View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Carl Linnaeus bring order to through his method of classification?

2. Approximately how many bacteria live on a square centimeter of human skin?

3. Humans share 98.4 percent of their DNA with:

4. The author mentions the case of bacteria surviving for two years in a sealed camera lens where?

5. How did humans become dispersed across the planet?

Short Essay Questions

1. How many elements occur naturally on Earth? How many are central to life?

2. What are bipeds? What are some of the unique challenges they face because of their structure?

3. How does DNA replicate itself?

4. What did scientists find in the Burgess Shale of British Columbia?

5. What is cytoplasm?

6. How long do human cells live?

7. Throughout the history of Earth, what are some of the causes of different species going extinct?

8. Describe the layer of atmosphere called the troposphere.

9. What does the author say about bacteria and humans, particularly their interaction?

10. Why does Bryson say that fossils represent only a tiny fraction of life on Earth?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How did the dinosaurs become extinct? Explain the sequence of events that happened after the asteroid hit. What was the outcome to other life forms? What conditions changed in the aftermath? What group of animals became dominant following the dinosaur extinction?

Essay Topic 2

Describe what the author means about Yellowstone being a supervolcano. What do scientists know about Yellowstone's history? How did it form? What is a caldera? Describe other supervolcanoes the author writes about.

Essay Topic 3

Compare and contrast the existence of bacteria on Earth with the existence of humans. Does one depend on the other? How so? Which organism is more resilient? Why?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 631 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample