"How Smart are Animals?" Quiz

1. Why did Andrea Anderson need help from Villa, the Newfoundland dog, in “How Smart Are Animals?”

• a. She got lost on her way home.

• b. She twisted her ankle and could not walk.

• c. She was blown into a snowdrift during a blizzard.

• d. She wanted to study dogs to determine how intelligent they are.

Tags

CCSS.RI.2.1

CCSS.RI.3.1

CCSS.RL.1.1

CCSS.RL.2.1

CCSS.RL.3.1

2. According to “How Smart Are Animals?” what was a common attitude toward animal intelligence up to the 1960s?

• a. Some species were thought to be smarter than others.

• b. Animals were thought to act on instinct, without any ability to think.

• c. Scientists thought that understanding animal intelligence would be an impossible task.

• d. The mental abilities of animals were thought to be similar to those of human beings.

Tags

CCSS.RI.5.7

CCSS.RI.6.7

CCSS.RL.5.7

CCSS.RL.6.9

CCSS.RL.7.7

3. What is the “Clever Hans phenomenon” described in “How Smart Are Animals?”

• a. a situation that demonstrates why scientists cannot be fooled

• b. a study that demonstrates the intelligence of animals through a series of tests

• c. an incident in which an animal uses its problem-solving skills to help a human

• d. an experiment in which an animal seems intelligent but is merely responding to cues

Tags

CCSS.RI.4.5

CCSS.RI.5.5

CCSS.RI.6.5

CCSS.RI.7.5

CCSS.RI.8.5

4. In “How Smart Are Animals?” C. G. Beer’s experiment on the “long calls” of laughing gulls proves which of the following ideas?

• a. Scientists can easily interpret animal communication.

• b. Birds communicate in a way that is similar to human speech.

• c. Laughing gulls make signals that are the same for each bird on all occasions.

• d. There are differences in the calls of birds that are hard for a human to notice.

Tags

CCSS.RI.6.2

CCSS.RI.7.2

CCSS.RL.5.2

CCSS.RL.6.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

5. When a reader interprets a story, what is she doing?

• a. determining its meaning

• b. listing its main events in order

• c. reading it slowly and carefully

• d. creating a new story based on the same topic

Tags

CCSS.RF.5.3A

CCSS.RF.5.4B

CCSS.RF.5.4C

CCSS.RI.6.10

CCSS.RL.6.10

6. If you evaluate a situation properly, which of the following statements is true?

• a. You have many questions about it.

• b. You have gone with your first instinct.

• c. You have considered and judged it thoroughly.

• d. You have set up an experiment and collected data.

Tags

CCSS.RI.5.9

CCSS.RI.6.2

CCSS.RL.5.2

CCSS.RL.6.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

7. Which of the following is the best description of a phenomenon?

• a. a scientific study

• b. a rare and interesting event

• c. a new way of understanding something

• d. an animal exhibiting intelligent behavior

Tags

CCSS.L.6.4A

CCSS.RI.6.4

8. Read the following quotation from "How Smart Are Animals?"

It is easy to confuse trainability with thinking. But just because an

animal can learn to perform a trick doesn't mean that it knows what it is doing.

Based on this quotation, choose the example that the author would agree shows intelligence most clearly.

• a. An animal learns to find its way through a maze.

• b. An animal learns a faster way through a maze it has already

  mastered.

• c. An animal finds its way through a maze that is more complicated

  than the mazes it has already learned.

• d. An animal decides that it wants to work on matching shapes as well as on solving mazes.

Tags

CCSS.RI.6.1

CCSS.RI.6.4

CCSS.RI.6.6

9. Part A According to “How Smart Are Animals?” what is one important reason that it is difficult to compare the intelligence of one animal species to another?

• a. Most animal species do not use tools.

• b. Some animal species may be lazier than others.

• c. Different animal species may not speak the same language.

• d. Different animal species may not be physically equipped to take

  the same tests.

Tags

CCSS.RI.5.7

CCSS.RI.6.7

CCSS.RL.5.7

CCSS.RL.6.9

CCSS.RL.7.7

9. Part B Which quotation from “How Smart Are Animals?” most clearly

supports the answer to Part A?

• a. More advanced signs of intelligence are tool manufacture and

  use, symbolic communication, and ability to form mental

  concepts.

• b. When an animal can’t perform well, we don’t know if it really

  cannot solve the problems put to it or if it just doesn’t want to.

• c. Animals are just too varied in their physical makeup and in their

  life styles.

• d. Variations of “intelligence” from one individual to the next can

  significantly affect the results.

Tags

CCSS.RI.5.7

CCSS.RI.6.7

CCSS.RL.5.7

CCSS.RL.6.9

CCSS.RL.7.7