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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Sagan describe his reaction to the difficulties in detecting human life and intelligence on Earth from space?
(a) Disappointing.
(b) Unsurprising.
(c) Aggravating.
(d) Sobering.

2. Sagan suggest that modern religious thinking treats scientific evidence in what way?
(a) It makes no statements about the evidence.
(b) It intrudes on the evidence.
(c) It is cautious about the evidence.
(d) It blatantly disregards the evidence.

3. Sagan helped to discover that Saturn provides what critical element to Titan?
(a) A magnetosphere.
(b) Hydrogen.
(c) Energy.
(d) Tidal forces.

4. At the time this book was written, how many planets were known to exist around other stars?
(a) None.
(b) About fifty.
(c) Ten.
(d) About twenty.

5. What unusual source of energy do the Voyager spacecraft take advantage of?
(a) Vacuum energy.
(b) Planetary gravity.
(c) Cosmic rays.
(d) Solar wind.

6. The Voyager probes found large amounts of what element on Titan?
(a) Nitrogen.
(b) Iridium.
(c) Oxygen.
(d) Helium.

7. What criticism does Sagan make of NASA in Chapter 6, "The Triumph of Voyager"?
(a) It cannot correct its mistakes.
(b) It is essentially incompetent.
(c) It has made many engineering mistakes.
(d) It is unconcerned with human safety in spaceflight.

8. What other medium was used to express the desire to wander, according to Sagan, as human civilization developed?
(a) Law.
(b) Technology.
(c) Religion.
(d) Ethics.

9. What means does Sagan suggest that humans use to represent and express their desire to wander?
(a) Trade.
(b) Adventures.
(c) Colonization.
(d) Stories and symbols.

10. Many of organic molecules arrived on Earth from what source?
(a) Asteroids.
(b) Comets.
(c) Space dust.
(d) Meteors.

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

12. What was the state of the knowledge and belief about life on other planets at the time the book was written?
(a) Scientists expected to find life on most of the planets and moons.
(b) It was believed there was abundant life on Mars.
(c) No signs of life were known to exist.
(d) Most believed life on other planets was impossible.

13. In what century was the geocentric theory conclusively disproved?
(a) The 19th century.
(b) The 21st century.
(c) The 13th century.
(d) The 11th century.

14. In Chapter 5 Sagan asks the reader to imagine that they are which of the following?
(a) An ancient person.
(b) An alien.
(c) A time traveler.
(d) An ant.

15. What strange motion do all of the stars in the sky exhibit?
(a) They move in identical tiny ellipses.
(b) They tend to move towards each other.
(c) They appear to drift towards the Earth.
(d) They change directions randomly.

Short Answer Questions

1. Sagan expects both Voyager spacecrafts to continue to broadcast data through what year?

2. Which of the following is NOT one of the ways that early planets may have been made incapable of bearing life?

3. What major change have humans made to the environment that would be easily detectable from space?

4. As of 1990, how many moons did the Voyager craft explore?

5. What does Neptune posses at its core that Uranus apparently lacks?

(see the answer keys)

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