Q 01/05

In which year was Silent Spring, which helped launch the environmental movement, published?

A) 1958

B) 1962

C) 1965

D) 1970

Answer · why

B) 1962

Houghton Mifflin released it on September 27, after serialisation in The New Yorker that summer.

Q 02/05

Which pesticide was Silent Spring's prime example of harm, later banned nationwide?

A) Malathion

B) Paraquat

C) Glyphosate

D) DDT

Answer · why

D) DDT

She had first encountered the "insect bomb" in 1945 but editors found it unappealing, and she published nothing on it until 1962.

Q 03/05

Which federal body was created in 1970 partly in response to the movement Silent Spring inspired?

A) The Fish and Wildlife Service

B) The National Park Service

C) The Environmental Protection Agency

D) The Food and Drug Administration

Answer · why

C) The Environmental Protection Agency

A journalist later called it "the extended shadow of Silent Spring"; its ceremonial auditorium is the Rachel Carson Room.

Q 04/05

Which president posthumously awarded Carson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980?

A) Lyndon Johnson

B) Jimmy Carter

C) Ronald Reagan

D) Richard Nixon

Answer · why

B) Jimmy Carter

A 17-cent Great Americans stamp followed the next year.

Q 05/05

Near which Pennsylvania town, on the Allegheny River near Pittsburgh, was Carson born in 1907?

A) Springdale

B) Bethlehem

C) Gettysburg

D) Scranton

Answer · why

A) Springdale

The 65-acre family farm is now the Rachel Carson Homestead, on the National Register of Historic Places.