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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 people exist?
(b) Why do molecules exist?
(c) Why do genes exist?
(d) Why does DNA exist?

2. What does Dawkins say that evolution is about?
(a) The good of an individual person.
(b) The good of a species.
(c) The good of an individual gene.
(d) The good of a particular DNA combination.

3. What game, played by computers, does Dawkins use as an example of things that can happen automatically based on rules?
(a) Checkers.
(b) Chess.
(c) Backgammon.
(d) Go.

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

5. What does longevity provide to an early molecule, according to Dawkins?
(a) Time to repair itself.
(b) Time to modify itself.
(c) Time to modify its surroundings.
(d) Time to make copies of itself.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Dawkins argue for communication being selfish?

2. What kind of animals does the intruder retreat experiment by Niko Tinbergen use?

3. What two opposites does Dawkins say he is examining the biology of?

4. Can a gene change it's strategy for survival?

5. How does the author define intelligent life?

Short Essay Questions

1. In ESS simulations, what happens when a hawk enters a stable group of doves?

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

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

4. What are the main actions living organisms do, as gene machines?

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

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

7. What two ways does Dawkins picture that the first self-copying molecule might copy itself?

8. How do genes directly and indirectly control behavior?

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

10. How does Dawkins view many-celled life forms?

(see the answer keys)

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