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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When was Diamond's work first published?
(a) 1980
(b) 1987
(c) 1997
(d) 1956

2. Larger populations created the need for which of the following?
(a) Decentralized food production
(b) A writing system beyond the alphabet
(c) A more complex, centralized government
(d) More nomadic populations who wouldn't compete for resources

3. The Miao-Yao family of language is spoken where?
(a) Only in China's large cities
(b) Small enclaves from South China to Thailand
(c) In large cities from Thailand to Myanmar
(d) In Mongolia

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

5. Who introduced pottery, chickens, dogs, and pigs to New Guinea?
(a) Native Americans
(b) Indians
(c) Austronesians
(d) Europeans

6. What is an discussion that has arisen since Diamond's work was first published?
(a) Why the Americas were conquered
(b) Why Europe didn't expand and conquer
(c) Why China didn't expand and conquer
(d) Why the differences are best explained by intelligence

7. Who had an advantage over many of the African societies?
(a) Pygmies
(b) Congolese
(c) Bantu
(d) Khoisans

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

9. Governments that distribute wealth from commoners to the upper classes are known as what?
(a) Kleptocracies
(b) Oligarchies
(c) Democracies
(d) Monarchies

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

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

12. What gave Europeans an advantage in information about the groups they encountered?
(a) Domesticated mammals
(b) Speaking many different languages
(c) Writing
(d) Spies in other countries

13. What invention sped up the spread of plants and technologies in Polynesia?
(a) Wagons
(b) "Outrigger" canoes
(c) Wheels
(d) Yachts

14. Diamond argues that China is which of the following?
(a) More diverse than we tend to think
(b) Very homogeneous
(c) Less populous than Australia
(d) Racially inferior to Europeans

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Recent research shows that modern Japanese people resulted from an agricultural expansion from where?

2. What is necessary for a disease to become an epidemic?

3. Recent research shows that crops from Mexico spread into eastern North America via an indirect route through where?

4. What was early writing used for primarily?

5. What is a stone tool or implement that an individual used to pound the fibrous bark of some trees into material that could be used for ropes, nets, and clothing?

(see the answer keys)

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