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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 5, Is There Intelligent Life on Earth?, Chapter 6, The Triumph of Voyager.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which of the following is one of the "great demotions" that Sagan cites?
(a) The Earth is 6 billion years old.
(b) There may have been life on Mars.
(c) There are planets orbiting other stars.
(d) Light and magnetism are the same thing.

2. What hazard threatened the Voyager craft in Sagan's plan to take a distant picture of Earth?
(a) Space dust.
(b) The Sun's rays.
(c) Micrometeorites.
(d) Cosmic rays.

3. Sagan says that which of the following is the most immediately obvious thing about the Earth?
(a) Its meteorological features.
(b) Its geological features.
(c) The existence of life.
(d) The existence of intelligent life.

4. What is the major difference between space exploration and human exploration in the past?
(a) It takes months or years to get to the destination.
(b) Humans cannot travel to the places they explore.
(c) It is much less costly, in relative terms.
(d) There is much more uncertainty in space.

5. The "great demotions" are changes in thinking about the status of what?
(a) The dominance of religion.
(b) The body of human scientific work.
(c) The place of humanity in the universe.
(d) The age of the Earth.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Sagan, which of the following was the most notable historical tool that humans used to explore the world?

2. What major component of the Voyager craft was threatened in Sagan's plan to take a distant picture of Earth?

3. In what century was the geocentric theory conclusively disproved?

4. Which of the following is NOT one of the ways that Sagan says life seems to be?

5. What did Galileo demonstrate?

(see the answer key)

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