1. According to the narrator, with whom did Vaughan want to die in a collision?
(a) Elizabeth Taylor.
(b) Catherine Ballard.
(c) Dr. Helen Remington.
(d) James Ballard.

2. As Ballard waits for someone to reassure him after the crash, what does he imagine firemen doing with carbon dioxide sprays?
(a) Tracing obscene or humorous slogans.
(b) Coiling dead bodies on the ground.
(c) Spraying the spectators to punish them.
(d) Enacting a grotesque simulation of violence.

3. Where does the fatal car crash that nearly misses Elizabeth Taylor occur?
(a) By a park.
(b) Near a film studio.
(c) Next to a school.
(d) At an airport.

4. According to Ballard, "For Vaughan, the car-crash and his own ______ had made their final marriage."
(a) Depression.
(b) Faith.
(c) Sexuality.
(d) Health.

5. What word does Ballard repeat several times in his description of the car crash at the beginning of the book?
(a) Stylized.
(b) Stoic.
(c) Static.
(d) Strange.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Ballard, the young wife of the man killed in the car crash stared at him with a look that resembled a ________in an Early Renaissance icon.

2. According to Ballard, what would Ballard and Vaughan listen to on their way to accident sites?

3. What is the name of the place where Vaughan and Ballard watch vehicles crash into concrete blocks?

4. According to Ballard at the end of Chapter 2, the radiator grills of their cars resembled what?

5. What did Vaughan rehearse for in the days before his death?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 268 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page)

View a FREE sample