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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How many of Lackner’s trailer-sized carbon scrubbing units would be needed to significantly reduce the carbon footprint?
(a) 100 million.
(b) 1 billion.
(c) 1,000.
(d) 100,000.

2. What happened to an engineer in China who used CRISPR on a set of twins?
(a) He was put under house arrest.
(b) He was exiled.
(c) He received the Nobel Peace prize.
(d) He was given funding for more studies.

3. Kolbert tells the reader that geothermal plants are relatively clean but do produce what gases?
(a) Hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide.
(b) Hydrogen monoxide and carbon monoxide.
(c) Hydrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide.
(d) Carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.

4. What is it called to bring a species back from extinction?
(a) Genetic resurrection.
(b) Genetic rebirth.
(c) Frankenstein genetics.
(d) Genetic rescue.

5. The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, showed that the majority of possibilities for keeping climate temperatures down require what?
(a) Positive emissions.
(b) Solar scrubbing.
(c) Solar geoengineering.
(d) Negative emissions.

6. What problem is the Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong, Australia trying to correct?
(a) The overpopulation of a non-native species of toad.
(b) Non-native and invasive species of coral.
(c) Severe drought and wildfires.
(d) Deforestation.

7. What is a suppression drive?
(a) A gene drive that makes all recessive genes dominant.
(b) A gene drive that would overpower natural selection.
(c) A gene drive that suppresses one’s immune system.
(d) A gene drive that kills off a species.

8. Where do biologists like Tizard hope to get the power to spread genetic modifications throughout a species?
(a) Outlaw genes.
(b) Rogue genes.
(c) Dominant genes.
(d) Outliar genes.

9. One activist that Kolbert mentions says that sometimes doing nothing is better than what?
(a) Looking like a fool.
(b) Saying nothing.
(c) Making mistakes.
(d) Doing something.

10. Kolbert mentions that effects of the first few months of the coronavirus pandemic and how emissions dropped how much?
(a) 97%.
(b) 70%.
(c) 7%.
(d) 17%.

11. What is the main genetic modification plan for the cane toads in the lab?
(a) To make them more particular about what they eat.
(b) To make them glow in the dark.
(c) To make them non-toxic.
(d) To make them smaller.

12. How many species of birds has the Pacific rat killed off?
(a) At least 10,000 species.
(b) At least 100 species.
(c) None.
(d) At least 1,000 species.

13. Lackner realized back in the 1970s what is now well-known that the world is decades away from having what kind of working reactor?
(a) Carbon.
(b) Fusion.
(c) Hydrogen.
(d) Emissions.

14. What do Tizard and his partner hope to accomplish regarding cane toad eggs?
(a) Make them less abundant.
(b) Make the eggs impossible to fertilize.
(c) Make them edible.
(d) Make them hard to swallow.

15. What invention launched the Industrial Revolution?
(a) Da Vinci’s flying machine.
(b) James Watt’s new steam engine.
(c) Eli Whitney’s cotton gin.
(d) Karl Benz’s automobile.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did the cannibal snails cause in Hawaii?

2. What is NOT a reason given for why taking carbon dioxide out of a gas stream is difficult?

3. Kolbert says that, without help, most of the carbon dioxide humans emit would turn to stone eventually, called what?

4. According to Kolbert, why are mice perfect lab animals?

5. In Up in the Air: Chapter 1, Kolbert decides to support what type of service?

(see the answer keys)

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