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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. While the Compte de Buffon was spouting his theories of the new world, what was Frenchman Georges Cuvier doing?

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

3. When French physicist Henri Becquerel accidentally left a packet of uranium salts on a photographic plate, what happened?

4. Tired of climbing hills to study clouds, C. T. R. Wilson invented what?

5. As of July 2001, approximately how many asteroids had been identified?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are quarks? How are they categorized and classified?

2. Describe some of the theories regarding what might have caused the Big Bang.

3. Summarize what the author says about why it took so long to discover that Pluto has a moon.

4. Describe inner solar system asteroids.

5. Describe what happened to an enormous thighbone discovered in New Jersey in 1789.

6. Describe what happened after the last supervolcano erupted on Earth. When did this happen?

7. Describe the three basic layers of Earth, namely, the crust, mantle, and core.

8. How does the Superstring Theory explain quarks?

9. Where do earthquakes occur?

10. Who was Clair Patterson? Describe Clair Patterson's campaign against lead contamination.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain what makes a fossil so rare. What conditions are required for a fossil to form? What do scientists say about the number of species represented by fossils? Describe the completeness or incompleteness of fossil records.

Essay Topic 2

How has man influenced the extinction of plant and animal species? How does the author feel about this influence? What does his writing state or imply about what should be done differently?

Essay Topic 3

Describe earthquakes, including the mechanism behind them, where they can hit, and how they are measured.

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This section contains 920 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample