View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Where did the dodo nest?

2. How does Quammen find fault with other scientists studying extinctions?

3. What surprising dispersal ability does Quammen say elephants have?

4. What were the first plants to arrive after the eruption of Krakatau?

5. How did humans hurt the dodo population indirectly?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. What took David Quammen to Madagascar?

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

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

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

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

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

10. What examples does Quammen use of dispersal ability?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Debate the proposition that it is more important to protect an endangered monkey than it might be to protect an endangered snake.

Essay Topic 2

Is ecotourism a solution to the problem of species loss? Is tourism a competitor to enforce some constraints on commerce and development? Would the problem of species loss be remedied or worsened if people followed Quammen's example and traveled from one island to another witnessing the environmental degradation and stress on species?

Essay Topic 3

Debate the proposition that human beings have an obligation to conserve as much land as possible, and to keep as many species as possible safe from extinction due to human development.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 820 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample