Wilderness Exam

There are two tests–you can choose the one you’d like to take. 

Test 1 will have five (5) quotation-identification questions and four (4) paragraphs to answer.

Test 2 will have five (5) paragraphs to answer.

The questions will come from this list:

 

1. Is the piece by William Cronon a critique of environmentalism or a call to improve it? Defend your answer.
2. A number of the pieces refer to the concept of time and its relationship to environmentalism. Analyze this argument, using at least three pieces.
3. Using at least three sources, make an argument for what should be done to the national parks.
4. Either defend or critique Rachel Carson’s call for the elimination of DDT.
5. Chief Seattle asked, “what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lovely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around a pond at night?” and Emerson argues that the solitude of nature is essential for the soul. Using these and at least one more source, discuss the argument that nature is necessary for a healthy soul.
6. Use at least three pieces to demonstrate how satire can be effectively used to advance the argument for the environment.
7. Using at least three authors, one of which should be Emerson, discuss how the power of nature serves to put human life and troubles in perspective.
8. Explain  what Annie Dillard and Henry David Thoreau meant by “going for the throat” and “sucking the marrow out of life.” 
9. Edward Abbey’s defense of the natural world differs greatly from the other authors we’ve studied. Identify some key arguments that set him apart from the rest.
10. Using at least three authors, discuss how our tendency to fetishize spectacular elements of nature diminshes our protection of the the whole.