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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Vaughan ask Ballard to do when they got to Earls Court?
(a) To walk with Gabrielle.
(b) To wait for Gabrielle.
(c) To take pictures of Gabrielle.
(d) To undress Gabrielle.

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

3. Who wears a back brace, steel clamps and has gas bacillus scars on her kneecaps?
(a) Gabrielle.
(b) Helen.
(c) Vera.
(d) Catherine.

4. Whose death does Ballard begin to think about in a "more calculated way" than the one Vaughan designed for a famous film actress?
(a) Catherine's.
(b) Helen's.
(c) Vaughan's.
(d) His.

5. At the studio, who does Ballard see dressed up to resemble a famous screen actress, wearing a fawn suede coat, brassiere, and makeup?
(a) Seagrave.
(b) A stranger.
(c) Vaughan.
(d) An extra.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where do Vaughan, Gabrielle, and Ballard visit at Earls Court?

2. At the Road Research Laboratory, when does Ballard feel his sense of disembodiment and unreality increase?

3. What is Ballard afraid the real reason for the police signaling Vaughan outside Ballard's studio is?

4. According to Ballard, if the famous actress Vaughan obsessed over never died in a car-crash, what had Vaughan created instead?

5. In Ballard's last days with Vaughan, they no longer drive the motorway searching for accidents, but do what instead?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where do Catherine and Vaughan have sex and why is it significant?

2. What type of questions from Vaughan's questionnaire is Ballard specifically drawn to?

3. What does Ballard fantasize about as he has sex with Gabrielle and what does it mean?

4. How does Vaughan begin to change as the novel progresses?

5. How do the prostitutes Vaughan picks up begin to change in appearance and why is it significant?

6. Why does J.G. Ballard portray Vaughan's self-stimulation in the vehicle where a dentist recently died?

7. Why doesn't Ballard intervene on Elizabeth Taylor's behalf when he knew what Vaughan was capable of attempting to hurt her?

8. What is Elizabeth Taylor shooting at the studio where Ballard works and how is it significant?

9. How does Ballard respond to Vaughan's request to give one of the questionnaires to Elizabeth Taylor and what does it show about his character?

10. At Seagrave's, what does Ballard deduce about Vaughan's photographs of Elizabeth Taylor and provides insight into why Vaughan followed Ballard?

(see the answer keys)

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