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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. How do today's professional astronomers search for supernovae?
(a) In collaboration with astrologers.
(b) Using classical mathematical predictions.
(c) With digital cameras and computers.
(d) Hiring interns to peer through telescopes 24/7.

2. What did the French Compte de Buffon claim about the New World (the Americas) compared to the known Old World?
(a) Diseases of the New World would be much more deadly than in the Old World.
(b) Everything was smaller and inferior in the New World.
(c) The New World was much more fertile than the old.
(d) Unusual, enormous species would be found in the New World.

3. Many scientists suspect that Pluto is just a comet of the:
(a) Solar Belt.
(b) Kuiper Belt.
(c) Neptunian Belt.
(d) Orion Belt.

4. Sir Isaac Newton wrote "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy," which explains his laws of what?
(a) Motion and gravity.
(b) Electromagnetic interference.
(c) Quantum physics.
(d) Attraction.

5. While he worked at General Motors Research Corporation in 1921, engineer Thomas Midgley, Jr. developed what dangerous gasoline additive?
(a) Isopropyl alcohol.
(b) Combustion catalyst.
(c) Hydrochloric acid.
(d) Tetraethyl lead.

Short Answer Questions

1. A hundred years before Einstein's math analyses confirmed the existence of atoms, this self-educated scientist suggested everything is made up of tiny, unchangeable particles:

2. Scientists eventually figured out that certain unusual rocks near Manson, Iowa, were not because of ancient volcanic activity as they first surmised, but the result of what?

3. An asteroid strike on Earth would most likely affect the climate for how long?

4. The first eruption of Yellowstone took place how many years ago?

5. Earth is composed of 8 to 12 larger plates and about how many smaller ones?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the Superstring Theory explain quarks?

2. Describe the protons, neutrons, and electrons of an atom.

3. Describe what happens in a supernova.

4. Describe what the Archbishop James Usser and the Reverend William Buckland concluded regarding the age of Earth.

5. Where do earthquakes occur?

6. Summarize what the author says about why it took so long to discover that Pluto has a moon.

7. Why is the term "dinosaurian" a misnomer?

8. How did the English scientist Henry Cavendish determine the weight of Earth?

9. Who was Clair Patterson? Describe Clair Patterson's campaign against lead contamination.

10. What explanation did James Hutton come up with to describe the phenomenon of seashell fossils frequently found on mountaintops?

(see the answer keys)

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