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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What happens to agriculture in the Americas?
(a) It creates a system to replenish the soil.
(b) It creates new ways to nurture crops.
(c) It becomes an unsustainable design.
(d) It becomes a system modeled after early nomads.

2. Which of the following is a true statement?
(a) Soap never needs to contain water,
(b) Cleaning products make good fertilizers.
(c) Beauty products help in seed germination.
(d) Detergents also help keep water clean in natural systems.

3. Which of the following is an example of people trying to live with nature as it is today?
(a) The Yakima Indians cooperate with the state of Washington by assuring the government that they will keep their own children safe from toxins in a dump site.
(b) Shoe manufacturers import materials that contain toxic chemicals.
(c) Industrial factories designed with efficiency and production in mind.
(d) Consumers decrease spending on recyclable products.

4. What material is the book itself made of?
(a) An easily recyclable polymer, not paper.
(b) Recycled paper.
(c) Rice paper.
(d) Recycled milk cartons.

5. Which statement most accurately reflects the authors' ideas?
(a) Our products are best when consumers can afford them.
(b) Our products and processes are best when they most resemble the natural world.
(c) Our industry is best when we accommodate worker equity.
(d) Our industry is best when it uses more simple designs on a larger scale.

6. How should homes meet heating, cooling, and power needs?
(a) By using natural resources like wood.
(b) By being part of the power grid.
(c) By consuming fossil fuels.
(d) By being integrated into the larger environment.

7. How do the Chinese traditionally maintain nutrients to their rice patties?
(a) By damming rivers to dry their fields every winter.
(b) By fertilizing fields every spring.
(c) By recycling plastic bottles and aluminum cans.
(d) By adding their household wastes to the fields.

8. How can leather be safely tanned?
(a) With vegetable tanners.
(b) With plastic resins.
(c) With UV light tanners.
(d) With wind-dry technology.

9. What does manufacturing need to be based on?
(a) Local water flow and energy sources.
(b) Ocean water and recycling systems.
(c) Energy from larger power plants.
(d) Using cheaper petroleum products.

10. What do the authors suggest in terms of location and size of power plants?
(a) Power plants that burn natural resources.
(b) Smaller, more local plants.
(c) Larger, more efficient plants.
(d) No power plants.

11. Why can't many materials be recycled?
(a) Because they are hybrids of too many other materials.
(b) Because consumers are not committed to recycling.
(c) Because the technology doesn´t exist.
(d) Because they are materials that are too solid to be melted down.

12. What do the authors suggest as an example of a good sewage treatment plan?
(a) Storing winter sewage until it can be processed in the summer sun in a specially constructed wetland.
(b) Removing sewage from the location to an area with fewer inhabitants.
(c) Adding chemicals to sewage so that it can become save drinking water.
(d) Saving sewage in recyclable containers until we have the technology to process it.

13. In general, the authors believe that a roof should:
(a) Function as an insulator regardless of the materials used.
(b) Work with nature.
(c) Repel nature.
(d) Contribute to energy consumption.

14. How are most manufacturing processes different than the way ants live in the environment?
(a) Most manufacturing is concerned with productivity.
(b) Most manufacturing replaces the resources it depletes.
(c) Most manufacturing creates waste that is not useful in the environment.
(d) Most manufacturing produces biodegradable chemicals.

15. Which of the following can pass into drinking water?
(a) Pieces of glass.
(b) Solid waste.
(c) Plastics.
(d) Medications.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do conventional plastic shoes emit every time you walk or run?

2. How has leather been tanned in the last forty years?

3. What is critically important to agriculture in Egypt?

4. What do most homes use for as a source of power?

5. How are ants a good source of inspiration for positive design?

(see the answer keys)

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