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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. In the set of bees Dawkins mentions that deal with this disease, what does one gene the bees have do?
(a) Cause the bees to withhold honey from sick baby bees.
(b) Cause the bees to open cells where sick baby bees are.
(c) Cause the bees to sting sick baby bees.
(d) Cause the bees to overfeed sick baby bees.

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

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

4. Why does Dawkins say individuals within a species interact more with each other than with other species?
(a) Because they are more easily recognizable to each other since they are similar.
(b) Because they need each other to survive.
(c) Because they compete for the same resources using the same tools.
(d) Because they inhabit the same habitat.

5. What would molecules that started to manufacture energy using the sun eventually become?
(a) Inorganic materials.
(b) Plants.
(c) Single-celled organisms.
(d) Animals.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the author suggest might be better wording than "survival of the fittest"?

2. What molecules does Dawkins say existed in ancient seas and formed amino acids?

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

4. What would competition between early self-copying molecules be over?

5. What would not have existed in early oceans, that would have allowed amino acids and proteins to exist for long periods of time, to slowly develop into more complex forms?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What does Dawkins say would happen if a selfish member of a species were born into a species of unselfish members?

4. What happens to genes in sexual reproduction?

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

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

7. In war of attrition scenarios, what is the best bet for individual behavior, according to Dawkins' reports?

8. Describe "crossing over."

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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