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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where are Ballard, Catherine, and Vaughan when Catherine and Vaughan have sex in the backseat?
(a) An airport.
(b) A park.
(c) A carwash.
(d) A studio.

2. Why does Ballard feel "no trace of pity" for Gabrielle after they make love?
(a) Because Gabrielle hated her crippled body.
(b) Because they celebrated her crippled body.
(c) Because they disregarded her crippled body.
(d) Because Gabrielle was responsible for her crippled body.

3. How does Seagrave preempt the "real death" that Vaughan reserved for himself?
(a) By wearing Vaughan's jacket and trousers in Elizabeth Taylor's death.
(b) By wearing Elizabeth Taylor's wig and costume in his own death.
(c) By driving Elizabeth Taylor's limo in his own death.
(d) By driving Vaughan's Lincoln in Elizabeth Taylor's death.

4. According to Ballard, each of Gabrielle's body was a "ripening anthology of ______possibilities."
(a) Passive.
(b) Potent.
(c) Practical.
(d) Perverse.

5. What kind of dog did Ballard hit two years earlier when he notices the same deformation on Vaughan's car?
(a) An English Setter.
(b) An Irish Setter.
(c) An Italian Greyhound.
(d) A German Shepherd.

6. What is the name of the avenue that Ballard and Vaughan drive along with the two airport prostitutes?
(a) Southhern Avenue.
(b) Eastern Avenue.
(c) Northern Avenue.
(d) Western Avenue.

7. According to Ballard, "It isn't sex that Vaughan is interested in, but _______."
(a) Violence.
(b) Death.
(c) Life.
(d) Technology.

8. Ballard states that Vaughan was only interesting to Ballard in relation to what?
(a) His intellect.
(b) His fame.
(c) His car.
(d) His camera.

9. What does Vaughan hold in his hand that he claims can help recreate the Mansfield, Camus, and Kennedy crashes?
(a) Hospital x-rays.
(b) Lab handouts.
(c) Freeway designs.
(d) Studio outtakes.

10. How old are the "sharp-faced airport whores" Vaughan is arguing with when Ballard comes out of the bar?
(a) "Barely older than schoolchildren."
(b) "As old as Queen and country."
(c) "As old as Queen Mum."
(d) "Barely older than School marms."

11. How does Vaughan position himself and Catherine in the backseat while Ballard watches them have sex?
(a) In the same posture as Vaughan and the prostitute.
(b) In the same posture as the diplomat and young woman.
(c) In the same posture as Ballard and Helen.
(d) In the same posture as Elizabeth Taylor and her husband.

12. What is the name of the famous writer that Vaughan has an agency picture of for his questionnaire?
(a) Kurt Vonnegut.
(b) F. Scott Fitzgerald.
(c) Ernest Hemingway.
(d) Albert Camus.

13. What kind of injuries from car crashes is Vaughan most preoccupied, according to Ballard?
(a) Genital wounds.
(b) Abdominal wounds.
(c) Facial wounds.
(d) Spinal wounds.

14. Who does Vaughan tell Ballard that Seagrave may follow after disappearing in a wig and leopard-skin coat?
(a) Catherine.
(b) Helen.
(c) Ballard.
(d) Vaughan.

15. After his accident, who does Catherine urge Ballard to see so much so that he feels that there were "lesbian overtones" to her request?
(a) Helen.
(b) Renata.
(c) Vera.
(d) Gabrielle.

Short Answer Questions

1. Whose death does Ballard begin to think about in a "more calculated way" than the one Vaughan designed for a famous film actress?

2. According to Ballard, Helen was about to enter a period of what after her bereavement?

3. Who give Vaughan a set of passkeys so that he could take cars from the airport parking lots?

4. On the Harlington clearway, besides the customized fiberglass sports car, and a chauffeur-driven government saloon, what other car is involved a crash?

5. According to Ballard, who "resembled rows of the dead looking down at us from the galleries of a columbarium"?

(see the answer keys)

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