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. What does Quammen say an island is?

2. What does Michael Soule study?

3. What does David Quammen invoke as he describes cutting the rug?

4. What literary term describes Quammen's use of the image of the Persian rug?

5. When did the dodo go extinct?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. What other Mauritius species does Quammen describe?

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

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

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

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

9. What does Quammen say about the overall pattern of the Persian rug?

10. What are the different terms Quammen describes for how people have accounted for the degradation of ecosystems?

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

Write a character sketch of the author based on his style and content. What values does he hold dear? What are his hopes and fears? What kind of person do you think he is? Anchor your sketch in passages in the book.

Essay Topic 3

Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the scientific methods used to measure and assess island biogeography. What do we gain by way of insight and understanding? What patterns or trends does the data fail to account for?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 791 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample