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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. Where did Eamonn first see a wild peregrine as a child?

2. What type of swans were on the Thames?

3. What date did the author observe swan upping?

4. How old was a cygnet caught in "Swan Upping"?

5. What type of birds nested on Dublin's Poolbeg Power Station?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who was Maxwell Knight?

2. What did the author and her mother see and hear in "Berries" while running errands?

3. Where were peregrine falcons nesting in "The Falcon and the Tower"?

4. How were elephant seals involved in a project studying climate change in West Antarctica?

5. What encounter did Macdonald have with a swan at the Jesus Lock?

6. What does Macdonald say that she did and did not know about deer?

7. What is swan upping?

8. What did David Lack discover when working during the war on the early-warning chain of coast-watching radar stations?

9. What did upping swans used to include?

10. What happened to the orioles in Britain?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How did the author suffer from migraines from time to time? How would her life be put on hold during a migraine? Why were migraines so debilitating?

Essay Topic 2

Macdonald discusses the sixth extinction. What is the sixth extinction? Why and how does the author believe science and literature need to communicate what is being lost in the sixth extinction?

Essay Topic 3

How does the author use analogies in the book? How do analogies help readers understand unfamiliar ideas or understand events or concepts in the essays?

(see the answer keys)

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