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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Dawkins give as his example of the individual benefit of pack behavior in hyenas?
(a) The hyenas can get protection from other hyenas.
(b) The hyenas can gain more information from the pack.
(c) The hyenas can find more prey as a pack.
(d) The hyenas can hunt bigger prey as a pack.

2. How is male and female responsibility for offspring different in fish?
(a) Females may lay eggs and abandon them, while males fertilize the eggs and are left to care for them.
(b) Males care for eggs, and then females take over when the offspring hatches.
(c) Females care for the eggs, and when they hatch, they leave the live offspring to the males.
(d) Males and females both leave their fertilized eggs without investing resources in them.

3. What did Spanish researchers see a baby swallow do?
(a) Use leverage to throw a magpie egg out of its nest.
(b) Steal food from a magpie chick in the nest and give it to siblings.
(c) Gather other chicks into a circle to surround and kill a magpie chick.
(d) Alert parents to a magpie in the nest.

4. What attribute of male birds of paradise does Zahavi say is a kind of boast that even with a dangerous physical characteristic, the bird is strong enough to survive?
(a) A long, dragging tail.
(b) A brightly colored, easily seen headdress.
(c) A bright, attractive pattern on its wings.
(d) A beautifully feathered but uselessly structured foot.

5. What is difficult to explain about honeybees, according to Dawkins' theory?
(a) The large number of queens produced in each generation.
(b) The large number of eggs laid by the queen.
(c) The large number of extra male bees.
(d) The large number of extra female bees.

6. In Dawkins' example, why might an older child give up food for a younger sibling?
(a) The child is more concerned about sibling survival than about its own survival.
(b) The parents are more concerned about the older child and ignoring the younger one.
(c) The child is not concerned about its own survival.
(d) The child does not need the food as much as the younger sibling.

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

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

9. What happens to cuckoo eggs that look dissimilar to the host eggs they replace?
(a) They are recognized but allowed to stay in the nest.
(b) They are thrown out of the nest and don't survive.
(c) They aren't recognized by the surrogate parent birds.
(d) They are raised by the cuckoos instead of surrogates.

10. What does Dawkins speculate that cuckoo chicks might do?
(a) Steal food from other chicks in the nest.
(b) Blackmail parents into getting more food by screaming loud enough to attract predators.
(c) Scream less loud to not attract too much attention to themselves as intruders.
(d) Kill other chicks in the nest.

11. To what does Wynne-Edwards attribute changes to female mice as the population rises?
(a) Group selection.
(b) Natural selection of individuals.
(c) Random variation in individuals.
(d) Random variation within groups.

12. To what does Dawkins attribute changes to female mice as the population rises?
(a) Random variation in individuals.
(b) Random variation within groups.
(c) Group selection.
(d) Natural selection of individuals.

13. Does Dawkins believe people want to view parental care as different from other evolutionary behaviors?
(a) Yes, he believes people want to consider parental care a special case.
(b) No, but Dawkins believes that parental care is a special case.
(c) Yes, but only as it applies to mother-child relationships..
(d) No, Dawkins believes people can clearly see that parental care fits with evolutionary forces.

14. What is a recessive gene?
(a) A gene that has no effect in alternate generations.
(b) A gene that has no effect until environmental triggers create an effect.
(c) A gene that has no effect until two gene fragments come together from two sources.
(d) A gene that has no effect except when two individuals with that gene are in close proximity.

15. According to Dawkins, for whom does a bird regulate the number of eggs it lays?
(a) For the good of itself and its mate.
(b) For the good of the species.
(c) For the good of itself.
(d) For the good of its genetic offspring.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Dawkins believe about the tension between survival of different generations?

2. What does Trivers look at breeding as?

3. What does Wynne-Edwards teach?

4. Who does Dawkins' idea of AI expand the idea of PI to include?

5. How does the author suggest that bird calls might help a bird that is trying to hide by freezing to camouflage itself?

(see the answer keys)

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