What happens to most living things after they die a

What happens to most living things, after they die?
A) They are recycled, usually by being “burned” with oxygen to provide energy for
other living things, or to provide energy to fires.
B) They are recycled, usually by being “burned” with Diet Pepsi to provide energy
for other living things, or to provide energy to fires.
C) They are fossilized.
D) They are buried in regions with much oxygen, and turned into fossil fuel.
E) They are buried in regions with little oxygen, and turned into fossil fuel.
Feedback: Nature is a very efficient recycler, so almost everything that lives is
recycled. The recycling is usually achieved through slow “fires” in other living things
(including you!), using oxygen. However, sometimes a “real” fire such as a forest fire
will do the job.
Points Earned: 1.0/1.
0
Correct
Answer(s):
A
2.
Your friend wants to see some real Pennsylvania coals. Where should you send your
friend to see coal in the rocks of Pennsylvania (if you honestly are being helpful), and
what coals would your friend see?
A) To the metamorphic rocks of eastern Pennsylvania to see bituminous, and to
the sedimentary rocks of western Pennsylvania to see anthracite.

B) To the metamorphic rocks of eastern Pennsylvania to see bituminous, and to
the sedimentary rocks of western Pennsylvania to see more bituminous.
C) To the metamorphic rocks of eastern Pennsylvania to see lignite, and to the
sedimentary rocks of western Pennsylvania to see more lignite.
D) To Ohio; there is no coal in Pennsylvania, but some Ohio coal is shipped
through Pennsylvania.
E) To the sedimentary rocks of western Pennsylvania to see bituminous, and to the
metamorphic rocks of eastern Pennsylvania to see anthracite.
Feedback: Bituminous is found with sedimentary rocks, but ones that have been
squeezed and heated a bit so they are held together well and are not much like loose
sediment; such rocks are common in western Pennsylvania. Anthracite is the most-
cooked coal, and is found with metamorphic rocks in eastern Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania has lots of coal, but not much lignite, which would not be found in
metamorphic rocks anyway.
Points Earned: 1.0/1.
0
Correct
Answer(s):
E
3.
If we could artificially double the CO
2
content of the atmosphere and then hold the
CO
2
content at that level for a thousand years, the most likely effect would be:
A) The Earth would cool until a new ice age occurred.
B) The Earth would cool a little, and then the temperature would stabilize at that
new, cooler level.
C) Nothing would happen to the Earth’s temperature.
D) The Earth would warm a few degrees, and then the temperature would stabilize

at that new, warmer level.
E) The Earth would warm many tens of degrees.
Feedback:
Doubling CO
2
is estimated to warm the Earth by between 1.5 and 4.5
o
C, or 2.7 to
8.1 o F, with some chance of slightly larger change and very little chance of smaller
change. The physical basis of warming from CO
2
is quite well understood, and cooling
or no response is very unlikely. You might compare the expected warming from CO
2
to
getting up to put another blanket on the bed in the night if you are cold. True, you
might spill a glass of water into the bed, or your significant other might steal the other