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Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. In Dawkins' example, why might a child try to get extra food, to the detriment of brothers and sisters?
(a) The child has no concern for its siblings' survival.
(b) The child is more related to itself than its siblings.
(c) The child has special needs that it must communicate to its parents.
(d) The child is hungrier than its siblings.
2. What does Dawkins speculate that cuckoo chicks might do?
(a) Steal food from other chicks in the nest.
(b) Kill other chicks in the nest.
(c) Scream less loud to not attract too much attention to themselves as intruders.
(d) Blackmail parents into getting more food by screaming loud enough to attract predators.
3. To what does Dawkins attribute a male backing down from a powerful rival over territory?
(a) Self-preservation to more likely breed in the future.
(b) The desire to preserve the species.
(c) The desire not to over-compete with a rival's young.
(d) The abundance of other territories that might be claimed.
4. What does Wynne-Edwards teach?
(a) That evolution is only partially responsible for behaviors.
(b) That individuals strive for individual success within the group.
(c) That groups of animals evolved for the good of the group.
(d) That group behaviors are evolved and individual behaviors are incidental.
5. In Dawkins' game theory analysis of a colony of birds and ticks, what were grudger birds?
(a) Birds that refuse to have ticks taken off of their heads.
(b) Birds that refuse to take ticks off other birds.
(c) Birds that can survive in symbiosis with ticks.
(d) Birds that refuse to take ticks off birds that won't help others.
6. What is a female bird doing, according to Dawkins, by forcing the male to make a nest before she breeds with him?
(a) Judging the male's capabilities of caring for the offspring in the future.
(b) Making the male prove the worthiness of his genes.
(c) Taking advantage of the male for her own wellbeing.
(d) Forcing the male to put off breeding with another and invest energy into the offspring.
7. What does the study of egg clutch sizes that Dawkins cites show?
(a) That there are only benefits to having a lot of eggs.
(b) That there are only detriments to having a lot of eggs.
(c) That having a lot of eggs is, in the end, exactly the same as having few eggs.
(d) That there are detriments and benefits to having a lot of eggs.
8. What does Dawkins give as his example of the individual benefit of pack behavior in hyenas?
(a) The hyenas can get protection from other hyenas.
(b) The hyenas can gain more information from the pack.
(c) The hyenas can hunt bigger prey as a pack.
(d) The hyenas can find more prey as a pack.
9. How does the author suggest that bird calls might help a bird that is trying to fly up into the trees?
(a) The call might frighten away other birds in the tree the bird is flying to.
(b) The call might cause other birds to call and hide the noise of the bird's wings.
(c) The call might be hard to pinpoint and therefore distract predators.
(d) The call might cause other birds to fly and confuse any predators.
10. What does Wynne-Edwards believe about territories that animals fight over?
(a) Individual territories are illusions.
(b) Individual territories are symbolic.
(c) Individual territories provide survival for the individual.
(d) Individual territories provide survival for the species.
11. According to Dawkins, is there a genetic reason to favor one child over others?
(a) Yes, but these genetic reasons are unusual.
(b) No, there are no genetic or other reasons to favor one child.
(c) Yes, different children have different genetic relatedness to parents.
(d) No, but there are circumstantial reasons.
12. What does Dawkins say removes humanity from the cruel and harsh laws of nature?
(a) Nothing.
(b) Humans create environments that protect them from natural laws.
(c) Humans have developed genes for communication, which allows cooperation.
(d) Humans teach children ways to behave and learn better behaviors as adults.
13. What does Dawkins mean by a "selfish gene?"
(a) A portion of DNA, copied in mutliple organisms, that modifies behaviors in the organisms that would tend otherwise to be altruistic.
(b) A portion of DNA, copied in mutliple organisms, that programs behavior in the individual for self-survival.
(c) A portion of DNA, copied in multiple organisms, "trying" to survive in ways that will continue to copy and propigate the gene.
(d) A portion of DNA, copied in mutliple organisms, that "tries" to become the dominant gene by preventing other genes from replicating.
14. What does Medawar's study conclude?
(a) Older women are better with young children and worse with older children.
(b) Older women are not good at distinguishing when a child costs too many resources.
(c) Older women are not as good at raising children.
(d) Older women are better at making choices between offspring.
15. In Dawkins' discussion, why don't baby birds continue to scream louder and louder?
(a) Because screaming ultimately deafens the chick and its siblings.
(b) Because constant screaming leads parents to ignore chicks.
(c) Because screaming uses energy and attracts predators.
(d) Because other chicks will throw a screaming chick out of the nest.
Short Answer Questions
1. What is difficult to explain about honeybees, according to Dawkins' theory?
2. Does Dawkins believe people want to view parental care as different from other evolutionary behaviors?
3. What did Spanish researchers see a baby swallow do?
4. In the ant colonies studied by Trivers and Hare, what do the ants do with eggs stolen from other colonies?
5. What factors are part of Dawkins' net benefit score?
This section contains 1,074 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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