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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In the science fiction story Dawkins cites, who sends instructions through time?
(a) Aliens.
(b) Intelligent animals.
(c) Robots.
(d) Future humans.

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

3. 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) Two bookshelves are combined into one.
(c) Pages are torn out of different books and put together.
(d) Books from different shelves are mixed together on a new shelf.

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

5. What game, played by computers, does Dawkins use as an example of things that can happen automatically based on rules?
(a) Go.
(b) Checkers.
(c) Backgammon.
(d) Chess.

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

7. What does the Watt Governor machine regulate?
(a) How high it rises.
(b) How fast its arms spin.
(c) How heavy it becomes.
(d) How hot it becomes.

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

9. What apparently unselfish act of a bee does the author describe?
(a) Evacuating immature bees from an endangered hive.
(b) Bringing back pollen to help feed the whole colony.
(c) Losing its life to sting an intruder.
(d) Fighting off predators who are near the queen.

10. What almost always happens when copies of things are made, according to Dawkins?
(a) An overabundance of copies.
(b) Mistakes in the copies.
(c) Conflict between the copies.
(d) Confusion between copies and originals.

11. What does Dawkins point out about antelopes' herd behavior?
(a) The herd behavior is not an adaptation.
(b) The herd behavior is fot the good of the species.
(c) The herd behavior gives indidivuals a better chance of survival.
(d) The herd behavior sacrifices an individual for the species survival.

12. What does Dawkins call the molecule that he imagines as the first molecule to make copies of itself?
(a) The proto-RNA.
(b) The chicken-and-egg molecule.
(c) The replicator.
(d) The duplicator.

13. How does Dawkins define communication?
(a) A gene behavior that helps one group of genes survive by influencing the behavior of another.
(b) A gene behavior that allows cooperation between multiple gene machines.
(c) A mutually learned behavior resulting from genetic behaviors that help groups of gene machines maintain cohesiveness.
(d) A learned behavior that is founded in genetic behaviors linking multiple gene machines.

14. In Dawkins' metaphor about DNA, how many books are on the bookshelf?
(a) Forty-six.
(b) Thirty-two.
(c) Fifty-four.
(d) Twenty-three.

15. What does the author suggest might be better wording than "survival of the fittest"?
(a) Survival of the most adaptable.
(b) Survival of the stable.
(c) Survival of the most reliable.
(d) Survival of the best.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the author compare nerves to?

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

3. What is the name of the bee disease that Dawkins mentions in his example?

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

5. Which cells in an organism contain the creature's DNA?

(see the answer keys)

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