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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 2.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What would give longevity to early self-duplicating molecules, according to Dawkins?
(a) Larger numbers of components.
(b) Smaller numbers of elements.
(c) Greater stability.
(d) Greater flexibility.

2. What does the author suggest might be better wording than "survival of the fittest"?
(a) Survival of the most reliable.
(b) Survival of the stable.
(c) Survival of the most adaptable.
(d) Survival of the best.

3. What apparently selfish act of the praying mantis does the author describe?
(a) A female eating her mate.
(b) Leading another mantis into a spider's web.
(c) Fighting over an aphid colony.
(d) Injuring another mantis that enters a claimed territory.

4. How does the author define intelligent life?
(a) As life that creates lasting communications.
(b) As life that asks where it came from.
(c) As life that distinguishes itself from other life.
(d) As life that tries to define itself.

5. What does Dawkins describe life forms as?
(a) Simple enlargements of self-copying molecules.
(b) Machines to protect competing self-copying molecules.
(c) Projections of self-copying molecules into a new dimension.
(d) Multiplications of self-copying molecules.

Short Answer Questions

1. What shape does the author say water molecules in space make?

2. What does Dawkins call the molecule that he imagines as the first molecule to make copies of itself?

3. What apparently unselfish act of a bee does the author describe?

4. What would molecules that grouped and built protective walls around themselves become?

5. How common does Dawkins say doubt about evolution is?

(see the answer key)

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