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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was the species Quammen sought called by locals?

2. Who is Thomas Lovejoy?

3. What was Lovejoy's strategy in his plan?

4. What was Quammen told to find, in order to observe this species?

5. When was the concept of the minimum viable population introduced?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the definition of 'viable' in Quammen's account?

2. How did Krakatau serve as evidence for MacArthur and Wilson's thesis?

3. Where was Quammen sent, in order to find what he was looking for?

4. What is the concept of the minimum viable population?

5. What was the effect of 'An Equilibrium Theory of Insular Zoogeography', according to Quammen?

6. How do genetics play a role in the minimum viable population?

7. What other ecosystems function as islands and show the same properties of species population and diversity as islands, according to Quammen?

8. How does Quammen's argument circle back to its origins in chapter nine, "World in Pieces"?

9. How does Quammen describe Bedo's death?

10. What note does Quammen end 'The Song of the Dodo' on?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

If you were in charge of protecting the maximum number of species in your region, would you create one large nature reserve, or a number of smaller reserves? Use arguments from the book as well as descriptions of local wildlife in your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Is Quammen consistent from the beginning of 'The Song of the Dodo' to the end? What expectations does he establish in the beginning? Does he fulfill them, over the course of the book? Does he abandon or sidestep the question of conservation in his discussion of methods of analysis and study?

Essay Topic 3

How does Quammen walk the line between stirring up the reader's outrage about extinctions, and soothing the reader's sadness about extinctions? How does he keep the reader from putting down the book out of despair?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 816 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample