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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. The narrator says that the sniper can hear the "dull panting" (96) of the enemy armored car. This is an example of which technique?
(a) Oxymoron.
(b) Personification.
(c) Simile.
(d) Onomatopoeia.

2. What is the first physical sensation the sniper feels in the place where he has been shot?
(a) Numbness, or absence.
(b) A sharp shock.
(c) Warmth.
(d) Overwhelming pain.

3. When the sniper turns over the body of his enemy, whom does he discover it to be?
(a) A total stranger.
(b) His priest.
(c) His commander.
(d) His own brother.

4. Toward the end of the story, the sniper feels "remorse" (98). What is he feeling?
(a) Boredom.
(b) Fury.
(c) Regret.
(d) Confusion.

5. As a result of taking a risk in order to see his dead enemy's body, what happens to the sniper?
(a) Nothing: he gets away with it.
(b) He is shot at.
(c) He has to kill another civilian.
(d) He sets off a bomb.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why is the sniper eating?

2. What river is near the sniper's position?

3. How many people does the sniper kill before he can get a clear shot at the enemy sniper?

4. After he is wounded, the sniper feels a "paroxysm" of pain. What kind of pain is he feeling?

5. The conflicting descriptions of the sniper that make him sound both young and mature are an example of what technique?

Short Essay Questions

1. What risk does the sniper take at the beginning of the story, and what are the consequences?

2. In the sentence "Almost immediately, a bullet flattened itself against the parapet of the roof," (96), what is being personified and what purpose does the personification of the bullet serve?

3. What striking contrast is there in the description that opens the story with the description that closes the first paragraph?

4. What are the two contrasting descriptions of the sniper given when he is first introduced?

5. What is the symbolic significance of the O'Connell Bridge and the River Liffey?

6. What motivates the sniper to discover the identity of the dead man, and what is that identity?

7. When the reader first encounters the sniper, what is he doing, and why?

8. What problem is created by the sniper's wound?

9. Who does the sniper kill while he is still waiting to kill the enemy sniper, and why does he kill them?

10. How does the enemy sniper manage to shoot the protagonist?

(see the answer keys)

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