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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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) Fighting over an aphid colony.
(d) Leading another mantis into a spider's web.

2. In Dawkins' metaphor about DNA, what does the bookshelf represent?
(a) A strand of DNA.
(b) A single cell.
(c) A cell nucleus.
(d) A chromosome.

3. 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.

4. According to Dawkins, are mistakes in fidelity good or bad?
(a) They are always bad.
(b) They are usually good, but sometimes bad.
(c) They are neither good nor bad.
(d) They are always good.

5. How common does Dawkins say doubt about evolution is?
(a) He says it's common.
(b) He says it's rare.
(c) He says it's in everyone.
(d) He says it's nonexistent.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. How does the author define intelligent life?

3. What would give longevity to early self-duplicating molecules, according to Dawkins?

4. What does Dawkins say readers can think of DNA as?

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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