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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 does Paudi believe is true about Hector?

2. What is the barman's name?

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

4. Who does Dympna suspect told his uncles about what happened to Charlie?

5. On page 176, how does the "Diamonds" narrator describe the smell inside his car that makes him gag?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Arm believe is his parents' only real flaw, and why does he think they have this flaw?

2. What does the narrator do on the Monday after he meets Siobhán?

3. What is Dympna's intention in bringing Arm inside the house at the farm, and how does Paudi react?

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

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

6. When Arm and Dympna arrive at the uncles' farm, what does Paudi show them?

7. What does Paudi do to Dympna, and what is Arm's reaction?

8. Who is Mellick, and what story does he tell at AA meetings?

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

10. What can be inferred about how Maryanne died, and what evidence is there to support this inference?

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 significance of nicknames in Young Skins. Use evidence from at least four stories in support of your ideas.

Essay Topic 2

What is the rhetorical function of the descriptive language used on pages 32-35 of "Bait"? Make and defend a claim about the significance of the diction and imagery used in this section; be sure to take into account what has already happened in the story, the action that occurs on pages 32-35, and the story's characterization of Teddy.

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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