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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. How would you describe Quammen's narrative of the dodo's decline and extinction?
(a) Speculation.
(b) Detailed hypothesis.
(c) Ungrounded fiction.
(d) Detailed narrative.

3. What evidence did Wallace site to suggest problems with the special creation theory?
(a) That some ecological niches went unfilled.
(b) That human beings could be found in every climate.
(c) That species had adapted to every different environment on earth.
(d) That when species were displaced, they sometimes thrived in the new territory.

4. How many species of the animal Philip Darlington studied did an island of four square miles possess?
(a) 5.
(b) 217.
(c) 88.
(d) 2.

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

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

7. What is Lovejoy's term for the ecological crisis?
(a) Faunal collapse.
(b) Catastrophic deterioration.
(c) Relaxation to equilibrium.
(d) Ecosystem decay.

8. How would you describe Quammen's vocabulary?
(a) Technical and precise.
(b) Sophisticated.
(c) Familiar.
(d) Off-hand.

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

10. 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 found hostile responses to their work.
(d) They both studied birds.

11. What is Quammen really describing as he imagines the hacked up rug?
(a) Loss of communication from one region to the next.
(b) The spread of pathogens.
(c) Loss of environment to development.
(d) Fragmented ecosystems.

12. 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 having used some of Darwin's observations in his own work.
(c) By publishing his theory first.
(d) By telling him about his work.

13. How does Quammen say lizards probably arrived at Krakatau?
(a) Came with humans.
(b) Flew.
(c) They developed independently from amphibians there.
(d) Swam.

14. How would you describe Quammen's style?
(a) Patient and thorough.
(b) Pedantic.
(c) Linear.
(d) Disjointed.

15. When did the dodo go extinct?
(a) 18th century.
(b) 17th century.
(c) 19th century.
(d) 20th century.

Short Answer Questions

1. What tragedy struck Wallace on his return to England?

2. What did Frank Preston study?

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

4. When does a species' dispersal ability become important, according to Quammen?

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

(see the answer keys)

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