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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What apparently selfish act of gulls does the author describe?
(a) Eating others' baby chicks.
(b) "Ditching" the rest of the flock when a predator is spotted.
(c) Stealing another gull's nest.
(d) Fighting for fish.

2. Does the author believe that all people should act selfishly?
(a) No, he believes people should try to overcome selfish natural tendancies.
(b) Yes, he believes that selfish behavior is natural and therefore good, despite negative results.
(c) No, and he believes people will not naturally act selfishly.
(d) Yes, he believes selfish behavior has positive results.

3. What two opposites does Dawkins say he is examining the biology of?
(a) Selfishness and altruism.
(b) Self-centeredness and other-centeredness.
(c) Individuality and community.
(d) Rationality and emotionalism.

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

5. What would molecules that started to manufacture energy using the sun eventually become?
(a) Single-celled organisms.
(b) Animals.
(c) Inorganic materials.
(d) Plants.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. How does the author define intelligent life?

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

4. How does Dawkins characterize the natural world in his discussion of selfishness?

5. What fundamental question does Dawkins want to consider?

(see the answer key)

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