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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Food production meant what to hunting and gathering societies?
(a) Less physical demands
(b) More nomadic lifestyles
(c) More physical work
(d) Fewer hours of labor each day

2. Where did the Incas first encounter the Spanish?
(a) Canada
(b) Peru
(c) Cuba
(d) Florida

3. Groups who remained hunter-gatherers into the twentieth century lived in what types of areas?
(a) Areas not fit for food production
(b) Areas with lots of water
(c) Areas near the equator
(d) Areas where natural resources are abundant

4. Diamond argues that examining Polynesia helps the reader see what?
(a) How the loss of large mammals gave societies an advantage
(b) How shared culture is important
(c) How war can end if groups decide to stop
(d) How environments shape societies

5. At 11,000 B.C., which continent was most likely to develop quickly?
(a) Africa
(b) Asia
(c) North America
(d) Any of them could have developed most quickly

6. Why were the Europeans not affected by the infectious diseases that they brought to places like the Americas and Australia?
(a) They practiced better sanitation.
(b) They were genetically superior to other groups.
(c) They had a natural resistance to the diseases.
(d) They had already acquired immunity.

7. How did farmers end up with plants that fulfilled their needs?
(a) Random choices
(b) Scientific analysis
(c) Historical studies
(d) Trial and error

8. People often assume that there are what type of differences between people living on different continents?
(a) Biological
(b) Historical
(c) Imaginative
(d) Monetary

9. The arrival of humans on many of the continents coincided with what?
(a) The disappearance of human ancestors
(b) The development of stone tools
(c) The mass extinction of large mammals
(d) The development of ocean going crafts

10. The Maori had what type of population?
(a) Decreasing
(b) Locally dense
(c) Controlled
(d) Sparse

11. Why was the first occupation of Australia important?
(a) It was the first occupation on any continent.
(b) It required watercraft.
(c) It killed off the most large mammals.
(d) It was the biggest occupation on any continent.

12. What was needed for a society to become involved in food production?
(a) An abundance of wild game
(b) A natural disaster
(c) Some type of fruit tree
(d) Several species of plants that could be domesticated

13. People in areas with a head start on food production gained what?
(a) A head start on guns, germs, and steel
(b) Steel production
(c) A resistance to disease
(d) A head start on hunting and gathering techniques

14. All crops began as what?
(a) A foreign plant
(b) A wild plant species
(c) A domesticated plant
(d) A native plant

15. How does Diamond explain the mass extinction of large mammals in some areas?
(a) Germs introduced by humans
(b) The ice age
(c) A large large comet hit the earth.
(d) Humans killed or indirectly eliminated them.

Short Answer Questions

1. What infectious disease played a role in the European conquest of the Americas?

2. Some people feel that explaining why one group dominates another does what?

3. What is not one of the eight "founder" crops that started in the Fertile Crescent?

4. What is true of the first farmers in many areas as compared to the hunters and gatherers?

5. What is true about the greater Polynesian area?

(see the answer keys)

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