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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What kind of storm took place in December of 1999, causing the gardens of Versailles to be ruined?
(a) Tornado.
(b) Flood.
(c) Snow storm.
(d) Windstorm.

2. What is Pollan not allowed to do with the NewLeaf potatoes at the end of the year, according to the law?
(a) Eat them.
(b) Replant them.
(c) Sell them.
(d) Hide them.

3. ________, Pollan believes, is brutally reductive, simplifying nature's incomprehensible complexity to something humanly manageable.
(a) Chemistry.
(b) Agriculture.
(c) Science.
(d) Sociology.

4. _________ is one example of a chemical which was tested before it was used, only to find that later on it affected other ecosystems.
(a) Marigolds.
(b) DDT.
(c) Bt.
(d) Neem oil.

5. The book states that although marijuana cultivation is driven to some extent by money, the underlying principle is that of ______.
(a) Gardening
(b) Horticulture.
(c) Rebellion.
(d) Pleasure.

6. The _________ in the potato is what causes it to produce its own pest killing chemicals, keeping other chemicals from being necessary.
(a) Gene.
(b) Genome.
(c) Starch.
(d) Vitamin.

7. What is second nature to a gardener, who leans that every advance in his control of the garden is also an invitation for disaster?
(a) Mistakes.
(b) Preparations.
(c) Guesses.
(d) Ironies.

8. The arts of _______ are how plants have explored their ingenuity applied to learning and adapting.
(a) Tropism.
(b) Biochemistry.
(c) Physical defenses.
(d) Locomotion.

9. The weedy _________ potatoes on the edges of Andean farms caused changes in the strains of potatoes which would grow.
(a) Dark.
(b) White.
(c) Wild.
(d) Green.

10. Dave Hjelle from Monstanto tells Pollan something that makes him a little concerned. He says, "______________."
(a) Trust us.
(b) No problem.
(c) I'm worried too.
(d) It's problematic.

11. Some Christians believed that potato was the _________ matter, while bread was antimatter and even spirit in nature.
(a) Hell.
(b) Base.
(c) Lower.
(d) Dirt.

12. The book suggests that _______ calls to human desire to alter the textures and contents of our consciousness.
(a) Marijuana.
(b) Potatoes.
(c) Tulips.
(d) Apples.

13. The reasons why potatoes did not become popular in Europe at first was because they were thought to cause _________ and immorality.
(a) Measles.
(b) Malaria.
(c) Smallpox.
(d) Leprosy.

14. In the book, Pollan was almost caught by the police for growing a couple of ______ plants on his property.
(a) Poppy.
(b) Datura.
(c) Morning glory.
(d) Marijuana.

15. For the first time in history, the __________ of a plant is being domesticated by humans and by the scientific changes of humans.
(a) Taste.
(b) Genome.
(c) Chemical structure.
(d) Color.

Short Answer Questions

1. The scourge of potatoes has always been the _________ potato beetle, which can pick a plant clean of its leaves.

2. Dependence on the potato had made the ________ vulnerable to the perils of the economy as well as to those of nature.

3. According to the book, drugs that alter the user's perception of time and space are taboo because they disrupt the _______.

4. According to the book, _____ are the only people on Earth who do not have a practice of using psychoactive plants to change consciousness.

5. The books suggests that all of the following are successful defenses plants have adopted except _______.

(see the answer keys)

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