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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where did the author like to walk before nightfall every New Year's Day?
(a) Woods.
(b) City streets.
(c) Fields behind her home.
(d) Tekels Park.

2. When was the eclipse in India that forced an observer to retreat to his room and plunge his head into water?
(a) 1884.
(b) 1871.
(c) 1853.
(d) 1869.

3. When was the solar eclipse that was dubbed "The Great American Eclipse" (75)?
(a) 2015.
(b) 2017.
(c) 2018.
(d) 2016.

4. At the end of "Sex, Death, Mushrooms," what was the last fungus that the author spotted?
(a) Common stinkhorn.
(b) Crab brittlegills.
(c) Chanterelle.
(d) Cauliflower fungus.

5. When did Samuel Tyalor Coleridge write of a murmuration?
(a) 1793.
(b) 1799.
(c) 1787.
(d) 1785.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Nests," when did a woman friend say that she and her friends used to take eggs from birds' nests?

2. What was the weather like at the beginning of "Sex, Death, Mushrooms"?

3. In "The Student's Tale," how long was the refugee held at an immigration detention center?

4. At the beginning of "Field Guides," where was the author observing birds?

5. When did the World Health Organization create a definition of healthy that referred to no one?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the author say that winter woods can teach her?

2. How long did the author have to ride out her migraines, and how did she finally get relief?

3. What symptoms did the author have preceeding a migraine?

4. Why does the author believe that science and literature are needed to document extinctions?

5. How can a total solar eclipse wreaks havoc on the senses?

6. Where did the author and her parents live when she was five, in 1976, and what did the author love to explore there?

7. When does the author like to walk in the woods, and what have her experiences been like?

8. How does the author describe a column of flying ants?

9. What did a boyfriend show Macdonald in "Nothing Like a Pig," and how did Macdonald describe the creature?

10. What were Wunderkammer and when were they popular?

(see the answer keys)

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