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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 many eggs will a female glow-worm lay before dying?

2. When did the author hear her first nightingale singing during a storm?

3. In "The Arrow-Stork," how much of their lives might some cuckoos spend in the countries of origin?

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

5. In winter, where do European swifts spend a few month in winter?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the author describe the Wicken fens through the ages?

2. What were the nestboxes like that Macdonald ordered for house martins?

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

4. How did the author's father tell her that she could figure out how far away a storm was?

5. Why do swans flock to the Welney Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve in the winter?

6. How does the author describe the painting Swan Upping at Cookham?

7. What does Macdonald say about allergies?

8. What did upping swans used to include?

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

10. What did the author search for in a disused chalk quarry?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Macdonald used berries for decorating and felt guilty. Why did the author feel guilty for using berries to decorate? Why were berries a crucial source of food for birds? What relationship is there between birds, berries, and the growth of plants?

Essay Topic 2

Nature reserves are established to preserve habitats and wildlife. What did Macdonald write about visiting nature reserves? Why did she call them living museums? What benefits and disadvantages were there in establishing and maintaining nature reserves?

Essay Topic 3

What a reader knows about events and people is determined by the point of view in a book. What is the point of view in the book? How does the point of view influence what readers know about events and the author?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 893 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample