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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

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

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

5. What did Philip Darlington propose?
(a) A set of exceptions to this rule.
(b) A mathematical ratio between island area and number of species.
(c) A correction that makes this rule broadly applicable.
(d) A set of formula that measure biodiversity.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did humans hurt the dodo population directly?

2. What did Frank Preston study?

3. What does Michael Soule study?

4. When did the dodo go extinct?

5. Who was Truganini?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was MacArthur and Wilson's contribution to island biogeography?

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

3. How did David Wallace make his start as a biologist, in Quammen's narrative?

4. What is the first explanation Quammen offers for the relationship between island size and species count?

5. What are the different terms Quammen describes for how people have accounted for the degradation of ecosystems?

6. What examples does Quammen cite of species changing size on islands?

7. Describe the process by which scientists generate policies for managing ecosystems.

8. List the attributes that govern the survivability of individual species in island ecosystems.

9. What was the understanding about the variety of life forms before the theory of evolution came along?

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

(see the answer keys)

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