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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 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.

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

3. How did humans hurt the dodo population directly?
(a) By killing them for sport.
(b) By killing the trees that supplied them with food.
(c) By building on their nesting grounds.
(d) By gathering their eggs and hunting them.

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

5. What were Frank Preston's findings in plotting the distribution of species in island habitats?
(a) A bell curve to represent commonness of species.
(b) A direct proportion to represent commonness of species.
(c) A random relationship between size of island and commonness of species.
(d) An indirect proportion to represent commonness of species.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Where did the dodo live?

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

4. Where did Quammen go to study temrecs?

5. What does a species have if it has high dispersal ability?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Quammen use the island of Tasmania as an example of?

2. What is trophic cascade?

3. What took David Quammen to Madagascar?

4. Who is Frank Preston, and what was his contribution to the discussion of island size and species count?

5. Why are islands important in ecosystem studies, in Quammen's opinion?

6. What is archipelago speciation?

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

8. What do we know about the dodo?

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

10. What other Mauritius species does Quammen describe?

(see the answer keys)

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