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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

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 are planets orbiting other stars.
(c) Light and magnetism are the same thing.
(d) There may have been life on Mars.

2. What does the Geocentric theory state?
(a) The sun moves around the Earth.
(b) The Earth is a flat disc.
(c) The planets and heavens are all fixed.
(d) The Earth moves in a perfect circle.

3. How does Sagan characterize NASA?
(a) As part of the military-industrial complex.
(b) As a ship without a tiller or rudder.
(c) As a faceless and dispassionate monolith.
(d) As an aging bureaucracy.

4. What scientist is well-known for writing about the differences between species of animals?
(a) Maxwell.
(b) Darwin.
(c) Dawkins.
(d) Hawking.

5. Which of the following does Sagan NOT cite as evidence for the age of the universe?
(a) Star evolution.
(b) Radioactive dating.
(c) Impact craters.
(d) Telemetric spectrometry.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Sagan suggest that cavemen were usually looking for when they wandered?

2. How much bigger is Neptune than Earth?

3. Where does Neptune fall in the mission plan for the Voyager probes?

4. What space probe was an important part of Sagan's career, and passed by a major planet in 1976?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. How could Dermott's calculations about Titan be confirmed?

2. What planets had been explored by human beings, at the time of the writing of this book?

3. What dangers did the Voyager I spacecraft face in taking a distant picture of Earth?

4. What does Sagan think about the failure of the Voyager probes to find life in the solar system?

5. What undesirable features of human activity might be easily noticed from space?

6. What would be the first things an alien visitor to Earth would notice about the planet?

7. What "malevolent" theology does Sagan describe in Chapter 3, "The Great Demotions"?

8. What aspects of science make it unappealing to some?

9. Describe the planet Neptune.

10. What does Sagan believe about the intelligence of the Voyager spacecraft.

(see the answer keys)

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