Deck 1: The Ancient World, From Human Origins to 500 C.E

Question 1

The biological family that includes modern humans and their human ancestors is called

A) humanoid
B) primate
C) homo sapiens
D) hominid

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which three main physical traits came to distinguish humans from apes and other primates?

A) upright walking, flexible hands, and communication through speech
B) flexible hands, tool making, and upright walking
C) opposable thumbs, tool making, and communication through speech
D) upright walking, monogamous mating pairs, and communication through speech

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Upright walking among human ancestors created a need for

A) communication through speech
B) flexible hands
C) tools to hunt
D) food that was easier to digest

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Hominins are distinguished from earlier hominids by

A) the ability to communicate through speech
B) their long arms
C) their much larger brains
D) their diet of rough plant material

Question 5

One way Homo sapiens adapted to varying living conditions around the globe was by changing

A) skin color
B) skull shape
C) arm length
D) brain size

Question 6

The migration of human ancestors out of Africa was likely triggered by

A) climate change, social pressures, and lack of food
B) climate change, a desire to follow a particular type of prey, and social pressures
C) social pressures, a desire for exploration, and the ice age
D) a desire to follow a particular type of prey, overcrowding, and a desire for exploration

Question 7

Neanderthals comparatively large teeth allowed them to

A) scare away potential predators
B) properly chew the tough plant material that composed their diet
C) defend their territory from Homo sapiens
D) consume the large amounts of meat they hunted

Question 8

To study the distant human past, scholars rely primarily on

A) tools made of hard stones
B) tools made of bone
C) tools made of wood
D) written records

Question 9

Agriculture spread across the globe over the course of

A) several years
B) a few decades
C) hundreds of years
D) many millennia

Question 10

Hand axes were developed first in

A) Europe
B) Africa
C) Asia
D) the Americas

Question 11

Before Homo sapiens, early humans were

A) great hunters
B) vegetarians
C) mostly scavengers when it came to obtaining meat
D) carnivores

Question 12

Based on observations of modern hunter-gatherers, world historians increasingly place __________ at the center of the Paleolithic economy.

A) senior members of the community
B) children
C) women
D) men

Question 13

The ability of Homo erectus to light fires is shown by _________ in the Zhoukoudian cave in northern China.

A) ash layers
B) scorched walls
C) burned bones
D) fire pits

Question 14

Starting 100,000 years ago, _____________ began to bury their dead.

A) Homo sapiens
B) Homo erectus
C) hominids
D) Neanderthals

Question 15

The oldest purposefully decorated object ever found dates to

A) 80,000 years ago
B) 65,000 years ago
C) 40,000 years ago
D) 25,000 years ago

Question 16

The Neolithic period marks the era when

A) humans shifted to a fully agricultural livelihood
B) humans migrated from Africa
C) humans mastered fire
D) humans developed tools

Question 17

Humans exerted evolutionary pressure on the natural world

A) only once deliberate farming developed
B) after deliberate farming was widespread
C) only through the domestication of animals
D) even before deliberate farming began

Question 18

Humans started to farm because

A) the end of the last ice age brought drier conditions to Southwest Asia, drastically reducing wild food supplies
B) of human behavioral changes
C) desire to stay longer in one place
D) Scholars are uncertain why farming began

Question 19

Agricultural life was much _________ than foraging.

A) less permanent
B) less time consuming
C) easier
D) harder

Question 20

The evolution of houses from round or oval to a rectangular shape allowed for

A) the creation of rooms with specialized functions
B) larger families
C) better protection from the elements
D) more permanent dwellings

Question 21

A vital innovation made possible by agriculture was

A) pottery
B) stone tools
C) textiles
D) jewelry

Question 22

The advent of agriculture seems to have gone hand in hand with the development of

A) writing
B) patriarchy
C) social structure
D) transportation

Question 23

In Neolithic farming communities, the primary social unit was

A) the nomadic band
B) single families comprising several generations
C) the nuclear family
D) the village

Question 24

Australian Aborigines did not practice agriculture because

A) they did not know how
B) they realized foraging was more suitable for their environment
C) the dry climate did not permit it
D) Australian plants were not suitable for domestication

Question 25

One consequence of the end of the ice age was

A) a widening of the distance between Australia and adjacent islands
B) a wetter climate
C) increased migration to Australia
D) the extinction of many of the food source Aborigines had relied on

Question 26

Before Europeans' arrival in 1788, Australia was

A) fully isolated
B) in regular contact with people from South America
C) visited by inhabitants of nearby islands with agriculture
D) visited by foragers who inhabited nearby islands

Question 27

Because of the climate and soil conditions, farming in Australia is

A) relatively easy
B) labor intensive
C) impossible
D) only possible on industrial scale

Question 28

James Cook wrote that he believed that the Australian Aborigines were

A) lazy
B) happier than Europeans
C) wretched
D) in great need of help

Question 29

In collecting food, Australian Aborigines divided labor by gender, with

A) men hunting animals and women collecting plants
B) women responsible for meat and men for plants
C) women gathering plants and small animals and men hunting large animals
D) men fishing and women gathering plants

Question 30

The fact that Aborigines burned shrubs shows that

A) they manipulated the environment to increase the foodstuff available in the wild
B) they lacked the ability to control fire
C) they lacked awareness of the growth patterns of the plants around them
D) they understood the role fertilization played in agriculture