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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. What fundamental question does Dawkins want to consider?
(a) Why do molecules exist?
(b) Why do people exist?
(c) Why do genes exist?
(d) Why does DNA exist?

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

3. What happens to animals that tend to lose in fights?
(a) They tend to challenge less dominant rivals in the future.
(b) They tend to fight more aggressively in the future.
(c) They tend to give up sooner in the future.
(d) They tend to change their fighting strategies.

4. What would happen to an early molecule that made many more copies of itself than other molecules made of themselves?
(a) There would be a lower chance of copies of it surviving.
(b) There would be too many copies identical to the original, and they would mutually destruct.
(c) There would be fewer copies that were similar to the original.
(d) There would be a greater chance of copies of it surviving.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What apparently selfish act of the penguin does the author describe?

3. When a cell divides to make a new cell with identical DNA, what is the process called?

4. What does Dawkins compare point mutation to?

5. What mixture tends to arrive in ESS simulations of multiple types of behavior?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain why Dawkins speculates that cannibalism might make sense within his selfish gene theory.

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

3. What does Dawkins have to say about the phrase "to ensure the survival of the species?"

4. Why doesn't Dawkins find it statistically remarkable that an early molecule would arise that would copy itself?

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

6. How do genes directly and indirectly control behavior?

7. What is a cistron?

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

9. What does Dawkins say that the book will tell about the argument of nature versus nurture?

10. How do animals become active and quicker than plants?

(see the answer keys)

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