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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Scientists believe that our planet is currently in a period of what?
(a) Declining temperatures.
(b) Steadily increasing temperatures.
(c) Relative warmth within an ice age.
(d) Relative cold within a temperate age.

2. During the Cryogenian period 1.2 billion years ago, Earth was:
(a) Devoid of water.
(b) Highly volcanic.
(c) Without a magnetic field.
(d) Frozen.

3. By volume, how much of the Earth's habitable space is covered by water?
(a) 87.75 percent.
(b) 80.5 percent.
(c) 71.75 percent.
(d) 99.5 percent.

4. What organisms does the author say are the most enduring inhabitants of our planet?
(a) Spiders.
(b) Humans.
(c) Fungi.
(d) Bacteria.

5. Who was the first person to describe a cell?
(a) Matthias Jakob Schleiden.
(b) Robert Hooke.
(c) Theodor Schwann.
(d) Van Leeuwenhoek.

6. Of all the elements occurring naturally on Earth, how many does the author say are central to life?
(a) 10.
(b) 1.
(c) 20.
(d) 6.

7. Scientist Jean de Charpentier was a specialist on what?
(a) Volcanoes.
(b) Evolution.
(c) Glaciers.
(d) Tsunamis.

8. What was the HMS Beagle, and how was it related to Charles Darwin?
(a) A hot-air balloon he used to survey the land.
(b) A ship he travelled on, collecting specimens.
(c) A microscope given to him by his wife.
(d) A laboratory created for him by the king.

9. Somewhere between three and two million years ago, how many hominid species co-existed before vanishing abruptly?
(a) Twelve.
(b) Nine.
(c) Six.
(d) Two.

10. In 1871, Lord Kelvin suggested that life on Earth started because of:
(a) Ash falling from volcanic eruptions.
(b) Droplets of water reacting with superheated rocks.
(c) "Seeds" from space arriving by way of a meteor.
(d) Lightning striking pools of chemical "soup."

11. With so many hominid species existing in the past, why did only one survive?
(a) Greater capacity for compassion.
(b) Climate change.
(c) Nobody knows.
(d) Larger brain.

12. Approximately 50 million years ago, Antarctica was:
(a) Close to tropical.
(b) Five times larger than it is today.
(c) Open ocean.
(d) A barren desert.

13. When the KT meteor that killed the dinosaurs hit Earth, what percentage of life on the planet perished?
(a) 95.
(b) 40.
(c) 15.
(d) 70.

14. What helped scientists start accepting the idea of ice ages?
(a) A scientific expedition to Greenland.
(b) An exploration of Antarctica.
(c) An analysis of Siberian winters.
(d) A scientific evaluation of changing weather patterns.

15. The Burgess Shale Formation, containing tens of thousands of fossils of soft-bodied creatures preserved by a mudslide, was found where?
(a) Canada.
(b) Japan.
(c) Kenya.
(d) Brazil.

Short Answer Questions

1. How quickly can bacteria create a new generation?

2. When was the last dodo killed in Mauritius?

3. What is the current estimate of the number of species that have lived on Earth since the beginning of life on our planet?

4. Scientists assumed stromatolites were extinct until they were discovered where in 1961?

5. What is the highest elevation that humans are able to live and survive on Earth continuously without special accommodations?

(see the answer keys)

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