Chapters 1-3
True or False in Chapter 1 of the novel, the once vibrant town reduced to death was Carson's home town.
False, the town did not exist. However, "it might easily have a thousand counterparts in America or elsewhere in the world." (Carson 3)
True or False Chemists who guard water purity have no way to test for organic pollutants, and no way to remove them.
True
"The chemist who guards water purity has no routine tests for these organic pollutants and no way to remove them." (Carson 41)
True or False rain doesn't wash away the DDT in trees.
True
"The poison forms a tenacious film over the leaves and bark. Rains do not wash it away."(Carson 107)
How does long term exposure to pesticides affect your insides?
It makes them weaker, as well as weakening your immune system.
"A liver damaged by pesticides is not only incapable of protecting us from poisons, the whole wide range of its activities may be interfered with." (Carson 192)
True or false DDT creates worldwide pests through the killing of competition.
True
"Spraying while reasonably effective against the target insect, has let loose a whole Pandora's box of destructive pests that had never previously been abundant enough to cause trouble. The spider mite, for example, has become practically a worldwide pest as DDT and other insecticides have killed off its enemies." (Carson 252)
Read this quote from Chapter 2. "This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable; the chain of evil it initiates not only in the world that must support life but in living tissues is for the most part irreversible."(Carson 6) What is the substance described? Where does the substance come from?
Strontium 90. Released through nuclear explosions into the air.
In Chapter 4 what are the two theories suggested in how the fish in the remote creek contained DDT.
Underground streams, and being airborne.
"Had the chemical reached this remote creek by hidden underground streams? Or had it been airborne, drifting down as fallout on the surface of the creek?" (Page 42)
What caused the death of brook trout and young salmon in the chapter Rivers of Death?
A large DDT spray.
"The spray one half pound of DDT to the acre in a solution of oil, filtered down through the balsam forests and some of it finally reached the ground and the flowing streams." (Carson 131
What are some effects of DDT on the nervous system?
Tiredness, Heaviness, aching of limbs.
"The tiredness, heaviness, and aching of limbs were very real things, and the mental state was also most distressing, extreme irritability, and great distaste for work of any kind. Mental incompetence." (Carson 193)
True or false Mosquitos are developing resistance to insecticides.
True
"The ordinary house mosquito is here and there developing resistance, a fact that should give pause to many communities that now regularly arrange for wholesale spraying." (Carson 270)
Given this quote from chapter 2 fill in the blank, it's a number.
"Since the mid-1940's over --- basic chemicals have been created for use in killing insects, weeds, rodents, and other organisms." (Carson 7)
200
What is Nitrification and what does the herbicide 2,4-D do to it?
Nitrification makes atmospheric nitrogen available to plants. and herbicide 2,4-D stops nitrification from occurring.
Page 57
What two insecticides were used against ants in chapter 10 and were considered more toxic than DDT?
Dieldrin and Heptachlor.
Page 165
In the beginning of Chapter 13 what did Biologist George Wald compare his work on the visual pigments of the eye to?
"A very narrow window through which at a distance one can see only a crack of light. As one comes closer the view grows wider and wider, until finally through this same narrow window one is looking at the universe." (Carson 199)
What are agencies doing to combat against bugs gaining resistance to insecticides?
They switch from one to another until a new resistance arises.
"Agencies concerned with vector borne disease are at present coping with their problems by switching from one insecticide to another as resistance develops."(Carson 271)
True or false the use of sprays, dusts, an aerosols used for farms, gardens, forests, and homes, kill only the bad insects.
False
True or false Treatment of agricultural lands with herbicides doubled in the decade following 1949.
True
"Treatment of agricultural lands with herbicides doubled in the decade following 1949, totaling 53 million acres in 1959." (Carson 68)
Why is it dangerous to use pesticides like DDT in you're garden?
You can easily get it all over yourself, and after some time it can cause a variety of life threatening issues.
Page 177
What is the "universal currency of energy" (Carson 202)
ATP
What did Dr. Knipling suggest about insect control in Chapter 17?
The constant release of a modified insect that would beat out existing insects eventually creating only infertile eggs.
"If it were possible to sterilize and release large numbers of insects, he theorized, the sterilized males would, under certain conditions, compete with the normal wild males so successfully that, after repeated releases, only infertile eggs would be produced and the population would die out." (Carson 279)
What sets the new synthetic insecticides apart?
It's biological potency.
"They have immense power not merely too poison but to enter into the most vital processes of the body and change them in sister and often deadly ways." (Carson 16)
What was the governments excuse to dump aldrin over 27,000 acres in Southeastern Michigan.
The government claimed the Japanese Beetle was running rampant and overrunning the state. However, there was no proof to back this up.
In chapter 11 what civilization was found with a diet free of DDT
Eskimos
Page 179
What was Soot described as in the beginning of Chapter 14?
A man-made carcinogen.
"A few man-made carcinogens have been part of the environment for centuries. An example is soot." (Carson 219)
True or false according to Carson the phrase "control of nature" is conceived in arrogance.
True
Page 297