View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. Why is Krakatau scientifically important?
(a) It is so isolated.
(b) It is a controlled experiment.
(c) It is an exception to most rules of population dispersal.
(d) It is just being populated now.

3. What does Quammen say an island is?
(a) A fundamentally unique environment.
(b) An isolate.
(c) A replica of other ecosystems.
(d) A sample.

4. Who was Truganini?
(a) A sailor who reported on Tasmanian tigers.
(b) A naturalists who studied the Tasmanian tiger.
(c) The last surviving Tasmanian woman.
(d) A researcher in Tasmania.

5. Where did the dodo nest?
(a) On the ground.
(b) In burrows.
(c) In man-made structures.
(d) In trees.

6. What is the literary term that describes Quammen's addressing the reader directly?
(a) Personification.
(b) Apostrophe.
(c) Indirect discourse.
(d) Symbolism.

7. What were the first plants to arrive after the eruption of Krakatau?
(a) Grasses.
(b) Mushrooms.
(c) Mosses and ferns.
(d) Lichens.

8. What was the special creation theory?
(a) The theory that the universe was created especially for man's comfort.
(b) The idea that God made each species for its environment.
(c) The theory that man was specifically created out of the best traits of the other animals.
(d) The theory that species developed only the most aesthetic traits.

9. What kinds of animals did Philip Darlington look at?
(a) Birds.
(b) Reptiles.
(c) Mammals.
(d) Insects.

10. How does Quammen find fault with other scientists studying extinctions?
(a) By saying that they have only been talking to each other.
(b) By saying that their vocabulary is insufficient to the problems.
(c) By saying that their nostalgia clouds their findings.
(d) By saying that their fundamental premises were ungrounded.

11. Who is Philip Darlington?
(a) A mathematician.
(b) A writer.
(c) A biologist.
(d) A sailor.

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

13. What tragedy struck Wallace on his return to England?
(a) He became sick and nearly died.
(b) He lost his specimens and notes in a shipwreck.
(c) Someone else arrived in England a few weeks before him with similar specimens.
(d)

14. How did Wallace put Darwin in a tough spot, according to Quammen?
(a) By having looked at Darwin's theories before he published his own.
(b) By publishing his theory first.
(c) By having used some of Darwin's observations in his own work.
(d) By telling him about his work.

15. What traits did sailors notice in animals on remote islands?
(a) They were unafraid of humans, and thus easy prey.
(b) They were more varied than species on land.
(c) They adapted more quickly to environmental changes than animals on larger land masses.
(d) They were smaller and harder to observe than their counterparts on land.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the difference between an isolate and a sample?

2. Who did Robert Bates work with?

3. What does Quammen says Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace had in common?

4. What does Quammen say Wallace developed in South America?

5. Why was the thylacine killed off?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 590 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample