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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Dawkins argue for communication being selfish?
(a) By pointing out that communication is only understaken for specific, selfish ends.
(b) By pointing out that communication always has a main communcator.
(c) By pointing out that the ends of communiation benefit both parties.
(d) By pointing out lying and misleading communications.

2. In Dawkins' discussion, what does he consider alleles to be, relative to genes?
(a) Cooperative partners.
(b) Understudies.
(c) Immaterial extras.
(d) Rivals.

3. What is a "war of attrition" based on in ESS?
(a) How much time and energy a goal is worth.
(b) How often a goal will be abandoned.
(c) How many possible routes there are to a particular goal.
(d) The amount of will and effort it takes to achieve a goal.

4. What is the most stable type of behavior in the computer simulations of ESS?
(a) Bully.
(b) Retaliator.
(c) Hawk.
(d) Dove.

5. How does the author say that human beings think of their own species?
(a) As exempt from the laws of natural selection.
(b) As able to rise above animal drives.
(c) As more imporant than other species.
(d) As a goal that evolution has achieved.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Dawkins say individuals within a species interact more with each other than with other species?

2. What does Dawkins describe as "intruder retreat" behavior?

3. How common does Dawkins say doubt about evolution is?

4. What would happen to an early molecule that made many more copies of itself than other molecules made of themselves?

5. What process does the existence of Dawkins' imagined early molecules closely resemble?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain Dawkins' argument for why cannibalism is very rare.

2. Describe "crossing over."

3. What results in variety in Dawkins' view of early self-copying molecules?

4. Describe the results of the intruder retreat experiment done by Niko Tinbergen.

5. What does Dawkins say would be a natural extension of valuing one's own species more than other species?

6. What examples does Dawkins give of humanity's valuation of its own species?

7. How are the beginning and end of genes in DNA marked?

8. According to Dawkins, what happened to self-copying molecules that were less successful?

9. Describe the behavior of chains of atoms in human blood, as Dawkins describes it.

10. How does Dawkins view whether fidelity is important to evolution?

(see the answer keys)

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