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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Ballard realize about his first meeting with Vaughan?
(a) That his motives for following him have everything to do with revenge and blackmail.
(b) That his motive for following him has something to do with revenge, but not blackmail.
(c) That his motives for following him have nothing to do with revenge or blackmail.
(d) That his motive for following him has something to do with blackmail, but not revenge.

2. Who did Vaughan collide with two months earlier when he lurched from a concealed access road?
(a) A filmmaker.
(b) Two air hostesses.
(c) Two mechanics.
(d) A stunt driver.

3. Who, according to Ballard, "read the answer to her unspoken questions in the scars on my legs and chest" in the hospital?
(a) His nurse.
(b) His doctor.
(c) His wife.
(d) His mistress.

4. Who does Ballard witness an argument between in the woman's ward of the hospital?
(a) A sister in charge and doctor.
(b) A doctor and a nurse.
(c) A sister in charge and a nurse.
(d) A patient and her sister.

5. 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.
(a) Angel.
(b) Madonna.
(c) Devil.
(d) Child.

6. How many cars did Ballard miss before hitting the one that kills a man?
(a) Three.
(b) Two.
(c) One.
(d) None.

7. What kind of business has Catherine started up with one of her boyfriends?
(a) An air-tourist charter firm.
(b) A bus-tourist charter firm.
(c) A walking-tourist charter firm.
(d) A cycle-tourist charter firm.

8. When Ballard goes to the garage, what does he see on a rear window sill that reminds him of his own personal possessions scattered on the floor of his car after the crash?
(a) A purse.
(b) A necktie.
(c) A briefcase.
(d) A scarf.

9. According to Ballard, as he recuperates in the hospital, what does he state as the "only real experience" he had been through in years?
(a) His affair.
(b) His fantasies.
(c) His guilt.
(d) His crash.

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

11. What does Helen tell Ballard about why she's at Northolt?
(a) She tells him she's looking for Vaughan.
(b) She tells him she's looking for her husband's car.
(c) She tells him she's being interviewed by the police.
(d) She tells him she's filing charges against him.

12. Who dies as the novel opens?
(a) Dr. Helen Remington.
(b) Dr. Robert Vaughan.
(c) James Ballard.
(d) Catherine Ballard.

13. After the crash, Ballard states that an "uneasy _____ carried me towards the hospital."
(a) Euphoria.
(b) Calm.
(c) Fear.
(d) Sadness.

14. Where does Ballard take one of the three prostitutes to?
(a) The driveway of a colleague's.
(b) The deserted garage of a church.
(c) The top deck of a car park.
(d) The back lot of a film studio.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did Ballard have his safety belt on when leaving his secretary, Renata, before the crash?

2. What does Ballard do for the week after being released from the hospital?

3. According to the narrator, with whom did Vaughan want to die in a collision?

4. What kind of airline pilot removes the young wife from the crash with Ballard?

5. In the hospital, what contained the "hundred histories of collision and bereavement" according to Ballard?

(see the answer keys)

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