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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. Why does Riley say that Cy needs to comfort customers?
(a) Because it makes the needles hurt less.
(b) Because some change their minds and flee.
(c) Because they are as much a psychiatrist as artists.
(d) Because customers come there for more than one reason.

2. At what does Cy marvel?
(a) The way a woman's breast moves a tattoo.
(b) The intricate designs Riley tattoos.
(c) The way the colors glow on women.
(d) Women's endurance and unpredictability.

3. Where does Riley want to be buried?
(a) At the hillside cemetary.
(b) He wants to be cremated.
(c) In his homeland of Russia.
(d) At sea.

4. What confuses Cy?
(a) Why he is not attending school.
(b) Where is father is.
(c) Watching his mother care for sobbing women who visit in the middle of the night.
(d) Why his mother cries for strangers.

5. How does Cy's routine begin?
(a) With the question, "Ready?"
(b) By outlining in pencil the work area.
(c) By tapping three times on the table for luck.
(d) By singing a song to himself.

Short Answer Questions

1. What can Riley accept?

2. What does Cy share with his mother?

3. How old is Cy when the book opens?

4. What do people know?

5. What does Cy's mother say about the sun's light?

Short Essay Questions

1. What convinces Cy that the first part of his life has ended?

2. How does Riley come to offer Cy an apprenticeship and what is Cy's response?

3. What indication is there that "times are changing" even in a small town such as Morecambe? Why do you think this is so?

4. How does the topic of sex give Cy some not-so-great memories?

5. How does Cy's apprenticeship fare and what is an important lesson Cy learns?

6. Describe Cy's first encounter with Riley.

7. How does Reeda die and how does this affect Cy?

8. What upsets the town council and what is Reeda's response?

9. There are many instances of foreshadowing in this opening section. Name one and venture a guess as to what it could foreshadow.

10. Why do many women come to Riley's tattoo parlor?

(see the answer keys)

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