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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which of the following countries was never colonized by Europe?
(a) Egypt.
(b) South Africa.
(c) Kenya.
(d) Ethiopia.

2. How many mass extinctions have occurred during Earth's history?
(a) One.
(b) Three.
(c) None.
(d) Hundreds.

3. What phase of Earth's geologic history are we in today?
(a) The Pleistocene.
(b) The Eocene.
(c) The Hadean.
(d) The Archean.

4. Which country does de Blij think that Americans should try to be particularly well-informed about?
(a) China.
(b) Iraq.
(c) Botswana.
(d) Mexico.

5. What two inventions have done the most to increase life expectancy?
(a) Effective soap and the flushing toilet.
(b) The stethoscope and the hypodermic needle.
(c) Electricity and electric lights.
(d) The electrocardiogram and the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine.

6. How long ago did the most recent global warming trend start?
(a) Around 50 years ago.
(b) Around 1,000 years ago.
(c) Around 18,000 years ago.
(d) Around 100 years ago.

7. Why is a compass rose more useful in the United States than in Europe?
(a) The United States is oriented north to south.
(b) Europeans do not learn how to use a compass rose in school.
(c) American cities were laid out with the compass rose in mind.
(d) European countries use the metric system.

8. What was Earth like during its first 800 million years?
(a) Earth was very hot.
(b) Earth was covered in ice.
(c) Earth had a temperate climate.
(d) Earth had warm and cool regions.

9. What were the first modern humans called?
(a) Homo habilus.
(b) Neanderthals.
(c) Homo erectus.
(d) Cro-Magnons.

10. Which of the following activities requires the skills of a geographer?
(a) Comparing the structures of government in two different cultures.
(b) Traveling to a distant place and blogging about the trip in an online journal.
(c) Tracking outbreaks of disease and predicting where diseases will spread in the future.
(d) Studying the history and current events of a particular country.

11. What two countries were mixed up by President Nixon's staff?
(a) India and Indonesia.
(b) Brazil and Bolivia.
(c) The Congo and Cuba.
(d) Mauritania and Mauritius.

12. If Earth's population keeps growing at the present rate, how high will it be by the year 2035?
(a) Eight billion.
(b) Twenty billion.
(c) One million.
(d) One billion.

13. What war does de Blij say could have been better handled if U.S. leaders had had a better grasp of geography?
(a) The Korean War.
(b) World War II.
(c) World War I.
(d) The Vietnam War.

14. Which of the following revolutions occurred during the time period in which the nation-state was becoming popular?
(a) The Russian Revolution.
(b) The Technological Revolution.
(c) The Cultural Revolution.
(d) The Industrial Revolution.

15. How do geographers look at the world, according to de Blij?
(a) Temporally.
(b) Chronologically.
(c) Structurally.
(d) Spatially.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why has the United States been so slow to convert maps to the metric system?

2. When did the world's population begin to rise dramatically?

3. What population problem is facing European countries?

4. What human event coincided with the end of the Little Ice Age?

5. What do geographers mean when they use the abbreviation "B.P."?

(see the answer keys)

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