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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. The town Carson describes is one where townsfolk and farmers and wildlife all live in _____________.
(a) Misery
(b) Conflict
(c) The same place
(d) Harmony

2. Because animals are affected by chemicals, scientists are having a hard time finding uncontaminated animals to serve as _________ in experiments.
(a) Helpers
(b) Subjects
(c) Examples
(d) Controls

3. The Earth's soil is a ______________ of living creatures, all interdependent.
(a) Bed
(b) City
(c) Nest
(d) Community

4. Chemical wielding __________ overlook the terrible flaws in their programs of blanket spraying.
(a) Hippies
(b) Entomologists
(c) Corporate moguls
(d) Biologists

5. Toxic substances work to stop the body's natural functions; some of them may cause __________ to begin growing.
(a) Cancer cells
(b) Arms
(c) Poisonous reactions
(d) Resistance

Short Answer Questions

1. The business of chemical _______ is booming because people approach plant life without thinking about any perspective but their own immediate desires.

2. __________ are simply plants that are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

3. The organic ____________ insecticides like Malathion and parathion are in wide use in 1962, when the book was written.

4. DDT seems to be able to be stored in the __________ tissues of the body.

5. Chemicals can travel down ___________ or in underground aquifers to the bodies of water.

Short Essay Questions

1. What kinds of foods contain the highest levels of chemicals?

2. How is the development of chemical resistance within the insect population a strong example of natural selection?

3. What caused the widespread application of chemicals in the time of World War II?

4. Where does people's chemical exposure mainly come from, according to Carson?

5. What has the environment played an important role in forming, according to this chapter?

6. Describe the chemical arsenic, what it does, and how it is used in the world in today's times.

7. What is contained in food that is another source of lethal chemicals in the human body?

8. What do our individual bodies have that the larger environment does as well?

9. What is the 'window' that is referred to in the title of this chapter of the book?

10. What are synthetic pesticides now made of, as opposed to the naturally occurring minerals which were once used before the war?

(see the answer keys)

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