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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many species would an island of 4,000 square miles have, according to Quammen?

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

3. Who is Philip Darlington?

4. What assertion did Frank Preston make based on his data?

5. Who was Truganini?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

7. What practical assertion does Quammen say Frank Preston made based on his findings?

8. What is archipelago speciation?

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

10. What is the difference between an isolate and a sample, according to Quammen?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Is Quammen consistent from the beginning of 'The Song of the Dodo' to the end? What expectations does he establish in the beginning? Does he fulfill them, over the course of the book? Does he abandon or sidestep the question of conservation in his discussion of methods of analysis and study?

Essay Topic 2

If you were going to try to make a difference in the field of rescuing species from extinction, what actions would you take, based on the information presented in this book? What strategies would you employ? What part of Quammen's book leads you to believe that this would be an effective strategy for mitigating species loss.

Essay Topic 3

If you were in charge of protecting the maximum number of species in your region, would you create one large nature reserve, or a number of smaller reserves? Use arguments from the book as well as descriptions of local wildlife in your answer.

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This section contains 893 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample