We imagine the week has been trying for the state’s high school students who have been slogging through a battery of Regents exams, including this afternoon’s Earth Science test. Here are some questions from the January 2008 exam. No Regents tests are scheduled for Monday, so we’ll resume posting sample questions on Tuesday with the Living Environment exam and finishing on Wednesday with physics. (UPDATE: Foreign language Regents are also next week, but they don’t translate well to a blog so we’ll skip them…lucky you.)

1) Which planet is located approximately ten times farther from the Sun than Earth is from the Sun?
(a) Mars
(b) Jupiter
(c) Saturn
(d) Uranus

2) What is the inferred age of our solar system, in millions of years?
(a) 544
(b) 1300
(c) 4600
(d) 10,000

3) The upward movement of air in the atmosphere generally causes the temperature of that air to
(a) decrease and become closer to the dewpoint
(b) decrease and become farther from the dewpoint
(c) increase and become closer to the dewpoint
(d) increase and become farther from the dewpoint

4) Which New York State location is most likely to experience the heaviest winter snowfall when the surface winds are blowing from the west or north-west?
(a) New York City
(b) Binghamton
(c) Oswego
(d) Plattsburgh

5) Compared to Earth’s continental crust, Earth’s oceanic crust is
(a) thinner and more dense
(b) thinner and less dense
(c) thicker and more dense
(d) thicker and less dense

6) Which type of surface absorbs the greatest amount of electromagnetic energy from the Sun?
(a) smooth, shiny, and light colored
(b) smooth, shiny, and dark colored
(c) rough, dull, and light colored
(d) rough, dull, and dark colored

BONUS
7) The presence of eurypterid fossils in New York State bedrock indicates that
(a) eurypterids lived in land environments
(b) eurypterids first appeared on Earth during the Devonian Period
(c) most of New York State was once a mountainous region
(d) areas of New York State were once covered with shallow seas

Answers after the jump.

1) c
2) c
3) a
4) c
5) a
6) d
7) d