Environmental Quiz
This quiz originally appeared in the Awesome Possum game
cartridge. The questions and answers are Copyright 1992-1993
Time Warner Interactive (used by permission). All Rights Reserved.
There are three sections of about a hundred questions each. (The quiz doesn't keep score.) If you miss one, the quiz will (probably) show you the right answer, which you need to select to move on to the next question. You may need to shrink your browser window to a smaller size so you can't see the word "Right!" until you get the right answer.
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Part 1
The average American family generates enough
garbage in a year to fill up:
- their master bedroom
- their whole house
- the Astrodome
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During the age of the dinosaurs, a species went
extinct every
thousand years. Now species are believed to go extinct at a rate
of:
- one per year
- one per month
- several each day
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5.4 billion people live on planet Earth. If the current
rate of
population growth continues, by the year 2050 there will be:
- 5.5 billion people
- 15 billion people
- 50 billion people
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How much hazardous waste is produced per person
each year in
the U.S.?
- One ounce (28 grams)
- One pound (454 grams)
- One ton
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The strangler fig tree "strangles":
- itself
- other trees
- careless hikers
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Each year the average car emits more than its own
weight in:
- carbon
- leaky oil
- tollbooth change
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What produces more oxygen than any other source?
- Microscopic ocean plants
- Dense rainforest vegetation
- Scuba tanks
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What produces more carbon dioxide than any other
source?
- Industrial exhaust
- Burning of the rainforest
- Dry ice factories
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In the rainforest, most nutrients are contained in the:
- soil
- plants
- rocks
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Scientists estimate that for each person, there may
be as many
as:
- a hundred insects
- a thousand insects
- 200 million insects
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A 10-year-old boy swings from a 10-foot-high
branch of a young
tree. When he's 50, that tree branch will be approximately:
- 10 feet high
- 20 feet high
- 50 feet high
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How do plants get food?
- They take it from the soil through their
roots
- They make their own food from air, sun
and water
- They absorb dead insects through their
bark
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In one day, a sunflower plant "drinks" and
"perspires":
- a spoonful of water
- a bucketful of water
- 17 times more water than a human
uses
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The oldest living thing, nearly 5000 years old, is:
- a bristlecone pine tree
- a blue whale
- pampas grass
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The largest, most massive thing that has ever lived
is a:
- blue whale
- sequoia tree
- Tyrannosaurus Rex
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How much new root can a grass plant grow in one
day?
- 2 inches (5 cm)
- 3 feet (0.9 meters)
- 3 miles (5 km)
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How much water can a single birch tree move up its
roots and out
its leaves during a hot summer day?
- A tea cupful
- 10 gallons (38 liters)
- 900 gallons (3400 liters)
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What percent of the world's species have been named
by
scientists?
- 14%
- 45%
- 100%
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Which bird can flap its wings at a rate of 79 times
per
second?
- Hummingbird
- Penguin
- Sparrow
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Which marine habitat has the greatest variety of
species?
- Shorelines
- Coral reefs
- Seagrass beds
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3-toed sloths appear green because:
- algae grows in their fur
- they have naturally green fur
- they are jealous
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Plastic is made from:
- iron ore
- petroleum (oil)
- wood derivatives
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What would be the best way to dispose of grass
clippings and
raked leaves from your yard?
- Create a compost heap
- Throw them away
- Burn them
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In seahorses, which parent gives birth?
- The male
- The female
- Both
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"Sea Cow" is the nickname of:
- whales
- manatees
- holsteins
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Mangrove trees live:
- underground
- in the ocean
- on mountaintops
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An example of a non-renewable resource is:
- solar power
- natural gas
- wind power
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Species that live only in one limited area are called:
- endemic
- tropical
- global
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The smallest warm-blooded animal is a species of:
- hummingbird
- mole
- elephant
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Americans throw away enough glass containers to
fill both
towers of the World Trade Center every
- two weeks
- month
- year
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What type of radiation is increased on earth as the
ozone layer is
depleted?
- Infrared
- Ultraviolet
- Superblue
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What two chemicals cause the acidity of acid rain?
- Sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides
- Carbon dioxide and ozone
- Hydrogen peroxide and water
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What percentage of the earth's water supply can be
found in our
oceans?
- 25%
- 66%
- 97%
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In total, how much of your life will you spend
opening and reading
junk mail?
- One week
- One month
- Eight months
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In which room do you use the most water?
- The kitchen
- The bathroom
- The laundry room
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If you boil 1/2 gallon of water to cook macaroni,
how much water
will you use to clean the pot?
- 1/4 gallon
- 1/2 gallon
- 1 gallon
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If you recycle a plastic soda bottle, it may turn up
later in the
form of
- a surfboard
- your new carpet
- both
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Which process uses the least water?
- Washing dishes by hand
- Washing dishes in a dishwasher
- Washing dishes with a hose
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Most rainforest soil is:
- full of nutrients; good for farming
- lacking in nutrients; bad for farming
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Which country does not contain a rainforest?
- Spain
- Australia
- Brazil
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The main by-products of plant photosynthesis are:
- carbon dioxide and water
- grape juice and crackers
- oxygen and water
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In what layer of the atmosphere do you live?
- Troposphere>
- Stratosphere
- Ozone layer
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A wildebeest is better known as:
- a water buffalo
- a gnu
- Bigfoot
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Tunicates, sac-like marine creatures, are more
closely related
to:
- earthworms
- humans
- sponges
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Tropical leaf-cutter ants snip leaves and bring them
back to their
nests in order to:
- feed themselves directly
- feed a fungus garden
- build their nests
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The tallest grass in the world is a type of bamboo
that is
- 12 feet (3.7 meters) tall
- 120 feet (37 meters) tall
- 8 miles high (12.9 km)
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The smallest flowers known are from the artillery
plant of India.
How many of these flowers could fit in a circle the diameter of a
pencil?
- 5
- 10
- 20
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The largest flower known, from the Stinking Corpse
Lily of
Southeast Asia, has a diameter of up to:
- 1 foot (0.3 meters)
- 5 feet (1.5 meters)
- 15 feet (4.6 meters)
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Each year, the world population currently increases
by how many
people?
- 1 thousand
- 100 thousand
- 100 million
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Antarctica is 100% wilderness. Which continent has
the second
largest proportion of wilderness?
- Asia
- South America
- North America
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In the U.S., what percent of the wetlands present in
colonial
times were destroyed between 1955 and 1975?
- 10%
- 50%
- 99%
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How many of the animal species that have become
extinct in the
past 2000 years became extinct after 1900?
- 5%
- Over half
- 99%
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Water occupies what percent of the earth's surface?
- 10%
- 70%
- 99%
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The human population doubles every
- 3 years
- 39 years
- 300 years
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One of the first known uses of concentrated solar
energy was
when solar reflectors were used to set fire to a Roman fleet in
- 212 B.C.
- 1798 A.D.
- 1955 A.D.
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Coal is formed entirely from plant material that was
alive how
many years ago?
- 2500
- 250,000
- 250 million
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When was the first documented use of windmills?
- 644 (in Persia)
- 1514 (in Holland)
- 1959 (in Kansas)
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When was the first windmill designed to produce
electricity?
- 18 B.C.
- 1888
- 1965
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When was the first documented observance of
declining whale
populations?
- 2000 B.C.
- early 1500's
- mid 1900's
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When did the first efforts to control whaling occur?
- 1615
- 1946
- 1985
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When was air pollution first recognized as a problem
worth
fighting?
- 1306
- 1736
- 1951
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How many of the aluminum cans produced are now
recycled?
- 10%
- 50%
- 95 %
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How long does it take, on average, for an aluminum
can to be
remelted and back on the store shelf?
- Six days
- Six weeks
- Six months
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In the U.S., how many vehicle tires are used per
year?
- One tire per thousand people
- One tire per person
- Four tires per person
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If a plastic loop that holds a six-pack together were
dropped on
the ground in 1534, it would still be intact today. True or false?
- True
- False
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Medieval sailors thought that barnacles were:
- flying squirrels
- purple dinosaurs
- enormous creatures that ate the hulls of
ships
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180 feet (55 meters) in length, the longest animal
is:
- the ribbon worm
- the whale shark
- the giant squid
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The shortest snake in the world, 4.5 inches (11 cm)
long, is:
- the thread snake
- the supermini grass snake
- the anaconda
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The smallest known reptile, a type of gecko lizard,
is:
- 3/4 inch (1.9 cm) long
- 4 inches (10 cm) long
- 1 foot (0.3 meters) long
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A saltwater crocodile from Asia and Australia can
grow up
to:
- 5 feet (1.5 meters) long
- 20 feet (6 meters) long
- 100 feet (30 meters) long
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The longest insect known, at 13 inches long (33 cm),
is:
- a tropical stick insect
- a bird-eating spider
- a giant katydid
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Giant earthworms from South America can grow as
long as:
- 2 feet (0.6 meters)
- 5 feet (1.5 meters)
- 22 feet (6.7 meters)
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The smallest known bird, Helena's hummingbird, is
how long?
- 2 1/4 inches (5.7 cm)
- 7 inches (18 cm)
- 12 inches (30 cm)
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The tallest bird alive today is the North African
ostrich. How tall
is it?
- 4 feet (1.2 meters)
- 9 feet (2.7 meters)
- 25 feet (7.6 meters)
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Of the 35,000 pesticides introduced since 1945,
what percent
have been tested to assess their effect on human health?
- 10%
- 45%
- 95%
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A sperm whale can hold its breath for
- 20 minutes
- almost 2 hours
- 18 hours
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How high above the water can a dolphin jump?
- 3 feet (0.9 meters)
- 6 feet (1.8 meters)
- 20 feet (6 meters)
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How far can a blue whale's voice travel under water?
- 200 feet (61 meters)
- Almost 2 miles (3.2 km)
- 100 miles (161 km)
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What is the maximum speed of a cheetah?
- 30 miles per hour (48 km/hr.)
- 70 miles per hour (113 km/hr.)
- 120 miles per hour (193 km/hr.)
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What is a typical land speed for a 3-toed sloth?
- 0.1 miles per hour (0.16 km/hr.)
- 20 miles per hour (32 km/hr.)
- 55 miles per hour (88 km/hr.)
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In 1870 there were around 14 million bison (American buffalo)
in
North America.
By 1894 there were:
- none
- less than a thousand
- 20 thousand
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Which has the heaviest brain in relation to body
weight?
- The common marmoset
- The bottle-nosed dolphin
- Man
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How much ripe banana can a one-ounce (28 gm)
short-nosed fruit
bat eat in three hours?
- One gram
- Two ounces (57 gm)
- None - bats don't eat bananas
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Why do ostriches bury their heads in the sand?
- To keep from seeing
- To keep from being seen
- They don't
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Which is larger, an ostrich's eye or its brain?
- Its eye
- Its brain
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What is the most abundant bird species?
- The starling
- The chicken
- The Passenger pigeon
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There once were over 5 billion Passenger pigeons in
North
America. How many are there now?
- None
- 5 million
- 10 billion
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How far can an Arctic tern migrate by the time it's 4
months
old?
- 5 miles (8 km)
- 130 miles (209 km)
- 11,000 miles (18,700 km)
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How long is the claw span of the Giant Spider Crab?
- 1 inch (2.54 cm)
- 1 foot (0.3 meters)
- 12 feet (3.7 meters)
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Which animal has the largest eyeball, 15 inches (53
cm) in
diameter?
- The Giant squid
- The Blue whale
- The elephant
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How much has carbon dioxide increased in the air
since
1850?
- None
- About 5%
- 25%
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In the last century, chlorine in the atmosphere has
increased
by
- 5%
- 50%
- 2000%
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How many African elephants are alive today
compared to in
1979?
- None
- Fewer than half
- 75%
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What percent of the wood on a living tree is actually
alive?
- 1%
- 10%
- 100%
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Which has a greater number of bones?
- A cat
- A human
- A sponge
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It is estimated that, if trends continue, a quarter of
all plant and
animal species may be extinct in:
- 5 years
- 25 years
- 500 years
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The main source of air pollution is:
- factory exhaust
- automobile exhaust
- bad breath
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How many people live where the air is potentially
unhealthy to
breathe?
- 50 thousand
- A million
- Over a billion
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How much topsoil is lost each year due to erosion?
- 1000 tons
- A million tons
- 25 billion tons
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How many of the world's bird species live in the
Amazon?
- 10%
- 50%
- 95%
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End of Part 1
Go back to the beginning
Go on to Part 2
Created by Earl Vickers