the situation.
(c) Make things better.
(d) Make things worse.

2. What discussion between the speaker's father and mother does he use to exemplify the corroboration mark?
(a) A talk about groceries.
(b) A talk about what to watch on TV.
(c) A talk about what to cook for dinner.
(d) A talk about their marital problems.

3. 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 of me without any grandchildren to love.
(b) It pains me to think you will never know a child's love.
(c) It pains me to think you will not have anyone to take care of you in old age.
(d) It pains me to think you may never understand how much I love you.

4. What life changing event was going to happen to the speaker's brother a few weeks after the speaker and his father were weeding?
(a) He was moving abroad.
(b) He was getting married.
(c) He was graduating college.
(d) He was having heart surgery.

5. What sentence is NOT used as an example of when the reversible colon is appropriate?
(a) I've never felt loved by anyone outside of my family::my persistent depression.
(b) I want a better life::my family.
(c) Sex::yes.
(d) My eyes water when I speak about my family::I don't like to speak about my family.

6. What is the purpose of the backup?
(a) It is used to replay a sentence and discover what might have been missed.
(b) It is used to erase what you said and rephrase.
(c) It is used to repeat what you said so the person to whom you are speaking can understand.
(d) It is used to restart a conversation when you were too distracted to listen.

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

8. While weeding, what did the speaker's father say had happened to his brother?
(a) He had become a yes man.
(b) He had become distant.
(c) He had become very affectionate.
(d) He had become disagreeable.

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

10. What does the speaker say familial communication always has to do with?
(a) Failures to communicate.
(b) Forced communication.
(c) Honest communication.
(d) A willingness to communicate.

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

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

13. What did the speaker's brother learn after he ended up in intensive care several weeks ago?
(a) He had been experiencing panic attacks for six years.
(b) He had been having one long heart attack for six years.
(c) He had cancer.
(d) He had contracted Lyme disease.

14. How many heart attacks has the speaker's father suffered?
(a) 14.
(b) 8.
(c) 22.
(d) 41.

15. What phrase is an example a sentence never uttered by the speaker or any member of the speaker's family?
(a) My life is full of pain, and it's not your fault, but I'm so sad.
(b) I don't know how to have a relationship with you, but I know I love you.
(c) My heart is no good, and I'm afraid of dying, and I'm also afraid of saying I love you.
(d) I don't want you in my life, but that does not mean I don't care.

Short Answer Questions

1. What symbol represents "the low point" in the speaker's familial communication?

2. What example does the speaker use of the should have brackets when his father asks him if he hears static in the phone?

3. What example does the speaker use as a familial conversation in which one party understands the words but not the meaning?

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

5. What does the speaker acknowledge about the should-have brackets in the final paragraph of the story?

(see the answer keys)

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