View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. _____________ must discern for themselves who is telling the truth.

2. The town Carson describes _________ actually exist.

3. This kind of vegetable absorbs huge levels of poisons, which would have harmed humans if they had eaten the produce.

4. The town Carson describes is one where townsfolk and farmers and wildlife all live in _____________.

5. What did the earthworms dine on that infected them with DDT?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did the chemical warfare of World War II lead to?

2. What kinds of trees are in the forests described in this chapter?

3. What do our individual bodies have that the larger environment does as well?

4. What do more American children die from today than from any other disease, according to the book as it was written in its own time period?

5. How has infectious disease been controlled in modern society?

6. What is happening to insects, even though there have been mass applications of chemicals to get rid of them?

7. What are synthetic pesticides now made of, as opposed to the naturally occurring minerals which were once used before the war?

8. What happens during the sterilization method of insect control?

9. Where does people's chemical exposure mainly come from, according to Carson?

10. What are the relatively new sources of water pollution, according to this book?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The world that Carson describes in the beginning of "Silent Spring" is one that provokes several reactions from readers.

Part 1: Describe the first world that Carson envisions in the first chapter of the book.

Part 2: How does the world change as the description continues on?

Part 3: Why does Carson use this description in the beginning of the book?

Essay Topic 2

Pests are some of the main targets of chemicals in the world. Humans try to kill pests every chance they get, in a variety of different ways and for numerous reasons.

Part 1: What are some of the pests humans try to rid the world of?

Part 2: What happens when a pest is eradicated from an area?

Part 3: What happens to the soil that is in the area where the pests have been eradicated?

Essay Topic 3

Carson attempts to explain that humanity's ever growing need to control the world is actually what is damaging it the most.

Part 1: What are some ways in which humanity attempts to control the natural world?

Part 2: What are the aftereffects of these methods of control?

Part 3: How can controls be altered so that they are not harmful in their applications?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 608 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample