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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 does Dawkins say removes humanity from the cruel and harsh laws of nature?
(a) Humans have developed genes for communication, which allows cooperation.
(b) Humans teach children ways to behave and learn better behaviors as adults.
(c) Nothing.
(d) Humans create environments that protect them from natural laws.

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

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

4. What does Dawkins describe some female birds demanding from males?
(a) They demand males feed them.
(b) They demand males fight off predators.
(c) They demand males walk or fly close behind them.
(d) They demand males fight off other birds.

5. In Dawkins' example, why might a child try to get extra food, to the detriment of brothers and sisters?
(a) The child is hungrier than its siblings.
(b) The child has special needs that it must communicate to its parents.
(c) The child is more related to itself than its siblings.
(d) The child has no concern for its siblings' survival.

Short Answer Questions

1. What response does Dawkins give to the idea that birth control is wrong because it's unnatural?

2. What four categories does Dawkins have in his game theory analysis of male and female sexual and childrearing behaviors?

3. What does Wynne-Edwards say happens when other animals communicate to the species that there is overpopulation?

4. What bee eggs get fertilized?

5. Does Dawkins believe people want to view parental care as different from other evolutionary behaviors?

Short Essay Questions

1. According to Dawkins, in what ways does weaning benefit an older child?

2. What explanation does Zahavi propose for stotting?

3. What possible explanation for viruses does Dawkins give?

4. What does Dawkins cite that makes human beings exceptions to the idea that genes for having too large a number of children die out?

5. What factors does Dawkins mention that weigh into caring for older versus younger offspring?

6. What theory about parental suffering for children's success does Dawkins describe?

7. What examples does Dawkins give of male animals resisting raising offspring that's not their own?

8. Explain Dawkins' interpretation of the affects of overpopulation on female mice.

9. Why, from the standpoint of the selfish gene, is it more beneficial to save five siblings than five cousins?

10. Explain the conflict between Wynne-Edwards and Dawkins over territory behavior.

(see the answer keys)

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