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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 did humans hurt the dodo population indirectly?

2. What evidence did Wallace site to suggest problems with the special creation theory?

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

4. How does Quammen describe the efforts of other scientists?

5. What does Michael Soule study?

Short Essay Questions

1. What other Mauritius species does Quammen describe?

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

3. What is trophic cascade?

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

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

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

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

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

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

10. Who is Philip Darlington, and what was his contribution to the discussion of island size and species count?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

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 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.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 800 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample