Environmental Quiz Part 3
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.
The U.S. recycles about 27% of its paper products. How much did
it recycle during World War II?
- 14%
- 27%
- 43%
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How many species are estimated to have vanished from the
world's tropical forests in the past 20 years?
- 500
- 10 thousand
- 1 million
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How much would Americans save each year in electric bills by
switching from incandescent to compact fluorescent light
bulbs?
- $1 million
- Almost $40 million
- Over $10 billion
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How much carbon dioxide can a tree remove from the air each
year?
- 2 pounds (907 gm)
- about 35 pounds (16 km)
- Over 200 pounds (91 km)
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How much do sidewalk oxygen vendors in Mexico City charge for a
minute of fresh air?
- 10 cents
- $1.15
- $12
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90% of the cars made in Brazil run on:
- gasoline
- ethyl alcohol
- coal
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For each real flamingo in the United States, how many plastic
flamingos are there?
- 1
- 12
- 700
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How many trees can you save in a year by recycling your
newspaper every day?
- 1
- 4
- 25
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How many of the world's tropical plants have been tested for
possible use in medicinal drugs?
- Fewer than 1%
- About 10%
- More than 45%
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What animal was mistaken for dead and displayed for 3 years at
the American Museum of Natural History before breaking loose?
- A snail
- An opossum
- A bear
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During its period of rapid growth, how much weight can a blue
whale gain in a day?
- 10 pounds (4.5 km)
- 70 pounds (32 km)
- 200 pounds (91 km)
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How many descendants can a pair of houseflies produce in one
summer, under ideal conditions?
- Almost 300 million
- 300 billion
- over 300 trillion
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Some fleas can jump:
- 10 times their own height
- 25 times their own height
- 130 times their own height
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The average gestation period of the common opossum is:
- 12.5 days
- 9 months
- 2 years
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How long is a giant anteater's tongue?
- 1 inch (2.54 cm)
- 10 inches (25.4 cm)
- 2 feet (0.6 meters)
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How many brown rats does it take to eat as much food as one
human?
- 3
- 50
- 240
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How far away can a male emperor moth smell a female?
- 100 yards (91 meters)
- Half a mile (0.8 km)
- 7 miles (11 km)
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How many trees does the average American use each year in the
form of paper and other wood products?
- 1
- 7
- 200
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Which of the following will help cool a house in the summer?
- Opening the refrigerator door
- Planting shade trees
- Painting the house black
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The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would be reduced
by a billion pounds (454 million kg.) each year if every American
family
- planted one tree
- recycled glass bottles
- ate less beans
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An average-sized tree produces enough oxygen for:
- one person
- a family of four
- 25 people
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Trees in city parks live about 64 years. How long does the
average street tree live downtown?
- Only 13 years
- 64 years
- 120 years
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How many trees does it take to absorb the average carbon dioxide
emissions of one car?
- 1
- 15
- 200
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How much of the water that has ever existed on the Earth is still
here?
- Half of it
- Most of it
- All of it
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80% to 90% of the rain that falls in the U.S. evaporated from the
ocean
- 2 to 3 days before
- 2 to 3 months before
- 2 to 3 years before
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If you are standing still at the equator, how fast are you rotating
around the center of the Earth?
- 0 miles per hour (0 km/hr.)
- 11 miles per hour (18 km/hr.)
- 1100 miles per hour (1770 km/hr.)
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In 1883 the volcanic island Krakatoa exploded and disappeared.
How long did it take most of the ash to start falling from the
sky?
- 5 days
- 5 months
- 5 years
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The air we breathe is:
- about 1/5 oxygen
- about 1/2 oxygen
- all oxygen
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How deep will an earthworm go to find moist dirt to eat?
- 1 foot (0.3 meters)
- 10 feet (3 meters)
- 100 feet (30 meters)
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The grain and soybeans that livestock in the U.S. eat would
feed:
- half the people in New York City
- 5 times the people in the U.S.
- all the people in the world
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How many of the 1000 species of bats in the world are vampire
bats?
- 3 species
- 75 species
- 500 species
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If bats disappeared from the South Pacific islands, what
percentage of the native trees would disappear as well?
- 0%
- 25% to 40%
- 100%
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Are bats blind?
- Yes
- No
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Where is the largest colony of mammals on planet Earth?
- Mexico City (people)
- Bracken Cave, Texas (bats)
- New York City (rats)
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Which of the following animals can not catch fish?
- Beetles
- Bats
- Spiders
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What do the duck-billed platypus and the short-tailed shrew have
in common that makes them unique among mammals?
- Both are poisonous
- Both are deaf
- Neither one has teeth
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What makes the Duck-billed Platypus and the Spiny Anteater of
Australia unique among mammals?
- They lay eggs
- They eat rocks
- They walk on their tails
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How much paper does the average American family of four send to
landfills each year?
- Almost 50 pounds (23 kg)
- Over 500 pounds (227 kg)
- 12 tons
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How many one-million dollar lottery winners could you pay off
with the money it takes to set up one new landfill?
- 1
- 12
- 90
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Which of the following pollutes the most miles of U.S.
rivers?
- Agriculture
- Industry
- Municipal waste
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Which country gets the highest percentage of its electricity from
nuclear power?
- France
- Japan
- the United States
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One half of America's landfills will be full or closed by:
- 1995
- 2020
- 2100
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How many glass bottles and jars do Americans throw out every
year?
- 50 thousand
- 1 million
- 28 billion
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How many times can you recycle an aluminum can?
- Once
- Three times
- Over and over again
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Energy saved from recycling one aluminum can will:
- run a flashlight for 10 minutes
- run a TV set for 3 hours
- power your home for 2 days
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How much of our garbage can be recycled?
- Almost none of it
- Half of it
- All of it
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A leak that fills an 8 ounce cup in 10 minutes will waste how
much water each year?
- 10 gallons (38 liters)
- 120 gallons (454 liters)
- over 3000 gallons (11,000 liters)
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How many sea creatures are killed each year by plastic bags and
garbage in the ocean?
- None
- Several hundred
- Up to one million
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What is the best way to get friends to help the Earth?
- Pay them
- Force them
- Set a good example yourself
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The melting of the core of a nuclear reactor is called:
- a meltdown
- the Milky Way
- the Einstein Effect
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The atmospheric layer that protects life by filtering out
ultraviolet rays is called the:
- boron layer
- ozone layer
- chlorine layer
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Solid particles carried in the air are called:
- particulates
- ozone
- carbon dioxide
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Direct energy from the sun is called:
- solar energy
- cosmic energy
- bogus energy
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Why are inland wetlands so important?
- You can build on them
- They provide habitat for fish, waterfowl
and wildlife
- They make good waste disposal
sites
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Converting salt water to fresh water is called:
- carbonation
- desalinization
- fluoridation
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What makes up more of the world's total food production than all
others combined?
- Wheat, oats and bananas
- Rice, corn and potatoes
- Pizza
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Which continent has the fastest population growth?
- Africa
- Asia
- North America
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What burns hotter and produces less air pollution than any other
fossil fuel?
- Natural gas
- Diesel fuel
- Charcoal briquets
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Which fossil fuel is the dirtiest to burn?
- Coal
- Firewood
- Natural gas
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Energy from the Earth's molten core is called:
- nuclear energy
- geothermal energy
- solar energy
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Due to the phasing out of certain chemicals, the thickness of the
ozone layer is expected to improve starting in the year:
- 2000
- 2025
- 2100
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The flashlight fish has a bright light pouch under each eye. The
source of this light is:
- light-emitting bacteria
- a glowing fungus
- the chemical used by fireflies
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Which animal can show its mood by changing color?
- The platypus
- The octopus
- The mood ringworm
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Instead of red blood cells, the icefish has:
- antifreeze
- oil
- battery acid
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The painted turtle can safely let over half of its body be:
- eaten
- frozen
- pulverized
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A colony of army ants may have as many as:
- 500 ants
- 10 thousand ants
- 2 million ants
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Which of the following can glide through the air?
- Flying possums
- Flying ferrets
- Flying tigers
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When threatened, the Texas horned toad squirts its target
with:
- blood
- sweat
- tears
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Certain birds, such as the indigo bunting, can recognize:
- windshields they have previously
splattered
- traffic signs ("stop" & "yield")
- the Big Dipper and other
constellations
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The ability of sunflowers and other plants to follow the sun's
path across the sky is called:
- photosynthesis
- phototropism
- photocopying
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Bullfrogs don't:
- croak
- jump
- sleep
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Birds are believed to be descended from the:
- flies
- fishes
- dinosaurs
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Which venom is the most poisonous?
- Black widow spider
- Rattlesnake
- Tarantula
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How high can a kangaroo jump?
- 4 feet high (1.2 meters)
- 10 feet high (3 meters)
- 40 feet high (12 meters)
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A pitcher plant can eat a:
- mouse
- moose
- muskrat
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How much better is a bloodhound's sense of smell than a
human's?
- A hundred times better
- A thousand times better
- A million times better
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Which is greater, the combined weight of all the world's insects
or that of all the humans?
- The humans weigh twice as much
- They weigh about the same
- The insects weigh 12 times as much
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Which animal can lift 850 times its own weight?
- The elephant
- The rhinoceros
- The rhinoceros beetle
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What was the change in production of CFC's (chemicals harmful to
the ozone layer) from 1988 to 1991?
- Decreased by 46%
- Stayed the same
- Doubled
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The Tasmanian Devil:
- spins in circles and drills holes in the
ground
- eats its own weight in food almost
every day
- has a red tail and horns
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How much fruit does the average preschooler eat compared to the
average adult woman?
- Half as much
- The same amount
- 6 times as much
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How much does the average American family spend on energy in
one year?
- $200
- $1000
- $6500
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The U.S. pumps 5.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere each year. How much is that for each American?
- 22 tons
- 500 tons
- 2200 tons
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Which country produces the most hydroelectric power?
- Canada
- France
- The United States
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Altamont Pass, California, has more windmills than any other
spot on Earth. How many windmills are there?
- 500
- 7500
- Half a million
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How much is a ton of recycled aluminum cans worth?
- $1.05
- $105.00
- $1050.00
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What percent of the population of the U.S. lives in a 50-mile-
wide corridor bordering the coast?
- 14%
- 53%
- 77%
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What makes an ostrich egg unique?
- It is the largest single cell
- Its shell is 1 inch (2.54 cm) thick
- It is the only purple egg
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What is a banana plant?
- A tree
- A grass
- An herb
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How many of Europe's forests are receiving damaging levels of
sulfur deposits?
- 25%
- 75%
- 100%
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How many of the lakes in Canada are dead due to acidification and
other causes?
- 5
- 120
- 14,000
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Coral reefs cover less than 1% of the ocean floor. How many of
the ocean's species live there?
- 2%
- About 25%
- 95%
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How energy efficient are trains, per passenger, compared to
cars?
- About the same
- Twice as efficient
- 6 times as efficient
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Which is more energy efficient: moving freight by trucks or by
train?
- Trucks are twice as efficient
- They're about the same
- Trains are 8 times as efficient
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All sea snakes are:
- poisonous
- non-poisonous
- mammals
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Do most raccoons live in cities or in the woods?
- 15 times as many live in cities
- 15 times as many live in the woods
- About the same number live in each
place
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How long can an albatross glide without beating its wings?
- 4 minutes
- 30 minutes
- 6 days
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The only bird capable of flying backwards is the:
- ostrich
- hummingbird
- dodo
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The common midge, a small insect, can beat its wings:
- 5 times per second
- 100 times per second
- 2200 times per second
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How many hours does a koala sleep each day?
- 1 hour
- 8 hours
- 22 hours
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Which animal's feet support more weight per square inch?
- A person's feet
- An elephant's feet
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Cow's milk contains 4% milk fat. How much of a grey seal's milk
is fat?
- None
- 14%
- 53%
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Which animals have smaller eyes in proportion to their body
size?
- Ants
- Humans
- Whales
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How many muscles does a dog's ear have?
- 1
- 5
- 17
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How does a honeybee tell its fellow bees the location of flowers
it has found?
- Song
- Dance
- Art
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A chameleon's tongue is:
- half the length of its body
- slightly longer than its body
- 3 times the length of its body
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The archerfish knocks insects into the water by:
- spitting on them
- blowing on them
- stunning them with sound waves
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A female canary's eggs don't start to develop until:
- the full moon
- the first day of spring
- a male canary sings to her
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The idea that the entire life of Earth, along with the air and
oceans, acts as one living organism is called the:
- Gaia hypothesis
- greenhouse effect
- theory of relativity
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Inside almost every cell of your body is a microscopic DNA
molecule. How long would it be if you uncoiled it?
- about 1 inch long (2.54 cm)
- over 3 feet long (0.9 meters)
- a mile long (1.6 km)
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The "Awesome Possum" cartridge has 16 megabits of data. How
much data is contained in each DNA molecule (genetic code) in your
body?
- Only half as much
- Twice as much
- Over 300 times as much
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End of Part 3
Go back to the beginning