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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Sagan worries about how societies of what type would handle the technology that could stop Earth-bound asteroids?
(a) Totalitarian.
(b) Progressive.
(c) Socialist.
(d) Liberal.

2. Sagan says that the moon was once understood as a symbol of which of the following?
(a) Madness.
(b) The unattainable.
(c) Prosperity.
(d) Fertility.

3. What is an astronomical unit?
(a) The mean distance between stars.
(b) The distance from the sun to the Earth.
(c) The radius of the solar system.
(d) The distance that light travels in one minute.

4. What element does Sagan say motivated the space programs of the 60s and 70s?
(a) Curiosity.
(b) Brinksmanship.
(c) Nationalism.
(d) Scientific endeavor.

5. The primary discipline that Sagan argues nations benefit from by investing in space exploration is called which of the following?
(a) Interstellar surveying.
(b) Planetary science.
(c) Gestalt geosurveying.
(d) Atmospheric metrics.

6. About how many channels does SETI search for signs of extraterrestrial communication on?
(a) Millions.
(b) Thousands.
(c) One hundred.
(d) A few hundred.

7. CFCs are chemicals that is primarily hazardous to the environment in what area?
(a) The lithosphere.
(b) The ozone-layer.
(c) The biosphere.
(d) The stratosphere.

8. Sagan suggests that ancient people did not think of the moon as which of the following?
(a) As moving.
(b) As a real object.
(c) As a place.
(d) As having an opposite side.

9. When does Sagan predict that anti-matter will be mass-manufactured?
(a) The 22nd century.
(b) The early 21st century.
(c) They late 21st century.
(d) The 23rd century.

10. About how large a percentage of the mass of the total universe does dark matter make up?
(a) Sixty percent.
(b) Five percent.
(c) Ninety percent.
(d) Thirty percent.

11. What is the shape of the galaxy closest to the Milky Way?
(a) Globular.
(b) Disc.
(c) Cluster.
(d) Spiral.

12. At the time this book was written, how many Mars Observers had been flown successfully?
(a) None.
(b) Five.
(c) Three.
(d) One.

13. Sagan estimates that intelligent life might arise on average in one out of how many stars?
(a) One trillion.
(b) One million.
(c) One billion.
(d) Ten thousand.

14. Where was NASA's first SETI facility located?
(a) The Mojave desert.
(b) The Nevada salt flats.
(c) The Appalachian mountain range.
(d) The Sierra Nevada mountain range.

15. When did a "disrupted" comet famously fall into Jupiter?
(a) 2000.
(b) 1994.
(c) 1964.
(d) 1982.

Short Answer Questions

1. When did the belief that Venus was a "sister planet" to Earth become dispelled?

2. What moon was found to have volcanoes?

3. What is the primary way that humans add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere?

4. How far out does the solar corona die out?

5. What happens to the number of asteroids and comets in the solar system as time goes on?

(see the answer keys)

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