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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. The Geiger counter is a:

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

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

4. What is an extremophile?

5. In the 1960s, what did Bob Christiansen realize about Yellowstone National Park after observing NASA-supplied images?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe what the Archbishop James Usser and the Reverend William Buckland concluded regarding the age of Earth.

2. Why does Bryson consider Pluto to be an oddity?

3. What happened when, in 1896, Henri Becquerel accidentally left a packet of uranium salts on top of a wrapped photographic plate?

4. What happened when Max Planck was advised to study math instead of physics?

5. How does the Superstring Theory explain quarks?

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

7. What explanation did James Hutton come up with to describe the phenomenon of seashell fossils frequently found on mountaintops?

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

9. Explain the misunderstanding of radiation during the early 1900s.

10. Where do earthquakes occur?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain what Bryson says about water distribution on our planet. How much is saltwater? How much is fresh water? Describe where the different types of water are distributed throughout the world.

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

What is continental drift? How did this concept emerge within the scientific community? How long did it take for this idea to gain acceptance? What evidence pointed to the reality of continental drift?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 875 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample