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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. The idea that there is a sharp divide between nomadic hunter-gatherers and sedentary food producers is what?

2. Diamond argues that examining Polynesia helps the reader see what?

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

4. What does Diamond seek to explain in his research?

5. What slows the spread of domesticated plants?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do historical sciences differ from non-historical sciences?

2. The expansion of humans had what effect on the natural world?

3. Why did the developments happen later in the Americas than in Eurasia?

4. Where does Diamond say more research needs to be done?

5. What is surprising about where food production developed early?

6. What is one new piece of information that has come to light since Diamond's work was first published?

7. Why did societies in New Guinea and Australia develop differently?

8. Why did Australia not develop writing or complex societies as early as other groups, according to Diamond?

9. How does the shift to sedentary lifestyles change societies?

10. Why do some scholars argue that Europeans expanded and conquered others but China did not?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why do large mammals matter to Diamond's theory? Why is domestication important? What factors determine which large mammals are suitable to be domesticated?

Essay Topic 2

Why is the axis of a continent important? Use one continent to show how its axis is either an advantage or a disadvantage.

Essay Topic 3

What effect does population growth have on societies? What advantages did societies gain as their population grew?

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