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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 did Cornell geneticists study instead of fruit flies?

2. Who was the Vice President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1937?

3. Lewis Stadler had been at the University of Missouri in Columbia since what year?

4. Who was the head of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute when Barbara received the Guggenheim Fellowship?

5. What kind of work did Barbara's mother do contribute and make money?

Short Essay Questions

1. In 1931, why did Barbara start to feel like it was time to leave Cornell?

2. Why did Barbara's position at Missouri not work out, according to Barbara herself?

3. What were Barbara's "personality difficulties" as described by T. H. Morgan?

4. What happened to Barbara a little more than a year after her brother, Tom, was born?

5. What happened with Sara Handy and Thomas McClintock after Thomas graduated from Boston University Medical school?

6. After Barbara received her PhD in botany and was appointed as an instructor, she knew what her next task would be. What was that task?

7. Why was it described in the book that Barbara was born into the role of maverick and pioneer?

8. In Chapter 6, what are the three major concerns of twentieth-century biology that are mentioned?

9. In the mid-1930's and when she left Missouri what had she considered doing because of her jobless status?

10. Why did Barbara adamantly reject female conventions and why was she not trying to just be "more boy than girl"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain Rudolf Arnheim's words he wrote in Art and Visual Perception saying, "the realm of the unconscious could never enter our experience without the reflection of perceivable things." How does this quote relate to the life of Barbara McClintock?

Essay Topic 2

What happened when the author of the book, Evelyn Keller, set out to get on tape and on paper the "recollections and musings" of Barbara McClintock? Describe the experience that Keller had with Barbara and what her impression was of her.

Essay Topic 3

Describe what mitosis is and also describe the stages in mitosis and what happens during those phases.

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