17:17 >perl 1859_SoPW.pl
["a. answer \n", "b. answer \n", "c. answer \n"]

17:18 >

##</code><code>##

my $file = 'quiz4.txt';
...
open(my $fh, '<', $file)
    or die "Cannot open file '$file' for reading, stopped";
...
close $fh
    or die "Cannot close file '$file', stopped";

##</code><code>##

use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dump;

my %answers;
my $question;

while (my $line = <DATA>)
{
    if    ($line =~ / ^ (\d+) \. /x)
    {
        $question = $1;
    }
    elsif ($line =~ / ^ \* (\w+) \. \s* (.*?) \s* $ /x)
    {
        warn "Overwriting answer for question $question"
            if exists $answers{$question};

        $answers{$question} = [$1, $2];
    }
}

dd \%answers;

__DATA__
1. question?
*a. answer begin end
b. answer 
c. answer 
2. question?
a. answer 
*b. answer 
c. answer 
3. question?
a. answer 
b. answer 
*c. answer 

##</code><code>##

17:26 >perl 1859_SoPW.pl
{
  1 => ["a", "answer begin end"],
  2 => ["b", "answer"],
  3 => ["c", "answer"],
}

17:27 >