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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the difference between an isolate and a sample?
(a) Samples are only statistically related to larger environments.
(b) Trends in an isolate can be applied to larger areas.
(c) A sample is only representative of itself.
(d) An isolate does not have a relation with a larger area.

2. Which scientist compared animals on islands with their counterparts on larger landmasses?
(a) Darwin.
(b) Foster.
(c) Quammen.
(d) Wallace.

3. What is a sample?
(a) The set of interrelationships that govern a particular climate and ecosystem.
(b) The list of species in an area.
(c) The data that comes from studying an area, large or small.
(d) A defined area of a large system.

4. What does a species have if it has high dispersal ability?
(a) The ability to adapt to new environmental conditions.
(b) The ability to move from place to place.
(c) The ability to withstand great environmental changes.
(d) The ability to change their environment to suit their own traits.

5. What does Quammen interject into his historical narrative about ecosystem studies?
(a) Sociological insights.
(b) Jokes.
(c) Personal stories.
(d) Apocalyptic visions.

6. How did sailors describe the dodo?
(a) Swift.
(b) Canny.
(c) Stupid.
(d) Cagey.

7. What was Carl Jones trying to rescue in Mauritius?
(a) A crab.
(b) A kestrel.
(c) A macaque.
(d) A komodo dragon.

8. Where is Krakatau?
(a) Italy.
(b) Japan.
(c) Malay Archipelago.
(d) Tunisia.

9. What does Quammen says Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace had in common?
(a) They both collected insects and primates.
(b) They both studied island ecosystems.
(c) They both studied birds.
(d) They both found hostile responses to their work.

10. What is a thylacine?
(a) A Tasmanian tiger.
(b) A kangaroo.
(c) A crab.
(d) A kestrel.

11. How does Quammen describe the komodo dragon's territory?
(a) As any environment that satisfies its survival requirements.
(b) As an island within an island.
(c) As the whole history of its development in the ecosystem.
(d) As inseparable from the islands where it developed.

12. What is the genre of The Song of the Dodo?
(a) Fantasy.
(b) Prophecy.
(c) Non-fiction.
(d) Fiction.

13. What ecosystem does Wallace distinguish from ecosystems that developed in isolation?
(a) Ecosystems where people had introduced new species.
(b) Ecosystems where great complexity developed out of local conditions.
(c) Ecosystems that were simplified over time.
(d) Ecosystems that had been part of a larger land mass, but broke away.

14. What does Michael Soule study?
(a) Lizards in the Gulf of California.
(b) Birds in Guam.
(c) Dodos.
(d) Tasmanian tigers.

15. How do scientists relate data from samples and isolates to larger areas?
(a) Speculation.
(b) Extrapolation.
(c) Interpolation.
(d) Prediction.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Quammen say makes his field important?

2. Where did Wallace travel after the Amazon?

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

4. What is Lovejoy's term for the ecological crisis?

5. Where did the dodo live?

(see the answer keys)

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