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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 3.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. When a cell creates a sperm cell or egg cell with reduced DNA, what is the process called?
(a) Mitosis.
(b) Alleles.
(c) Plasmosis.
(d) Meiosis.

3. What do the letters A, T, C, and G stand for?
(a) Different types of RNA.
(b) Different types of genes.
(c) Different types of DNA.
(d) Different types of nucleotides.

4. What does Dawkins postulate maintains sexual reproduction as a feature?
(a) The impossibility of asexual reproduction.
(b) The desireability of genetic mutations.
(c) The sexual reproduction gene trying to copy itself.
(d) The need for genetic variation.

5. What would happen to an early molecule that made many more copies of itself than other molecules made of themselves?
(a) There would be a greater chance of copies of it surviving.
(b) There would be fewer copies that were similar to the original.
(c) There would be a lower chance of copies of it surviving.
(d) There would be too many copies identical to the original, and they would mutually destruct.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. In Dawkins' metaphor about DNA, what does the bookshelf represent?

3. What is the smallest unit that is reproduced and carried on through natural selection?

4. What does Dawkins describe life forms as?

5. What does Dawkins say points to the idea that all living things come from the same types of early molecules?

(see the answer key)

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