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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. How did the "Diamonds" narrator's cat die?
(a) He found and ate drugs the narrator had stashed in his closet.
(b) The narrator forgot to give him food and water.
(c) While drunk, the narrator rolled on him and suffocated him.
(d) He escaped the narrator's flat and ran into traffic.

2. In his description of his train ride home in the opening of "Diamonds," what tone does the narrator adopt in his description of the landscape?
(a) Ambivalent.
(b) Nostalgic.
(c) Admiring.
(d) Contemptuous.

3. It is reasonable to infer that for the "Diamonds" narrator, the most depressing part of the unusually harsh winter is what?
(a) The constant traffic accidents.
(b) The cats dying.
(c) The trash mounding up everywhere.
(d) Students falling and getting hurt.

4. How old is the narrator of "Diamonds"
(a) 33.
(b) 27.
(c) 24.
(d) 30.

5. What does Doran tell Eli about his life that Eli says he doubts is true?
(a) That he is content not being in a romantic relationship for the rest of his life.
(b) That he wishes that he, Eli, and Maryanne had stayed close.
(c) That he does not really enjoy the music business anymore.
(d) That he never really got over Maryanne breaking his heart.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did the barman get his scars?

2. What technique is used in the sentence "Limply piled and dripping, it resembled the lustreless corpse of a drowned animal" (190)?

3. What question does Eli ask the barman about the story he told them in the bar?

4. What technique is evident in the page 143 sentence "It was drenched in a swathe of syrupy, sticky stuff turned dark plum against the denim"?

5. Which is the best description of the "Diamonds" narrator's attitude toward teaching his gym classes?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Arm and Dympna meet?

2. Why does Arm's son not live with him?

3. What happened on the band's tour that caused Doran to leave the band?

4. When Arm runs into Fannigan on his walk on the night that Brandon's band plays at Quillinan's, what does Arm do to Fannigan?

5. What is Owen Doran doing in the beginning of "Kindly Forget My Existence," and why?

6. How do Eli, Doran, and Maryanne know one another?

7. What do the narrator and Siobhán see as they are driving down the quay road, and what is Siobhán's reaction?

8. What happens when Arm goes back to the horse farm for a second time?

9. In the years since their band broke up, how have Eli and Doran's lives differed?

10. Where does Arm head first after he leaves the uncles' farm, and what does he do once he gets there?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,010 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample