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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What story once bothered Douglas Adams when he was young according to the chapter Sifting Through the Embers?
(a) The Sibylline books.
(b) To Build a Fire.
(c) The Gift of the Magi.
(d) A Jury of Her Peers.

2. What is the name of a plant or animal that is native to an island or region and is found nowhere else at all?
(a) Endemic species.
(b) Endangered species.
(c) Threatened species.
(d) Exotic species.

3. What was Richard Lewis' profession?
(a) Ornithologist
(b) Paleontologist.
(c) Neurologist.
(d) Zoologist.

4. ________ is when a bird shakes its wings and body and is a sign that the bird feels ________.
(a) Simpering / lonely.
(b) Warbling / sad.
(c) Rousing / relaxed.
(d) Yoddeling / scared.

5. According to a disturbing letter received by Douglas and Mark from a couple who had been working in China, the couple says that they ate ________.
(a) Two Baiji Dolphins.
(b) Two Aye-aye lemurs.
(c) One Northern White Rhino.
(d) Three Kakapos.

Short Answer Questions

1. Adams reveals that both Richard and Carl's first obsession was for ________.

2. Douglas Adams explains in the chapter Blind Panic that foreigners are not allowed to ________ in China.

3. The population of Chatham Island robins was down to one pregnant female, but the dedication of ________ and his team saved the species from extinction according to Mark's Epilogue.

4. What does Adams claim to be the most famous of all the animals on Mauritius?

5. Don Merton phoned Carwardine to tell him that a newly made kakapo nest had been found on ________.

Short Essay Questions

1. Analyze and describe Professor Zhou.

2. What is the significance of the title Sifting Through the Embers?

3. Explain Carl Jones and Richard Lewis' s first obsession as seen in the chapter Rare, or Medium Rare.

4. What is Mark Carwardine's response to the question: "Does it really matter if the Yangtze river dolphin, or the kakapo, or the northern white rhino, or any other species live on only in scientists' notebooks?"

5. Why do the people of the city say that the old beggar woman can't be very wise or knowledgeable? Explain.

6. Analyze the two new species of lemur found in Madagascar, according to the chapter Mark's Epilogue.

7. Explain Carl Jones's character according to Adams in Rare, or Medium Rare.

8. Analyze the ending of the story of the Sibylline books.

9. Analyze one of the problems with breeding birds in captivity.

10. Define the term "exotic species." Explain why a disaster usually is the result when species is introduced from abroad.

(see the answer keys)

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