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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 15, The Gates of the Wonder World Open, Chapter 16, Scaling Heaven.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What fault does Sagan admit that science has?
(a) It is always inaccurate.
(b) It fails to uplift human spirits.
(c) It can only develop theories, not laws.
(d) It is marred by human perception and arrogance.

2. What does Sagan say is an easy way to visually identify planets?
(a) Their brightness.
(b) Their movements.
(c) The color of their atmospheres.
(d) Their size.

3. Which of the following is NOT one of the ways that early planets may have been made incapable of bearing life?
(a) Falling into the sun.
(b) Being pushed into a distant orbit.
(c) Being heavily bombarded by meteors.
(d) Being thrown into outer space.

4. 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 unexpected.
(c) They were relatively unimportant.
(d) They were intangible.

5. Where does Sagan think it is most likely that life will be found on Mars?
(a) In salt caverns.
(b) On the surface.
(c) In the subsurface rock.
(d) In the ice at the poles.

Short Answer Questions

1. The Anthropic Principle is divided into two theories that are termed what?

2. How old does Sagan state that "fundamentalist monotheists" believe the Earth to be?

3. What role does Sagan suggest that religion has played in the development of science?

4. What form do the materials that planets emerge from take before they coalesce into proto-planets?

5. When probes enter the atmospheres of other planets, what color do they often see the sky to be?

(see the answer key)

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