1) It is the chromosomes, however, that assort independently, not individual genes.
2) It tells you they're really far apart.
You see, there's this phenomenon called crossing over. Chunks of DNA get randomly swapped between homologous chromosomes. If two genes are close together they're usually swapped together and if they're far apart (say, on opposite ends) they're probably never going to be swapped together because half a chromosome doesn't normally cross over at once.
3) Sexual reproduction, because it results in offspring that combine alleles from two different individuals.
(Crossover is fine and dandy and you should mention it, but you'd get a C if you didn't mention that two different individuals are contributing genetic material to the offspring)
