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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 9, An American Ship at the Frontiers of the Solar System, Chapter 10, Sacred Black.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the most important thing that would immediately be apparent to any alien intelligence that found the Voyager probes?
(a) That the probes were intelligently designed.
(b) The location of Earth.
(c) The human DNA sequence.
(d) How to decode the records.

2. What is notable about the Sun's light in Sagan's distant picture of the Earth?
(a) It is extremely dim.
(b) It appears to bathe the Earth in light.
(c) It creates a halo around the Earth.
(d) It appears as many distinct shafts of light.

3. Sagan describes humans as which of the following, with respect to their arrival in the universe?
(a) Slow movers.
(b) Extreme latecomers.
(c) Early adopters.
(d) Middling achievers.

4. Sagan suggests that the image of the "pale blue dot" teaches the need for what?
(a) Kindness.
(b) Science education.
(c) Space exploration.
(d) Peace.

5. Which other nation besides the United States led the way in space exploration?
(a) France.
(b) China.
(c) The Soviet Union.
(d) Japan.

Short Answer Questions

1. What hazard threatened the Voyager craft in Sagan's plan to take a distant picture of Earth?

2. How does Sagan characterize NASA?

3. In Chapter 5 Sagan asks the reader to imagine that they are which of the following?

4. What is the major difference between space exploration and human exploration in the past?

5. About how long does Sagan suggest that human beings have been "settled down"?

(see the answer key)

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