4.1 Comprehension Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. In a story, HOUSE is placed on the left and SCHOOL on the right. The signer later traces movement from left to right. What is the best comprehension strategy?
Ignore the movement and rely only on mouth movements.
Treat the movement as unrelated because locations reset after each sentence.
Assume left always means west and right always means east.
Interpret the movement using the previously established house-to-school map.
2. When a signer points toward their own chest in an ordinary conversational context, what reference is most commonly intended?
The person being addressed
First person, such as “I” or “me”
An absent third person
A location established behind the signer
3. You miss a manual negation sign, but the signer maintains a clear headshake across the relevant predicate. What meaning should you investigate first?
Negation affecting that part of the sentence
A comparison between two locations
A change from singular to plural
A request to fingerspell the predicate
4. Which combination most strongly supports interpreting an ASL sentence as a content question asking who, what, where, when, why, or how?
A headshake throughout the sentence with no question context
An appropriate WH sign and the nonmanual pattern used for a WH question, commonly including lowered or furrowed eyebrows
Raised shoulders accompanying a list of objects
A body shift between two established character locations
5. A familiar one-handed lexical sign is produced by a left-handed signer rather than a right-handed signer. In isolation, what should a viewer generally expect?
The sign becomes a question.
The sign automatically refers to the past.
The sign must be interpreted as its opposite.
The lexical meaning generally remains the same despite the change in dominant hand.
6. You recognize a sign's handshape but remain unsure of its meaning. Which additional evidence is most useful?
Only the signer's clothing and background
Only whether the signer is left- or right-handed
Its movement, location, palm orientation, nonmanual cues, and sentence context
The nearest spoken-English word with a similar spelling
7. A signer associates MARIA with a point on the left and JORDAN with a point on the right. Later, the signer points to the right. Who is most likely being referenced?
The signer
Maria
Jordan
A new person not previously mentioned
8. During a live conversation, you miss one fingerspelled name and need accurate clarification. Which response best supports comprehension?
Choose the first familiar name that fits the topic.
Continue as though you understood and revise the whole message later.
Request repetition or slower fingerspelling and use the surrounding context to confirm it.
Ask the signer to replace the name with any roughly similar word.
9. A signer raises the eyebrows and tilts the head during an IF clause, but the facial expression also appears emotionally intense. What is the best analysis?
The cues may perform a grammatical function, so structure and context should be considered before assigning emotion.
Facial activity in ASL expresses emotion but never grammar.
Raised eyebrows always turn a clause into a yes-or-no question.
The clause should be interpreted from the manual signs alone.
10. A signer ends a statement while raising the eyebrows and leaning slightly forward, without using a separate sign for QUESTION. What is the most likely function of these cues?
They help mark it as a yes-or-no question.
They mark the statement as past tense.
They show that a noun is plural.
They replace a fingerspelled word.
11. Two ASL signs use the same location, movement, and palm orientation but have different handshapes. Which feature distinguishes them?
The signer's dominant side
Signing speed
Sentence position
Handshape
12. A signer points to a person and immediately fingerspells a word before continuing to describe that person. What is the most reasonable first inference?
The word may be the person's name or another specific identifier.
The fingerspelled word automatically makes the sentence negative.
The fingerspelled word must be a verb showing movement.
The word marks the sentence as future tense.
13. During a story, the signer shifts the torso and eye gaze, produces one character's response, and then shifts back. What should a viewer infer?
The signer has changed the story to a different time period.
The signer is representing a character's perspective or dialogue.
The signer is correcting a handshape error.
The signer is beginning a yes-or-no question.
14. With an indicating verb such as GIVE, what can movement from one established person-location toward another communicate?
How loudly the sentence should be interpreted
The grammatical relationship between giver and recipient
That the object being given is large
Whether both people are physically nearby
15. A signer presents a noun phrase first with raised eyebrows, pauses briefly, and then comments on it. Which structure best fits this pattern?
A command followed by an apology
A list followed by a rhetorical question
A topic followed by a comment
A quotation followed by a correction
16. Instead of relying only on a conventional lexical sign, a storyteller visibly demonstrates how a character struggles to twist open a tight jar. What is the viewer primarily using to understand this segment?
Alphabetical order in fingerspelling
A yes-or-no question marker
A fixed left-to-right written-English structure
Depiction or constructed action showing how the event unfolds