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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What word (or a variation of it) is repeated several times after the sniper is shot?

2. Once his enemy has died, the sniper begins to "gibber" (98). What is he doing?

3. Why is the sniper eating?

4. What can readers infer about the sniper's revolver?

5. Why does the protagonist expose his hand by draping it over the parapet?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens as a result of the Republican sniper's ruse?

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

3. What motivates the sniper to get himself back under control?

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

5. Who is the protagonist of "The Sniper" and what is he fighting for?

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

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

8. What is the sniper drinking, and what evidence does the reader have that it is affecting his judgement?

9. What is the setting of "The Sniper"?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the paradox in the story's description of the sniper's appearance.

Essay Topic 2

What is the most reasonable explanation of the sniper's choice to light the cigarette that gives away his position? Provide textual evidence for your claim.

Essay Topic 3

What causes the sniper's abrupt change of emotion once he has killed the other sniper? Why does this occur only after he has killed the enemy sniper, and not when he kills the first person, the machine gunner?

(see the answer keys)

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