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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What are the smallest societies known as?
(a) States
(b) Tribes
(c) Bands
(d) Chiefdoms

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

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

5. The main killers in Africa and the Americas came from where?
(a) Polynesia
(b) Australia
(c) Eurasia
(d) Greenland

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

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

8. Which of the following is not a major infectious disease?
(a) Smallpox
(b) Influenza
(c) Cancer
(d) Malaria

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

10. Why did Australians not develop writing, more complex technologies, or more complex societies?
(a) Australia was isolated from other societies.
(b) The groups in Australia were very cohesive.
(c) They had a larger population than other continents.
(d) Australia communicated frequently with others who had these technologies.

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

12. Which region had many of the same advantages as Eurasia?
(a) China
(b) Australia
(c) North America
(d) Chile

13. What did not help the spread of the Austronesian culture?
(a) Better watercraft
(b) Superior tools and weapons
(c) The lack of epidemics
(d) Denser populations

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

15. Africa is home to how many major human groups?
(a) 5
(b) 2
(c) 25
(d) 10

Short Answer Questions

1. Where did writing develop?

2. Why is food production important for inventions?

3. Where did technology grow the fastest according to Diamond?

4. China has how many "big" languages?

5. What was the source of power in New Guinea when food production arose?

(see the answer keys)

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