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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. Why would one organism be able to survive in a climate that another could not?
(a) It has thicker skin.
(b) It is maladapted.
(c) It has more fur.
(d) It is better adapted.

2. What is the best example of traits that continue to vary?
(a) Mating habits.
(b) Primary sexual characteristics.
(c) Secondary sexual characteristics.
(d) Migration characteristics.

3. What does the process of species growth suggest about species that are transported into foreign regions?
(a) They inter-breed.
(b) They do not prosper.
(c) They stay stagnant.
(d) They prosper.

4. What would a variety do in order to become a new species?
(a) Inter-breed.
(b) Exceed in numbers from the parent species.
(c) Reduce in numbers.
(d) Migrate.

5. What term refers to those organisms that survive despite the struggle for resources?
(a) Circle of life.
(b) Artificial selection.
(c) Natural selection.
(d) Hereditary modification.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Chapter 4: Natural Selection, what does Darwin suggest about most variations?

2. On what ship did Darwin ride while writing The Origin of Species?

3. What type of selection primarily affects the reproductive characteristics of a species?

4. What bodily system do some scientists believe is responsible for producing individual differences?

5. In what type of species are variations of the eye found?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Darwin feel the distinction between species variations is arbitrary?

2. Is there a cycle to the struggle for existence? Explain.

3. What must be examined in order for Darwin's theory to be considered plausible?

4. What occurs in situations where a species is moved from one climate to another?

5. Why isn't it safe to assume that regions that are physically connected in the present day were connected in the past?

6. Why is a flying mammal such as a bat difficult to explain through natural selection?

7. What was Darwin's specific interest in the living species?

8. Why are the laws of inheritance still not understood?

9. How does the growth of a population work?

10. What is the ultimate result of the constant struggle to live?

(see the answer keys)

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