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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What fundamental question does Dawkins want to consider?
(a) Why do molecules exist?
(b) Why do people exist?
(c) Why does DNA exist?
(d) Why do genes exist?

2. What does Dawkins say that evolution is about?
(a) The good of a particular DNA combination.
(b) The good of a species.
(c) The good of an individual person.
(d) The good of an individual gene.

3. What would competition between early self-copying molecules be over?
(a) Gaseous molecules.
(b) Water.
(c) Building-block molecules.
(d) Space.

4. What process does the existence of Dawkins' imagined early molecules closely resemble?
(a) Evolution.
(b) Hybridization.
(c) Diffusion.
(d) Crystalization.

5. What molecules does Dawkins say existed in ancient seas and formed amino acids?
(a) Water, nitrogen, hydrogen, and sulfur.
(b) Methane, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.
(c) Carbon dioxide, nitrogen, sulfur, and amonia.
(d) Water, carbon dioxide, methane, and amonia.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. In early reproducing molecules, what is the measure of "success"?

3. What would molecules that broke down other self-copying molecules and used their parts eventually become?

4. According to Dawkins, are mistakes in fidelity good or bad?

5. What would happen to an early molecule that made many more copies of itself than other molecules made of themselves?

(see the answer key)

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