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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico is thought to be the site of what?
(a) Most advanced ancient telescope ever developed.
(b) Asteroid impact that brought on the extinction of dinosaurs.
(c) Landfall of the largest hurricane in the past thousand years.
(d) First legitimate UFO landing.

2. Using a depth sounder during World War II, Harry Hess discovered that ocean floors:
(a) Are flat.
(b) Are too deep to be measured.
(c) Have canyons and trenches.
(d) Have swirling sand drifts.

3. What are so small that the dot on the letter "i" could hold 5 billion of them?
(a) Bacteria.
(b) Protons.
(c) Viruses.
(d) Quarks.

4. In the 1960s, what did Bob Christiansen realize about Yellowstone National Park after observing NASA-supplied images?
(a) The park holds thousands of volcanoes.
(b) Most of the park was created by a massive earthquake.
(c) Practically the whole park is a volcano.
(d) The park was carved by moving glaciers.

5. How do today's professional astronomers search for supernovae?
(a) With digital cameras and computers.
(b) Using classical mathematical predictions.
(c) In collaboration with astrologers.
(d) Hiring interns to peer through telescopes 24/7.

6. Which of the following is not a major geological era?
(a) Paleozoic.
(b) Precambrian.
(c) Precolumbian.
(d) Mesozoic.

7. Harry Hess determined that, in the Atlantic, the ocean floor is:
(a) Shrinking.
(b) Super heated.
(c) Expanding.
(d) Super cooled.

8. Earth is composed of 8 to 12 larger plates and about how many smaller ones?
(a) Five.
(b) Eighty.
(c) Twenty.
(d) One hundred.

9. Had the universe formed just slightly differently:
(a) Planets would be flat instead of round.
(b) Earth would have seven moons.
(c) Our solar system would have ten times more planets.
(d) Mankind would not exist.

10. About how many stars are visible to the naked eye from Earth?
(a) 9,600.
(b) 6,000.
(c) 1,200.
(d) 500.

11. Richard Owen coined the term paleontology as the study of prehistoric life forms and called the giant animals dinosaurian, meaning:
(a) Large reptile.
(b) Ancient animal.
(c) Terrible lizard.
(d) Enormous creature.

12. What campaign did geologist Clair Patterson take on?
(a) Removing chlorine from swimming pools.
(b) Fortifying milk with vitamin D.
(c) Removing lead additives from gasoline.
(d) Adding fluoride to drinking water.

13. When did the last supervolcano erupt on Earth?
(a) 9,000 years ago.
(b) 1,100 years ago.
(c) 23,000 years ago.
(d) 74,000 years ago.

14. While the Compte de Buffon was spouting his theories of the new world, what was Frenchman Georges Cuvier doing?
(a) Writing the first ever description of the enormous mastodon, a new world discovery.
(b) Studying the archeology of the Incas, Mayans, and Aztecs.
(c) Living among indigenous people of the New World and writing down their languages.
(d) Cataloging edible plant species found in the New World.

15. What is found at the very center of the Earth?
(a) Solid inner core.
(b) Liquid inner core.
(c) Gaseous core.
(d) Frozen core.

Short Answer Questions

1. Sir Isaac Newton wrote "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy," which explains his laws of what?

2. Scientists are aware of at least how many galaxies in the universe?

3. When radiation was first discovered, it was sometimes added to:

4. In addition to being a seventeenth-century astronomer, Christopher Wren designed:

5. Pluto is the first planet to be discovered by an:

(see the answer keys)

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