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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 would you describe Quammen's style?

2. What does Michael Soule study?

3. What does Quammen say an island is?

4. What kinds of animals did Philip Darlington look at?

5. Who does Quammen say typically collected insects?

Short Essay Questions

1. What factors have effectively broken the Persian rug of nature into pieces, according to Quammen?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9. Who is Frank Preston, and what was his contribution to the discussion of 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

Do you think the earth itself could become an island for the human species? How could the theories Quammen describes in plants and animals apply to human beings in the future? Describe a scenario in which human beings could have to demonstrate the same adaptive techniques other animals showed on islands.

Essay Topic 2

What is the genre of 'The Song of the Dodo'? Is it a travel narrative? Is it primarily a memoir? A book-length article about a scientific field? Is it a scientific treatise?

Essay Topic 3

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.

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This section contains 695 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample