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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which societies were the most advantaged in Polynesia?
(a) Those with natural immunity to smallpox
(b) Those with large, native domesticated animals
(c) Those with wild plants that could be domesticated
(d) Those that could hunt large mammals

2. Recent research shows that crops from Mexico spread into eastern North America via an indirect route through where?
(a) Canada
(b) Peru
(c) The southwest
(d) Australia

3. Why didn't Australians develop food production in ancient times?
(a) The dry conditions on the continent
(b) Too many plants that could be domesticated
(c) Fertile soils
(d) Too much rainfall to support domesticated plants

4. The language that did most of the conquering or "engulfing" in Africa was which of the following?
(a) Bantu
(b) Niger-Congo
(c) Nilo-Saharan
(d) Khoisan

5. What was the biggest difference between the histories of Old World Europe and the New World Americas?
(a) Denser populations
(b) More intelligent people
(c) The domestication of large mammals
(d) Sparser populations

6. What was the source of power in New Guinea when food production arose?
(a) Humans
(b) Electricity
(c) Horses
(d) Cows

7. Which type of society uses a monopoly of force?
(a) Tribes
(b) Bands
(c) Chiefdoms
(d) States

8. Where does Diamond believe that more research needs to be done?
(a) How racial differences influence development
(b) How cultural differences influence development
(c) How intelligence differences influence development
(d) How biological differences influence development

9. Why is food production important for inventions?
(a) People had the energy to create.
(b) It allowed people to be nomadic and spread inventions.
(c) It allows for a sedentary life.
(d) People did not get diseases which stopped inventions.

10. What is a benefit that institutionalized religion provides?
(a) A way to redistribute money from the wealthy to the poor
(b) The ability to rid a society of evil spirits
(c) Frameworks for unrelated individuals to live together without killing each other
(d) Organizing societies by biological race

11. Diamond suggests that inventions occur because of what?
(a) Greater creativity
(b) Peoples' curiosity and tinkering
(c) Perceived need
(d) Superior intelligence

12. Why did the developments occur later in the Americas that in Europe?
(a) The Americas had more large mammals available
(b) The Americas were less isolated
(c) Eurasia had fewer wild plants suitable for domestication
(d) Humans had lived in Europe longer

13. How many basic writing systems exist?
(a) 3
(b) 25
(c) 1
(d) 10

14. Where did technology grow the fastest according to Diamond?
(a) In nomadic societies
(b) In isolated areas with small populations
(c) In areas where food production was just beginning
(d) In large productive regions with large human populations

15. There has been some discussion of how Diamond's work might apply where?
(a) Preschool education
(b) The economic system
(c) The retail industry
(d) The corporate world

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did Australians not develop writing, more complex technologies, or more complex societies?

2. The Miao-Yao family of language is spoken where?

3. Which region had many of the same advantages as Eurasia?

4. What are the smallest societies known as?

5. Diamond argues that a science of what should be developed?

(see the answer keys)

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