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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 9.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. In Dawkins' metaphor about DNA, how does he describe the creation of new DNA by sexual reproduction?
(a) Two books are combined into one two-volume work.
(b) Pages are torn out of different books and put together.
(c) Two bookshelves are combined into one.
(d) Books from different shelves are mixed together on a new shelf.

3. According to the relatedness calculations in the book, is a child more closely related to a sibling or an uncle?
(a) An uncle.
(b) It's impossible to compare.
(c) The child is equally related to both.
(d) A sibling.

4. In the science fiction story Dawkins cites, is the machine created by the instructions beneficial or dangerous?
(a) It is neither dangerous nor beneficial.
(b) It is beneficial.
(c) It is dangerous.
(d) It is both beneficial and dangerous, at different times.

5. What behavior does the author cite about how elephant seals relate to rivals?
(a) Elephant seals steal mates away from the strongest rival.
(b) Elephant seals wait for the strongest rival to die or become too old.
(c) Elephant seals group together to attack the strongest rival.
(d) Elephant seals kill increasingly difficult rivals until they are killed.

Short Answer Questions

1. What almost always happens when copies of things are made, according to Dawkins?

2. What apparently unselfish act of a bee does the author describe?

3. In the set of bees Dawkins mentions that deal with this disease, what does one gene the bees have do?

4. What did scientists do to test the genes that controlled bee behavior?

5. How does a mother protecting a child promote the selfish gene theory?

(see the answer key)

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