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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Tired of climbing hills to study clouds, C. T. R. Wilson invented what?
(a) Cloud telescope.
(b) Balloon-propelled cloud camera.
(c) Cloud simulation computer program.
(d) Indoor cloud chamber.

2. What is a supernova?
(a) A red giant.
(b) A white dwarf.
(c) A dying star.
(d) A young, emerging star.

3. According to the author, humans today have 625 percent more what in their bloodstream compared to previous generations?
(a) Alcohol.
(b) Chlorofluorocarbons.
(c) Pesticides.
(d) Lead.

4. Richard Owen coined the term paleontology as the study of prehistoric life forms and called the giant animals dinosaurian, meaning:
(a) Large reptile.
(b) Ancient animal.
(c) Terrible lizard.
(d) Enormous creature.

5. James Hutton believed that the natural forces forming the geology of Earth are:
(a) Impossible to classify.
(b) Still at work.
(c) Now extinct.
(d) Random and unpredictable.

6. Scientists eventually figured out that certain unusual rocks near Manson, Iowa, were not because of ancient volcanic activity as they first surmised, but the result of what?
(a) A mini ice age.
(b) A huge meteor.
(c) A dynamite explosion.
(d) A lightning storm.

7. With scientists having found so many dinosaur bones by the dawn of the twentieth century, what did they conclude about the age of Earth?
(a) It is hundreds of billions of years old.
(b) Nobody will ever figure out its age.
(c) It has to be much older than 20 million years.
(d) It is no older than 5 million years.

8. Astronomer Edmond Halley approached mathematician Sir Isaac Newton to get his help figuring out why planets:
(a) Spin on their axes.
(b) Vary in size.
(c) Are round.
(d) Orbit the sun in ellipses.

9. Scientists are aware of at least how many galaxies in the universe?
(a) 20 million.
(b) 90 trillion.
(c) 140 billion.
(d) 110 thousand.

10. Today, scientists know that radiation in high doses is:
(a) Healthy.
(b) Toxic.
(c) Tolerable.
(d) Safe.

11. In addition to being a seventeenth-century astronomer, Christopher Wren designed:
(a) Cathedrals.
(b) Clothes.
(c) Swords.
(d) Eyeglasses.

12. According to the Reverend William Buckland, the biblical reference to "in the beginning" with regards to the formation of Earth could refer to:
(a) A particular era.
(b) Myths and legends.
(c) Millions and millions of years.
(d) Exactly seven days.

13. Plate tectonics refers to:
(a) The motion of the Earth's atmosphere.
(b) The mechanism behind hurricanes.
(c) The motion of the Earth's crust.
(d) The mechanism behind sand dunes.

14. Fred Hoyle came up with the term "Big Bang" while trying to:
(a) Prove the theory.
(b) Disprove the theory.
(c) Simplify how the universe came to exist.
(d) Show how life evolved on Earth.

15. Between 1980 and 2003, how many supernovas did the Reverend Robert Evans of Australia discover using a simple backyard telescope?
(a) 7.
(b) 42.
(c) 36.
(d) 11.

Short Answer Questions

1. Astronomer Edmond Halley believed that the distance from the Earth to the sun could be deduced from the:

2. What is found at the very center of the Earth?

3. Atoms are made up of smaller particles, including:

4. While he worked at General Motors Research Corporation in 1921, engineer Thomas Midgley, Jr. developed what dangerous gasoline additive?

5. Who suggested that mass and energy are actually the same thing?

(see the answer keys)

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