1. Why does Alex lie about the airline tickets ?
2. At first, Alex doesn't interfere. Why does he change his mind?
3. Complete the last words of the film :
   
   "Oh yes, I believe in friends, I believe we ______ them, but if, one day, you find you just can't _____ them any more, well, what then, what then ?"

Read the following interview with the writer, John Hodge and answer the questions that follow it :

"When I began writing, I'd seen a succession of American films which had one thing in common - a small group of people working out their differences in a tight situation over a short period of time. With the script of "Shallow Grave" it was important that something happened every page or so. I didn't want it to be a study of character that was grafted onto a healthy narrative. In this way, the story moves so quickly that there's no time for the characters to spend heart-searching over the rights and wrongs of their actions, they just go out and do it. I think this decisiveness and the way they enter into it with such enthusiasm will hook the audience as much as any moral questions."

Hodge also makes his acting debut in the film, as the pedantically efficient Detective Constable Mitchell. "There was a time when I thought, if the film was going to be made at all, it would have to be made very cheaply with friends doing the acting," he remembers. "Now, having seen my performance up on the screen where it's been skillfully edited, I suppose it could have been much worse. Danny seemed very keen that I should do it - I think he felt I was Mitchell - but I doubt if I've got an alternative career ahead."

Questions

1. How many scripts had John Hodge written before Shallow Grave ?
2. Was he pleased at his acting in the film ?
3. Find other words that mean the same as the underlined ones.