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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why might mates favor offspring over their mate, according to Dawkins?
(a) Mates in the animal world are not permanent and therefore inconsequential.
(b) Offspring have more of a lifespan ahead of them than mates.
(c) Offspring need more resources for survival than a mate does.
(d) Mates share no DNA with each other, but they do share DNA with offspring.

2. According to the relatedness calculations in the book, how closely related is an individual to a cousin?
(a) One-sixth.
(b) One-eighth.
(c) One.
(d) One-quarter.

3. What four categories does Dawkins have in his game theory analysis of male and female sexual and childrearing behaviors?
(a) Faithful females, faithless females, faithful males, and faithless males.
(b) Coy females, fast females, faithful males, and philandering males.
(c) Accepting females, rejecting females, cooperative males, and uncooperative males.
(d) Coy females, philandering females, demanding males, and unreliable males.

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

5. What does Dawkins speculate might be a reason a female animal could be tricked into raising a child that is not her own?
(a) The animal might misinterpret how related it is to the child.
(b) The animal might make alliances for self-protection.
(c) The animal might identify specific genes it has in common with the child.
(d) The animal might gain practice for future offspring.

6. According to Dawkins, how common is it for males to help raise the young?
(a) It always happens to some extent.
(b) It occurs in nature, but is not always the case.
(c) It is the most likely scenario, with some exceptions.
(d) It never occurs in nature.

7. What does AI stand for?
(a) Antecedent Integrity.
(b) Altruistic Investment.
(c) Authentic Intelligence.
(d) Anomalous Involvement.

8. Who does Dawkins' idea of AI expand the idea of PI to include?
(a) All adult caregivers.
(b) All adults in a species.
(c) All related adults and children.
(d) All children in a family unit.

9. What chance does a parent have of giving a particular gene to a child?
(a) A forty percent chance.
(b) A sixty percent chance.
(c) A fifty percent chance.
(d) A thirty percent chance.

10. What does Wynne-Edwards suggest that animals do to communicate overpopulation?
(a) Eat a communal meal in an area of limited food.
(b) Leave measurable tracks in a common area.
(c) Gather together and make a lot of noise.
(d) Gather together in a clear area where they are easily seen.

11. In Dawkins' game theory analysis of a colony of birds and ticks, what were grudger birds?
(a) Birds that refuse to take ticks off birds that won't help others.
(b) Birds that refuse to have ticks taken off of their heads.
(c) Birds that can survive in symbiosis with ticks.
(d) Birds that refuse to take ticks off other birds.

12. In Dawkins' discussion, why don't baby birds continue to scream louder and louder?
(a) Because other chicks will throw a screaming chick out of the nest.
(b) Because screaming uses energy and attracts predators.
(c) Because screaming ultimately deafens the chick and its siblings.
(d) Because constant screaming leads parents to ignore chicks.

13. What ant behavior does Dawkins give as an example of seemingly altruistic behavior?
(a) Hanging from a ceiling as a living food pack.
(b) Throwing itself in front of predators.
(c) Bringing food back to other ants without eating.
(d) Running into a burning anthill to retrieve others' eggs.

14. What response does Dawkins give to the idea that birth control is wrong because it's unnatural?
(a) That feeding the poor is also unnatural.
(b) That birth regulation is a survival instinct.
(c) That birth regulation is an evolutionary adaptation.
(d) That human lifestyle is completely unnatural.

15. What happens to baby birds if the parent does not find enough food for the group?
(a) The parent will feed only a few babies, and the others will die.
(b) All the babies die.
(c) The babies will survive but be sickly and have later problems.
(d) The parent will give up its life to feed the baby birds.

Short Answer Questions

1. To what does Dawkins attribute a male backing down from a powerful rival over territory?

2. According to the relatedness calculations in the book, how related is a person to him- or herself?

3. What factors are part of Dawkins' net benefit score?

4. In the example that Dawkins gives, what do pigs sometimes do to the runt of the litter?

5. In the ant colonies studied by Trivers and Hare, what do the ants do with eggs stolen from other colonies?

(see the answer keys)

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