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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. Besides money, what does Arm take from the horse farm?

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

3. What is the "Diamonds" narrator hiding with his long sleeves?

4. How old is the narrator of "Diamonds"

5. Whom does the "Diamonds" narrator describe as "sick-of-their-own-shit degenerates" (171)?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Arm's attitude toward his son?

2. What does Arm tell Hector he wants from Maire, and why does he want it?

3. Who are the two people that Arm calls when he reaches Ballintober, and why does he call them?

4. What evidence is there that the narrator in "Diamonds" is determined to overcome his alcohol abuse?

5. What does Arm think, in retrospect, about the events at the uncles' farm?

6. What does the barman discover has been left behind after Doran and Eli leave, and what does he do with it?

7. What made Eli and Maryanne's marriage a disaster?

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

9. What motives for helping him does the narrator of "Diamonds" ascribe to his former principal?

10. Whom does the barman tell Doran he reminds him of?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the rhetorical function of the graphic depictions of violence in "Calm With Horses"? Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the purpose of including such detailed descriptions of violence; use textual evidence to support your ideas.

Essay Topic 2

Why are there so few functional romantic relationships in Young Skins? Is this a comment on the environment of Glanbeigh, a comment on Irish culture, or a comment on life in general? Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the significance of the anthology's dearth of rewarding romantic relationships. Use textual evidence from throughout the anthology in defense of your ideas.

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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