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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. There was a gap that appeared in Barbara's list of publications. In what year did she not publish anything?

2. What date was Barbara McClintock born?

3. In the fall of what year did Evelyn Keller drive out to Cold Spring Harbor to speak with Barbara McClintock?

4. What discovery was a great boost to cytological analysis in 1933?

5. What does NOR stand for?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did T.H. Morgan tell a disappointed reader who confronted him about his book, Embryology and Genetics?

2. Why was the year 1944 a crucial year for Barbara McClintock and the history of genetics?

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

4. When C.D. Darlington was describing the views of colleagues in different types of sciences, which type of scientist does he compare to the naturalist and how does a naturalist see chromosomes?

5. What were the fundamental questions of genetics during the time of the early 1930s?

6. Who was Lewis Stadler and why did he want Barbara as a colleague?

7. Describe Barbara's temperament as a child and what happened because of it.

8. Who was the person that came to Cornell to get his PhD in genetics, why did he come to Cornell, and what was his previous experience?

9. What are some things that were described in Chapter 5 that Barbara did that "irk the authorities" at Missouri?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe Barbara McClintock. What were some of her strengths and weaknesses? How do you picture Barbara from descriptions in the book? What kind of inner qualities did Barbara possess that made her a good scientist? Explain your answers and use specific information from the book to support your answers.

Essay Topic 2

In the book there were people, such as Marcus Rhoades, who were friends who were also colleagues with Barbara and believed in her research. Explain Barbara's relationship with her colleagues. How was she like her colleagues and how was she different from her colleagues. Use specific information from the book to support your answers.

Essay Topic 3

This book was a biography written by Evelyn Keller, therefore it's a book about Barbara McClintock that was written by someone else. How do you think this book would have been different if McClintock would have written it herself? What are some events or people that you think would have been described differently had McClintock written the book herself? Explain your answers and use specific information from the book to support your views

(see the answer keys)

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