1. What is an extremophile?
(a) A scientist who studies climate extremes.
(b) An organism adapted to living in extreme conditions.
(c) An extremely large living organism.
(d) A researcher who explores extremely isolated regions.

2. According to Bryson, what percentage of all animal and plant life is yet to be discovered?
(a) 32.
(b) 97.
(c) 19.
(d) 54.

3. Who suggested that mass and energy are actually the same thing?
(a) Thomas Edison.
(b) Albert Einstein.
(c) Joseph Lister.
(d) Charles Darwin.

4. What did Carl Linnaeus develop that is still in wide use today?
(a) Binomial system of genus and species.
(b) System for naming lunar features.
(c) Way to differentiate closely related bacteria.
(d) Method to unravel DNA codes.

5. The first eruption of Yellowstone took place how many years ago?
(a) 16.5 million.
(b) 19.7 billion.
(c) 630 thousand.
(d) 74 thousand.

Short Answer Questions

1. Vesto Slipher's work at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona led him to discover that distant stars are moving away from us, with the farthest stars moving the fastest, suggesting that the universe is:

2. What did Carl Linnaeus bring order to through his method of classification?

3. In Chapter 23, the author discusses the battles that go on in the plant world regarding:

4. Approximately how many okapi live in the rain forests of Zaire?

5. What followed the last supervolcanic eruption on Earth in the region that is now northern Sumatra?

(see the answer key)

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