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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Rarity Unto Death.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What advice did Darwin receive from his friends, with regard to Wallace's work?
(a) Credit Wallace and share the glory with him.
(b) Publish an outline quickly.
(c) To work with Wallace and publish a joint theory.
(d) To buy Wallace's notes from him, and pledge him to silence.

2. What belief of Darwin's has modern science disproved?
(a) That science would fill in all the missing links in the evolutionary chain.
(b) That species can only react to their environmental conditions.
(c) That evolve tends toward the perfection of each species.
(d) That traits a parent acquires during its life are passed down to its young.

3. What literary term describes Quammen's use of the image of the Persian rug?
(a) Simile.
(b) Metaphor.
(c) Personification.
(d) Symbolism.

4. What is the term that encompasses David Quammen's overall idea?
(a) Survival of the fittest.
(b) Functional adaptation.
(c) Ecosystem collapse.
(d) Island biogeography.

5. How does Quammen describe the efforts of other scientists?
(a) Holistic.
(b) Pedantic.
(c) Partial.
(d) Insufficient.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was Tasmania's environmental history, according to Quammen?

2. What is Quammen really describing as he imagines the hacked up rug?

3. What was the special creation theory?

4. What is the tone of Quammen's writing in the opening chapter?

5. Where did Quammen go to study temrecs?

(see the answer key)

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