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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Keller state is a prerequisite for Barbara's extraordinary perspicacity?
(a) Her willingness to let her brain take over.
(b) Her love for studying.
(c) Her ultimate knowledge.
(d) Her drive to succeed.

2. Barbara was impressed by the ability of some Tibetans to do what?
(a) Regulate their body temperature.
(b) Know many scientific secrets.
(c) Live a long time without water.
(d) Live on what the land gives them.

3. In Chapter 12, Keller mentions that the adaptability of what tends to be especially unappreciated?
(a) Maize.
(b) Humans.
(c) Drosophila.
(d) Plants.

4. Who extended an invitation to Barbara to help in the collection and preservation of maize in Central and South America?
(a) The National Institute of Medicine.
(b) The National Academies.
(c) The Organization of National Sciences.
(d) The National Academy of Sciences.

5. In the beginning of Chapter 9, Evelyn Keller writes about Barbara giving her talk at the Cold Spring Harbor Symposium and that it was met with what?
(a) Grateful applause.
(b) Loud cheers.
(c) Stony silence.
(d) Stunned awkwardness.

6. What does the term, dissociation mean?
(a) Combining into larger masses.
(b) Complete disappearance of a part.
(c) Controlled breakage.
(d) The processing of materials into a different material.

7. How many kinds of RNA are made?
(a) Three.
(b) Five.
(c) Two.
(d) Four.

8. Keller also mentioned that Barbara suggested to us that we must have what to "hear what the material has to say to you"?
(a) Patience.
(b) Intuition.
(c) Stillness.
(d) Observance.

9. In the mutant seedlings that Barbara had grown, what could be seen that didn't belong?
(a) Rings around the outside husk of the corn.
(b) Discolored kernals that were green.
(c) Streaks or spots of color.
(d) No growth of kernals in many spots.

10. How long did it take for Barbara to get from her first clues to her final interpretation dealing with transposition?
(a) Two years.
(b) Twelve years.
(c) Four years.
(d) Six years.

11. The step-by-step evolution of Barbara's interpretation could be followed from her annual reports she wrote for who?
(a) The Carnegie Institution of Washington.
(b) The Rockefeller Foundation.
(c) The University of Missouri.
(d) The National Society of Sciences.

12. How many parts are in the process of transposition?
(a) Three.
(b) Two.
(c) One.
(d) Four.

13. Who presented the first paper in the 1951 symposium?
(a) Lewis Stadler.
(b) Richard Goldschmidt.
(c) Barbara McClintock.
(d) Milislav Demerec.

14. In Milislav Demerec's first moves in his new position as the Director of the Department of Genetics of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, he gave Barbara a position for what length of time?
(a) Five years.
(b) Ten years.
(c) One year.
(d) Two years.

15. In Drosophila a bacterium divide in two every how many minutes?
(a) Sixty.
(b) Ten.
(c) Thirty.
(d) Twenty.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many scientists are mentioned in the quote by Einstein when he talks about the deep longing that has to be present in scientists?

2. After Barbara's efforts were in vain to explain her discoveries she didn't talk except for the annual reports in what?

3. Who asked Barbara how she could have worked "for two years without knowing what was going to come out?"

4. Evelyn Keller mentioned that Barbara told "us" that one must have the time to do what?

5. Who was quoted as saying, "By God, that woman is either crazy or a genius."?

(see the answer keys)

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