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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 molecules that broke down other self-copying molecules and used their parts eventually become?
(a) Animals.
(b) Plants.
(c) Inorganic materials.
(d) Single-celled organisms.

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

3. Why does the author use the word "apparently" to describe selfish or unselfish behavior?
(a) Because he doesn't really believe in the terms selfish and unselfish.
(b) Because behavior may only seem selfish or unselfish.
(c) Because he is only concerned about appearances of selfishness.
(d) Because he doesn't believe the examples he is citing are necessarily true.

4. Why does Dawkins say kind or cooperative behavior arises?
(a) Because it promotes the good of the whole species.
(b) Because other kind or cooperative behavior promotes it.
(c) Because it allows a gene to achieve a selfish goal.
(d) Because other factors besides natural selection are in play.

5. What apparently unselfish act of a bee does the author describe?
(a) Evacuating immature bees from an endangered hive.
(b) Fighting off predators who are near the queen.
(c) Bringing back pollen to help feed the whole colony.
(d) Losing its life to sting an intruder.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the author suggest might be better wording than "survival of the fittest"?

2. What example of the type of valued human behavior that perhaps influences people to believe in group selection does Dawkins give?

3. What does longevity provide to an early molecule, according to Dawkins?

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

5. What apparently unselfish behavior of small birds does the author describe?

(see the answer key)

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