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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. Where does the narrator lie down to sleep?

2. What did the boy first consider when de Selby confused him with insolvable problems?

3. What is the name of the man who runs the narrator's farm?

4. What does de Selby believe is a hallucination?

5. What kind of miniature instrument does MacCruiskeen own?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the narrator have a wooden leg?

2. What does de Selby say about movement?

3. What does Pluck say bicycles do during bad weather?

4. What does Pluck say about his atom theory?

5. What does Pluck assume about the narrator because he has no name?

6. What does Mathers tells the narrator about the policeman at the police barracks?

7. How does Divney change the atmosphere at the pub?

8. How does the narrator become obsessed with the philosopher, de Selby?

9. Why does Divney suggest they murder Mathers?

10. What does Pluck say about the figures he looks over with MacCruiskeen?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the novel's premise? Why are premises are so important to a story?

Essay Topic 2

Choose one of O'Brien's previous books and contrast it with the Third Policeman in terms of the following:

1. Style.

2. Structure.

3. Themes.

Essay Topic 3

Examine the construction of O'Brien's argument.

1. How does he introduce his ideas?

2. How does he construct his ideas to come to logical conclusion?

3. What weaknesses and strengths can you identify in O'Brien's argument?

(see the answer keys)

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