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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was the major result of the Cretaceous-Tertiary Collision?
(a) Environmental shifts.
(b) Mass extinction.
(c) The destruction of most plant life on the Earth.
(d) An ice age.

2. What is the main component of the atmosphere of Venus?
(a) Quicklime gas.
(b) Hydrogen.
(c) Phosphate.
(d) Sulfuric acid.

3. Why does Sagan say that Mars is a more desirable target for human exploration than the moon?
(a) It is more like Earth.
(b) It has more resources.
(c) It is more inhabitable.
(d) It has more to teach.

4. How well does Sagan say his typical audience handles the practical details of a Mars mission?
(a) They are well-connected and able to deal with the details.
(b) They are meticulous thinkers on the subject.
(c) They are uninterested in the details.
(d) They are hopelessly incapable of dealing with them.

5. When did a "disrupted" comet famously fall into Jupiter?
(a) 2000.
(b) 1994.
(c) 1964.
(d) 1982.

6. When did the belief that Venus was a "sister planet" to Earth become dispelled?
(a) The late nineteenth century.
(b) The mid nineteenth century.
(c) The mid twentieth century.
(d) The early twentieth century.

7. What types of information does SETI analyze?
(a) Magnetic waves.
(b) Radio waves.
(c) Gravitational waves.
(d) Cosmic rays.

8. How are chunks of Martian rock studied on Earth?
(a) They are returned by two-way probes.
(b) They are simulated with moon rocks.
(c) They fall to the Earth.
(d) They are captured in space.

9. How does Sagan characterize most of the benefits gleaned from the space programs of the 60s and 70s?
(a) They were underestimated.
(b) They were intangible.
(c) They were unexpected.
(d) They were relatively unimportant.

10. Sagan suggests that the Apollo missions were primarily about what?
(a) Politics.
(b) Science.
(c) Military strategy.
(d) Technology.

11. Mars apparently once had what resource?
(a) Organic compounds.
(b) Oceans of hydrocarbons.
(c) Liquid water.
(d) Ice sheets.

12. Sagan suggests that humans could live and thrive around what unusual type of star?
(a) Pulsars.
(b) Brown dwarfs.
(c) White dwarfs.
(d) Nova nuclei.

13. What is the primary way that humans add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere?
(a) Burning fossil fuels.
(b) Carburetor emissions.
(c) Heavy industry byproducts.
(d) Drilling for natural gas and oil.

14. What is the shape of the galaxy closest to the Milky Way?
(a) Spiral.
(b) Cluster.
(c) Globular.
(d) Disc.

15. It is believed that some of Saturn's rings may eventually form into what?
(a) Moons.
(b) Asteroids.
(c) Comets.
(d) Meteors.

Short Answer Questions

1. How old are the terrain features generated by Venus' volcanoes?

2. When does Sagan predict that anti-matter will be mass-manufactured?

3. Sagan worries about how societies of what type would handle the technology that could stop Earth-bound asteroids?

4. At the time this book was written, about how many asteroids were known to have paths that take them close to the Earth?

5. What happens to the number of asteroids and comets in the solar system as time goes on?

(see the answer keys)

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