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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When stating that "modern science differs from all previous traditions of knowledge in three major ways" (250), Harari states that one quality of modern science is "its centrality of observation" (251) and its centrality of what other element?
(a) Survival.
(b) Philosophy.
(c) Mathematics.
(d) Logic.

2. What is NOT a point on the Scientific Revolution feedback loop image provided by the author?
(a) Power.
(b) Logic.
(c) Research.
(d) Resources.

3. The first coins in history were created around what year?
(a) 240 BC.
(b) 120 BC.
(c) 1139 BC.
(d) 640 BC.

4. The sum total of banknotes and coins existing in the world, according to Harari, is what?
(a) Less than 6 trillion dollars.
(b) Less than 900 million dollars.
(c) Less than 1 trillion dollars.
(d) Less than 3 billion dollars.

5. What does Harari assert is the key to understanding a particular culture?
(a) Understanding that all cultures embrace internal contradictions.
(b) Understanding that all cultures embrace specific jargon.
(c) Understanding that all cultures embrace a sense of unity.
(d) Understanding that all cultures embrace a form of power structure.

Short Answer Questions

1. Poverty, wars, illness, old age, and death are all listed by the author as "the fruits of our what" (264) as a species?

2. Most scholars of culture have concluded that every culture's "typical beliefs, norms, and values" (163) are what?

3. History's first known money consisted of what material?

4. Who wrote The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy?

5. Empires are noted as "one of the main reasons for the drastic reduction in" (190) what?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Harari claims that "credit was not invented in modern Europe" (315), what does he say about its origin instead?

2. Analyze Harari's discussion of syncretism and its connection to both contradiction and success.

3. How does Harari link the state of the modern economy to his view that quality of life is not guaranteed or predetermined to improve as time passes?

4. What are the two broad features of history that Harari uses to determine why culture developed as it did?

5. What connections does Harari draw among capitalism, modern science, and the emergence of European imperialism?

6. What is Harari's view of capitalism and what are two counterarguments he addresses?

7. What flaw does Harari point out within the philosophies of Postmodernist thinkers?

8. Discuss Harari's treatment of the phenomenon of imperialism.

9. For what purpose does Harari include the painting called Franklin's Experiment within the chapter entitled The Discovery of Ignorance?

10. What is the definition of the term "memetics" (242) and how do most scholars in the humanities feel about it?

(see the answer keys)

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