,
,
,
, 6. Divisions between rich and poor, elites and common people, that have been a central
feature of human society since the Neolithic era.
7. A style of life in which people gain food by gathering plant products, trapping or
catching small animals and birds, and hunting larger prey.
8. Idea that people, animals, plants, natural occurrences, and other parts of the physical
world have spirits.
9. Differentiation of tasks by gender, age, training, status, or other social distinction.
10. Social system in which men have more power and access to resources than women and
some men are dominant over other men.
11. Group of Homo erectus with brains as large as those of modern humans that flourished
in Europe and western Asia between 150,000 and 30,000 years ago.
12. Crop raising done with hand tools and human power.
13. An economic system based on herding flocks of goats, sheep, cattle, or other animals.
14. Plants and animals modified by selective breeding so as to serve human needs; these
animals will behave in specific ways and breed in captivity.
15. Spiritually adept men and women who communicated with the unseen world.
Page 2
,Answer Key
1. g. Paleolithic era
2. h. Agricultural Revolution
3. i. Neolithic era
4. j. hominids
5. l. megafaunal extinction
6. e. social hierarchies
7. g. foraging
8. d. animism
9. c. division of labor
10. f. patriarchy
11. b. Neanderthals
12. k. horticulture
13. a. pastoralism
14. m. domesticated
15. h. shamans
Page 3
,Chapter 01_MCQ,s
Choose the letter of the best answer.
1. How is the term species generally defined?
A) A group of organisms that can communicate with one another
B) A group of organisms that will share food with one another
C) A group of organisms that can mate and produce fertile offspring of both sexes
D) A group of organisms that originate from a different ancestor
2. During which of the following periods did the ancestor common to both chimpanzees
and humans probably live?
A) 3 to 5 million years ago
B) 5 to 7 million years ago
C) 10 to 12 million years ago
D) 12 to 14 million years ago
3. Scientists used which of the following to label the first periods of human history?
A) The material used for tools
B) The height of the human form
C) Language ability and skill level
D) The location of human settlements
4. Although the date varies by location, when did the shift to agriculture first occur?
A) 3000 B.C.E.
B) 15,000 B.C.E.
C) 9000 B.C.E.
D) 1000 B.C.E.
5. What term is used for the first fully bipedal hominid known to paleontologists?
A) Ardipithecus
B) Homo habilis
C) Australopithecus
D) Homo sapiens
Page 1
, 6. Where have the majority of Australopithecus skeletal remains been found?
A) The Sahara Desert
B) The Great Rift Valley
C) Jericho Valley
D) The Island of Java
7. How did Homo erectus differ from modern humans?
A) Homo erectus had a slightly smaller brain size than modern humans.
B) Homo erectus had no capacity for making and using tools.
C) Homo erectus lived in larger groups than modern humans.
D) Homo erectus shared food preparations and gathering.
8. How Homo erectus migrate from China about 1.5 million years ago to settle on Java?
A) By sailing woven grass boats
B) By walking over land
C) By floating on planks
D) By paddling canoes
9. Where did Homo sapiens first evolve?
A) The Black Sea region
B) The Nile Valley
C) China
D) East Africa
10. Why were better social skills especially important for early human females?
A) They needed help with food gathering.
B) They needed help with home building.
C) They needed help attracting a mate.
D) They needed help with child rearing.
11. Which of the following skills did Homo sapiens acquire around 25,000 years ago?
A) The capacity to weave cloth
B) The capacity to make tools from stone
C) The capacity to domesticate sheep
D) The capacity to use fire for warmth
Page 2
,12. Which of the following is evidence that Neanderthals understood death to have a
symbolic meaning?
A) They drew pictures of the dead on walls.
B) They buried the dead with symbolic objects.
C) They wrote stories about the meaning of death.
D) They built large funerary monuments.
13. The Neanderthals of Europe were a branch of what hominid group?
A) Homo sapiens
B) Homo habilis
C) Australopithecus
D) Homo erectus
14. Between 1 and 4 percent of the DNA in modern humans is shared with what early
hominid?
A) Homo sapiens
B) Cro-Magnon
C) Neanderthals
D) Australopithecus
15. Which of the following allowed Homo sapiens to migrate to Australia and New Guinea?
A) Simple rafts
B) Land bridges
C) Large boats
D) Swimming
16. What was one of the results of endogamy?
A) An increase in fertility
B) A lack of diversity of languages
C) The inability of Homo sapiens to mate with one another
D) Differences in physical features and spoken language
17. The term forager is now used by historians instead of what traditional term?
A) Hunter-gatherer
B) Stone-age man
C) Caveman
D) First people
Page 3
, 18. Which of the following foods dominated the diet of Paleolithic foragers?
A) Trapped animals
B) Fish
C) Hunted animals
D) Plants
19. Paleolithic humans may have encouraged the growth of new plants by doing what?
A) Planting seeds
B) Hunting large game
C) Harvesting crops
D) Setting fires
20. How many hours a week did early foragers generally spend gathering food?
A) One to three hours
B) Forty hours
C) Fifty hours or more
D) Ten to twenty hours
21. Which of the following is true of Paleolithic mating patterns?
A) Most Paleolithic humans sought mates from outside their kinship groups.
B) Mates were usually selected from within the same kinship group.
C) Most mates were purchased from a distant tribal group.
D) Mates were generally people taken captive in conflict.
22. The burial sites of Paleolithic humans reveal that they believed that all things and
natural occurrences had which of the following?
A) Meaning
B) Economic value
C) Danger
D) Spirits
23. What did Paleolithic peoples believe about dead members of their kinship groups?
A) That the dead were gone forever
B) That deceased family members were still with them
C) That the dead became new gods
D) That the dead would return one day
Page 4
,
,
, 6. Divisions between rich and poor, elites and common people, that have been a central
feature of human society since the Neolithic era.
7. A style of life in which people gain food by gathering plant products, trapping or
catching small animals and birds, and hunting larger prey.
8. Idea that people, animals, plants, natural occurrences, and other parts of the physical
world have spirits.
9. Differentiation of tasks by gender, age, training, status, or other social distinction.
10. Social system in which men have more power and access to resources than women and
some men are dominant over other men.
11. Group of Homo erectus with brains as large as those of modern humans that flourished
in Europe and western Asia between 150,000 and 30,000 years ago.
12. Crop raising done with hand tools and human power.
13. An economic system based on herding flocks of goats, sheep, cattle, or other animals.
14. Plants and animals modified by selective breeding so as to serve human needs; these
animals will behave in specific ways and breed in captivity.
15. Spiritually adept men and women who communicated with the unseen world.
Page 2
,Answer Key
1. g. Paleolithic era
2. h. Agricultural Revolution
3. i. Neolithic era
4. j. hominids
5. l. megafaunal extinction
6. e. social hierarchies
7. g. foraging
8. d. animism
9. c. division of labor
10. f. patriarchy
11. b. Neanderthals
12. k. horticulture
13. a. pastoralism
14. m. domesticated
15. h. shamans
Page 3
,Chapter 01_MCQ,s
Choose the letter of the best answer.
1. How is the term species generally defined?
A) A group of organisms that can communicate with one another
B) A group of organisms that will share food with one another
C) A group of organisms that can mate and produce fertile offspring of both sexes
D) A group of organisms that originate from a different ancestor
2. During which of the following periods did the ancestor common to both chimpanzees
and humans probably live?
A) 3 to 5 million years ago
B) 5 to 7 million years ago
C) 10 to 12 million years ago
D) 12 to 14 million years ago
3. Scientists used which of the following to label the first periods of human history?
A) The material used for tools
B) The height of the human form
C) Language ability and skill level
D) The location of human settlements
4. Although the date varies by location, when did the shift to agriculture first occur?
A) 3000 B.C.E.
B) 15,000 B.C.E.
C) 9000 B.C.E.
D) 1000 B.C.E.
5. What term is used for the first fully bipedal hominid known to paleontologists?
A) Ardipithecus
B) Homo habilis
C) Australopithecus
D) Homo sapiens
Page 1
, 6. Where have the majority of Australopithecus skeletal remains been found?
A) The Sahara Desert
B) The Great Rift Valley
C) Jericho Valley
D) The Island of Java
7. How did Homo erectus differ from modern humans?
A) Homo erectus had a slightly smaller brain size than modern humans.
B) Homo erectus had no capacity for making and using tools.
C) Homo erectus lived in larger groups than modern humans.
D) Homo erectus shared food preparations and gathering.
8. How Homo erectus migrate from China about 1.5 million years ago to settle on Java?
A) By sailing woven grass boats
B) By walking over land
C) By floating on planks
D) By paddling canoes
9. Where did Homo sapiens first evolve?
A) The Black Sea region
B) The Nile Valley
C) China
D) East Africa
10. Why were better social skills especially important for early human females?
A) They needed help with food gathering.
B) They needed help with home building.
C) They needed help attracting a mate.
D) They needed help with child rearing.
11. Which of the following skills did Homo sapiens acquire around 25,000 years ago?
A) The capacity to weave cloth
B) The capacity to make tools from stone
C) The capacity to domesticate sheep
D) The capacity to use fire for warmth
Page 2
,12. Which of the following is evidence that Neanderthals understood death to have a
symbolic meaning?
A) They drew pictures of the dead on walls.
B) They buried the dead with symbolic objects.
C) They wrote stories about the meaning of death.
D) They built large funerary monuments.
13. The Neanderthals of Europe were a branch of what hominid group?
A) Homo sapiens
B) Homo habilis
C) Australopithecus
D) Homo erectus
14. Between 1 and 4 percent of the DNA in modern humans is shared with what early
hominid?
A) Homo sapiens
B) Cro-Magnon
C) Neanderthals
D) Australopithecus
15. Which of the following allowed Homo sapiens to migrate to Australia and New Guinea?
A) Simple rafts
B) Land bridges
C) Large boats
D) Swimming
16. What was one of the results of endogamy?
A) An increase in fertility
B) A lack of diversity of languages
C) The inability of Homo sapiens to mate with one another
D) Differences in physical features and spoken language
17. The term forager is now used by historians instead of what traditional term?
A) Hunter-gatherer
B) Stone-age man
C) Caveman
D) First people
Page 3
, 18. Which of the following foods dominated the diet of Paleolithic foragers?
A) Trapped animals
B) Fish
C) Hunted animals
D) Plants
19. Paleolithic humans may have encouraged the growth of new plants by doing what?
A) Planting seeds
B) Hunting large game
C) Harvesting crops
D) Setting fires
20. How many hours a week did early foragers generally spend gathering food?
A) One to three hours
B) Forty hours
C) Fifty hours or more
D) Ten to twenty hours
21. Which of the following is true of Paleolithic mating patterns?
A) Most Paleolithic humans sought mates from outside their kinship groups.
B) Mates were usually selected from within the same kinship group.
C) Most mates were purchased from a distant tribal group.
D) Mates were generally people taken captive in conflict.
22. The burial sites of Paleolithic humans reveal that they believed that all things and
natural occurrences had which of the following?
A) Meaning
B) Economic value
C) Danger
D) Spirits
23. What did Paleolithic peoples believe about dead members of their kinship groups?
A) That the dead were gone forever
B) That deceased family members were still with them
C) That the dead became new gods
D) That the dead would return one day
Page 4
