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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. James Hutton believed that the natural forces forming the geology of Earth are:
(a) Random and unpredictable.
(b) Still at work.
(c) Now extinct.
(d) Impossible to classify.

2. 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:
(a) Expanding.
(b) Stable.
(c) Oscillating.
(d) Shrinking.

3. Harry Hess determined that, in the Atlantic, the ocean floor is:
(a) Super heated.
(b) Super cooled.
(c) Expanding.
(d) Shrinking.

4. The Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico is thought to be the site of what?
(a) Most advanced ancient telescope ever developed.
(b) Landfall of the largest hurricane in the past thousand years.
(c) Asteroid impact that brought on the extinction of dinosaurs.
(d) First legitimate UFO landing.

5. After noticing an unusual phenomenon with uranium salts and a photographic plate, Henri Becquerel asked one of his graduate students to investigate the matter. Who was this student?
(a) Marie Curie.
(b) Louise Désirée Lorieux.
(c) René Just Haüy.
(d) Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen.

Short Answer Questions

1. What are so small that the dot on the letter "i" could hold 5 billion of them?

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

3. Earth is the only planet in the solar system to have what?

4. What did the French Compte de Buffon claim about the New World (the Americas) compared to the known Old World?

5. When radiation was first discovered, it was sometimes added to:

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain how inventor and engineer, Thomas Midley, Jr., solved some problems but created enormous safety and environmental issues by adding lead to gasoline and by inventing chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

2. Why does Bryson consider Pluto to be an oddity?

3. Explain Albert Einstein's theory of space curvature using a tennis ball and an ant.

4. Who is the Reverend Robert Evans, and what is he known for?

5. Describe inner solar system asteroids.

6. Describe some of the theories regarding what might have caused the Big Bang.

7. Describe what happened when astronomer Edmond Halley asked Sir Isaac Newton for mathematical help.

8. What are quarks? How are they categorized and classified?

9. What happened when Max Planck was advised to study math instead of physics?

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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