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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. Regarding species that have gone extinct, scientists generally:
(a) Do not know what killed off species.
(b) Know exactly how species died.
(c) Attribute mass extinctions to volcanoes.
(d) Blame the extinction on climate changes.

2. Trilobites are fossils of what?
(a) Flying dinosaurs.
(b) Marine creatures.
(c) Spiky cacti.
(d) Leafy ferns.

3. Humans share 98.4 percent of their DNA with:
(a) Chimpanzees.
(b) Lions.
(c) Lemurs.
(d) Chinchillas.

4. Approximately 50 million years ago, Antarctica was:
(a) Open ocean.
(b) Five times larger than it is today.
(c) Close to tropical.
(d) A barren desert.

5. What helped scientists start accepting the idea of ice ages?
(a) An exploration of Antarctica.
(b) An analysis of Siberian winters.
(c) A scientific expedition to Greenland.
(d) A scientific evaluation of changing weather patterns.

Short Answer Questions

1. What percentage of a person's genes are shared with all other humans?

2. Somewhere between three and two million years ago, how many hominid species co-existed before vanishing abruptly?

3. The early Cambrian period, or the Cambrian explosion, refers to a time how long ago?

4. The dodo was a:

5. Scientists believe that our planet is currently in a period of what?

Short Essay Questions

1. How much of Earth's land is suitable for humans to live on?

2. What is the water distribution across the world's major oceans?

3. Describe the presence of bacteria in humans.

4. What does the author say about radioactive waste being dumped into oceans?

5. Why haven't scientists discovered every species of plant and animal life yet?

6. What did Charles Darwin do on the HMS Beagle?

7. How do ice ages begin?

8. What does a Swedish DNA study reveal about the origins of modern man?

9. What does the author lament about the study of wildlife throughout much of human history?

10. What type of scientific work did the monk and scientist Gregor Mendel do?

(see the answer keys)

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