View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Quammen say makes his field important?
(a) Because island ecosystems are a good metaphor for ecosystems as a whole.
(b) Because it accounts for events other fields cannot account for.
(c) Because it has predicted recent phenomena.
(d) Because it is holistic and global in scope.

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

3. What does David Quammen invoke as he describes cutting the rug?
(a) The joy of the scissors.
(b) The outrage of the rug weavers.
(c) The dissolution of the design.
(d) The despair of the threads.

4. What population does Quammen compare with the thylacine population?
(a) The Komodo dragon.
(b) The passenger pigeon.
(c) The dodo.
(d) The indigenous people of Tasmania.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Why was the thylacine killed off?

2. What traits did sailors notice in animals on remote islands?

3. What is the literary term that describes Quammen's addressing the reader directly?

4. How many pieces does Quammen ask the reader to imagine the rug being cut into?

5. When did Krakatau erupt?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the governing metaphor in the opening chapter?

2. Who is Philip Darlington, and what was his contribution to the discussion of island size and species count?

3. What do we know about the dodo?

4. Describe how Quammen's narrative progresses from one idea to the next.

5. Describe Quammen's tone in the first chapter.

6. What concept did Wallace develop in the Malay Archipelago?

7. What does Quammen say about the overall pattern of the Persian rug?

8. What findings of Michael Soule's does Quammen cite at the end of Chapter 4, "Rarity Unto Death"?

9. What example does Quammen draw from the island of Guam?

10. What is dispersal ability and why is it important?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 769 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample