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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What hazard from nuclear weapons causes "nuclear winter"?
(a) Acid rain.
(b) The erosion of land after plant life is wiped out.
(c) Smoke particles in the upper atmosphere.
(d) Cloud scattering.

2. What was the name of the second mission that sent probes into the atmosphere of Venus?
(a) Hubble.
(b) Kepler.
(c) Mariner.
(d) Brahe.

3. Sagan discusses in detail a theory that Saturn's rings are caused by what effect?
(a) Planetary tides.
(b) Ether condensation.
(c) Gravity waves.
(d) Cosmic perturbation.

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

5. What was the name of the mission that sent the first probes to Venus?
(a) Sojourner.
(b) Venera.
(c) Oracle.
(d) Lyka.

6. How does Sagan characterize most of the benefits gleaned from the space programs of the 60s and 70s?
(a) They were unexpected.
(b) They were intangible.
(c) They were relatively unimportant.
(d) They were underestimated.

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

8. What moon was found to have volcanoes?
(a) Io.
(b) Terpsichore.
(c) Europa.
(d) Persephone.

9. What was the major result of the Cretaceous-Tertiary Collision?
(a) An ice age.
(b) The destruction of most plant life on the Earth.
(c) Environmental shifts.
(d) Mass extinction.

10. When was Venus first explored by a space probe?
(a) 1950.
(b) 1970.
(c) 1961.
(d) 1980.

11. How are chunks of Martian rock studied on Earth?
(a) They are simulated with moon rocks.
(b) They fall to the Earth.
(c) They are returned by two-way probes.
(d) They are captured in space.

12. What is the primary way that humans add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere?
(a) Carburetor emissions.
(b) Drilling for natural gas and oil.
(c) Burning fossil fuels.
(d) Heavy industry byproducts.

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. When does Sagan predict that anti-matter will be mass-manufactured?

2. Which of the following is NOT a major resource on Mars that makes it viable for "terraforming"?

3. What is the primary distinguishing feature that SETI looks for to identify a communication from an intelligent source?

4. Where does Sagan think it is most likely that life will be found on Mars?

5. Sagan says that the moon was once understood as a symbol of which of the following?

(see the answer keys)

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