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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. To what animal does Martina compare the drummer?

2. What does the Irish slang expression "shift" mean?

3. What does Matteen do for a living?

4. What technique is being used in the sentence, "He had gaping thyroidal eyes, the broad skull and delicately tissued temples of a monk" (29)?

5. Which character "resembles nothing so much as his own freshly revived corpse" (54)?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Bat's recurring dream.

2. Who is the "Clancy kid," and what happened to him?

3. What are the two other names that Tug is known by, and how did he get them?

4. What does Tain bring with her to the bar, and what ends up happening to it?

5. When "Bait" opens, where are Matteen and Teddy, and why are they there?

6. Describe the club that is the setting for the first part of "The Moon."

7. Why does Bat think that something inappropriate has happened between Heg and Tain?

8. Describe the narrator of "Bait."

9. Why do Val and Martina keep their relationship a secret?

10. What happens when the four underage girls arrive at the club on the night the story opens?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the rhetorical purpose of the Young Skins motif of characters being identified by family characteristics--last names, physical characteristics, and so on. Use evidence from throughout the anthology to defend your ideas.

Essay Topic 2

In interviews, Colin Barrett has said that it is important to him to portray his small-town characters as fully realized, complex human beings just as characters from more cosmopolitan backgrounds are generally portrayed. Has he succeeded? Write an essay that evaluates the anthology's depiction of small-town characters against this standard. Use evidence from at least four of the stories to support your claims.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the symbolic significance of the title "Diamonds." Use textual evidence to defend your ideas.

(see the answer keys)

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