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

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

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the subject of the discussion the speaker uses to exemplify use of the low point?

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

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

4. What are some things the speaker might be doing when he imagines his family's versions of the should-haves?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. 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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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