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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What would molecules that broke down other self-copying molecules and used their parts eventually become?

2. What does Dawkins call the molecule that he imagines as the first molecule to make copies of itself?

3. What fundamental question does Dawkins want to consider?

4. In the science fiction story Dawkins cites, what do the instructions make?

5. What is the smallest unit that is reproduced and carried on through natural selection?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do genes directly and indirectly control behavior?

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. Describe "crossing over."

9. How does Dawkins say that DNA differs from blueprints for making a building?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Dawkins attributes many attitudes and beliefs to things people want to be true. Discuss how what people want to believe affects people's perception of science in Dawkins' book.

1) Why does Dawkins say that people want to believe in group selection? What affect has this had on evolutionary thought?

2) Why does Dawkins say that people want to believe that parents' relationships with children are an exception to rules of evolution? Are Dawkins' concerns valid?

3) In what other ways do people's desire to believe certain things affect perceptions of the concepts in the book?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss sexual reproduction in The Selfish Gene.

1) How does Dawkins characterize male and female reproductive cells? What is the relationship between this characterization and Dawkins' theory of the selfish gene?

2) How does sexual reproduction affect the ability of genes to survive? Why should sexual reproduction exist at all?

3) What implications do Dawkins' ideas about sexual reproduction have for the male and the female of a species?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the role of game theory in Dawkins' book.

1) What is game theory? How does it allow scientists to look at systems in the natural world?

2) Why does Dawkins use game theory to support his arguments about the selfish gene? How convincing is the support that Dawkins provides using game theory?

3) What are the limitations of game theory in analyzing natural systems?

(see the answer keys)

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