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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 9.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How common are genes that cause altruistic behaviors in nature?
(a) They are nonexistent.
(b) They are pretty common.
(c) They are vast majority of genes.
(d) They are extremely rare.

2. In Dawkins' metaphor about DNA, how many books are on the bookshelf?
(a) Forty-six.
(b) Twenty-three.
(c) Thirty-two.
(d) Fifty-four.

3. How does Dawkins postulate that animals judge relatedness?
(a) By scent.
(b) By resemblance.
(c) By instinctual knowledge.
(d) By statistics.

4. According to the relatedness calculations in the book, is a child more closely related to a sibling or an uncle?
(a) It's impossible to compare.
(b) An uncle.
(c) A sibling.
(d) The child is equally related to both.

5. What does Dawkins speculate might be a reason a female animal could be tricked into raising a child that is not her own?
(a) The animal might misinterpret how related it is to the child.
(b) The animal might gain practice for future offspring.
(c) The animal might identify specific genes it has in common with the child.
(d) The animal might make alliances for self-protection.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to the relatedness calculations in the book, how closely related is an individual to a cousin?

2. What happens in inversion?

3. What happens to cuckoo eggs that look dissimilar to the host eggs they replace?

4. What does Dawkins demonstrate using the net benefit score?

5. What attribute of male birds of paradise does Zahavi say is a kind of boast that even with a dangerous physical characteristic, the bird is strong enough to survive?

(see the answer key)

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