Big History Between Nothing and Everything 1St Edition By david Christian – Test Bank
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Sample Test
Chapter 03: TheEmergenceof Life
True/False
1. Onebasic
characteristic of living matter is that it is in chemical equilibrium; that is,
it is in a stable, balancedcondition with reciprocal reactions going on.
Answer: False
Page: 56
Explanation: Onebasic characteristic of living matter is that
chemically it isnot in equilibrium; that is, it is not in a stable,
balancedcondition with reciprocal reactions going on.Instead, in living cells
energy flows take place as membranes let somechemicals in and keep others out.
2. One
of the central tenets of Charles Darwin’s theory was that some variants prove
to be better adapted to, or fitter for, their particular environment; hence,
they get more resources and have more offspring.
Answer: True
Page: 59
Explanation: One of the central tenets of Charles Darwin’s
theory was that some variants prove to be better adapted to, or fitter for,
their particular environment; hence, they get more resources and have more
offspring.
3. The
idea of spontaneous generation posited that new life could emerge suddenly from
the decayed remnants of old life.
Answer: True
Page: 64
Explanation: Even up to the mid-nineteenth century, naturalists
clung to an old idea called spontaneous generation. It posited that new life
could emerge suddenly and spontaneously from the decayed remnants of old life.
4. The
simplest living cell, without a nucleus, is called a eukaryote.
Answer: False
Page: 65
Explanation: The simplest living cell is called a prokaryote
(pro-CARRY-oat), which means a cell without a nucleus.
5. Nearly
half of all fossils found in the world are those of dinosaurs.
Answer: False
Page: 72
Explanation: Nearly half of all fossils found in the world are
those oftrilobites, an early group of invertebrates widespread some500 million
years ago. They appear suddenly in the fossilrecord with no trace of earlier
forms and disappear ina mass extinction of 75 to 95 percent of species that
occurred about 242 million years ago. Modern lobsters and horseshoe crabs
areamong their descendants.
Multiple Choice
1. Which
of the following statements best defines the commonly accepted attribute of
life known as metabolism?
2. It
uses energy from the environment by eating or breathing or photosynthesizing.
3. It
makes copies of itself.
4. It
changes its characteristics to fit better to its changing environment.
5. It is
in equilibrium, that is, it is a stable, balanced condition with no reciprocal
reactions.
Answer: A
Page: 56
Explanation: Thethree main branches are Bacteria, Archaea, and
Eukaryota.(Bacteria and Archaea are each a group of single-celled
microorganismswithout a nucleus, but with different genesand enzymes. The first
Eukaryota were single-celled microorganisms,but with a nucleus and more complex
chemistrythan the other two groups.)
2. Thethree
main branches of the tree of life are:
3. Protists,
Prokaryota, and Eukaryota.
4. Protists,
Monera, and Eukaryota.
5. Bacteria,
Archaea, and Eukaryota.
6. Bacteria,
Protists, and Archaea.
Answer: C
Page: 57
Explanation: Thethree main branches are Bacteria, Archaea, and
Eukaryota.(Bacteria and Archaea are each a group of single-celled
microorganismswithout a nucleus, but with different genesand enzymes. The first
Eukaryota were single-celled microorganisms,but with a nucleus and more complex
chemistrythan the other two groups.)
3. Animals
may come to resemble each other, not becausethey are related genetically, but
because they evolvesimilar equipment in response to a similar environment,
which may be in unconnected regions or at widely different times. This process
is known as _____.
4. convergent
evolution
5. homologous
progression
6. natural
selection
7. geographic
convergence
Answer: A
Page: 61
Explanation: Darwin was aware of another kind of similarity of
form,which he called convergent evolution, or the acquisitionof the same
biological trait in unrelated lineages. This occurswhen animals come to
resemble each other, not becausethey are related genetically, but because they
evolvesimilar equipment in response to a similar environment,which may be in
unconnected regions or at widely different times.
4.Early cyanobacteria spread across shallow areas ofwater to
form mats, large colonies of bacteria up to half ayard or meter tall, called
_____.
1. plankton
2. lichens
3. aragonites
4. stromatolites
Answer: D
Page: 69
Explanation: Early cyanobacteria spread across shallow areas
ofwater to form mats, large colonies of bacteria up to half ayard or meter
tall, called stromatolites. The surface of thesemats trapped fine particles of
sand or mud, while deep inthe mat the bacteria consumed dead cells, causing
carbonatecrystals to form, resulting in accretions of limestone.
5. During
the stage of dinosaurs and mammals, _____ were mammalsthat couldnourish their
offspring internally in theirmother’s womb until they were large enough to
survivewithout a pouch.
6. Monotremes
7. Marsupials
8. Placentals
9. Multituberculates
Answer: C
Page: 74
Explanation: The placentals were mammals which could nourish
their offspring internally in theirmother’s womb until they were large enough
to survivewithout a pouch. The oldest known fossil of a placentalmammal is
Eomaiascansoria, found near Beijing, datedabout 125 million years ago. The
nearest modern relativeis probably a tree shrew; modern humans are
placentalmammals.
Essay
1. List
the three kinds of evidence on which Darwin’s theory of natural selection
rested andexplain how they helped him advance his argument.
Darwin’s theory of natural selection rested on threekinds of
evidence: (1) fossils, which showed that specieshave changed; (2) geographic
distribution, like the datahe collected on the Galapagos Islands, which showed
thatspecies are descended from local ancestors, not productsof deliberate
engineering by a creator; and on (3) homologies,or unexpected similarities
between species. Each ofthese forms of evidence provided an argument in the
debateDarwin was conducting with his opponents, who supportedthe idea of a
creator God who designed each speciesindividually.
1. Fossils:
By the early nineteenthcentury biologists in Europe realized that
fossilsrepresented earlier forms of life. Darwin knew the principleof faunal
(animal) succession, named by an Englishcanal engineer, William Smith
(1769–1839), who noticedthat rocks of different ages preserve different
assemblagesof fossils and that these assemblages succeeded each otherin regular
order. Smith could not explain this, but Darwinused this evidence to support his
theory of natural selection, which explains the findings: As organisms
evolve,change, and go extinct, they leave behind fossils in layersrepresenting
time elapsed. This demonstration proves thatorganisms change over time, rather
than being created in aform that does not change.
In Darwin’s day, the fossil record was tantalizingly
incomplete;today some fossil lineages are remarkably complete,such as that from
the ancestral horse to the modernhorse or that from the land-living ancestors
of whales totheir aquatic descendants. Darwin explained that not finding
transitionalspecies must be expected, since fossilizationof any organism is
extremelyrare. Organisms decomposequickly after death, and to becomefossils
they must be covered in sediment,frozen, dried out, or depositedin an
oxygen-free environment, assoon as possible. Only those organisms with hard
bodyparts and with wide territories could have a chance to berecorded as
fossils.
Two years after the publication of The Origin of Species,an
important fossil was discovered in southern Germany—the skeleton of a creature
called Archaeopteryx. Withfeatures intermediate between living birds and
ancient reptiles,it seemed a kind of missing link, although this termis now
considered outmoded and has been replaced by theterm intermediate form. About
the size of a crow, Archaeopteryxhad birdlike feathers, wings, and large eyes,
withreptilian teeth, clawed hands, and a long tail. This fossil confirmed
Darwin’s theory in the strongest possibleway, showing that reptiles and birds
shared a commonancestor. Several more of these fossils have since been found.
Fossils of feathered dinosaurs have also been found,mostly in China.
2. Geographic
Distribution: In considering the geographicdistribution of plants and animals,
Darwin observedthat climate and environment alone do not accountfor similarity
or dissimilarity of inhabitants. For example,Australia, South America, and
South Africa between latitudes25 and 35 degrees all contain similar conditions
bututterly dissimilar plants and animals. From this and otherobservations
Darwin concluded that each species is producedin one area and then migrates
from out of that areaas far as it can adapt to conditions.
3. Homologies:
Homologies are similarities of form seenin plants and animals. In evolutionary
biology, homologyhas come to mean any similarity that is due to shared
ancestry.For instance, cats, whales, bats, and humans all have fingers,
suggesting that these species are all related despitethe huge differences.
Unexpected similarities between species at the level of embryos
are even more astonishing. In its early stages, a human embryo has traits found
in fish, amphibians, and reptiles before developing its mammalian
characteristics.Darwin explained that adaptive modifications generally
areproduced in later stages of growth, leaving the early patternof development
unchanged and revealing the naturalrelationships. Since Darwin, biologists have
learned thatthese ancestral structures serve as organizers in the ensuingsteps
of development.
Page: 60-61
2. Differentiate
between eukaryotes and prokaryotes.
The simplest living cell is called a prokaryote (pro-CARRY-oat),
which means a cell without a nucleus. Even though it has no nucleus, a
prokaryote is already highly complex. A membrane encloses all of its contents
and regulates molecular traffic in and out. The content of the cell, except for
the genetic material, is called cytoplasm; it is made up primarily of proteins,
which are long chains of amino acids folded into a three-dimensional (3-D)
shape. New proteins are constructed at special structures in the cell’s
cytoplasm called ribosomes. In prokaryotes the genetic material, the DNA
molecule, floats around not enclosed in a membrane that would form a nucleus.
2.5 to 1.5 billion years ago, partly as a consequence of
developing respiration, a new kind of cell emerged among the mats of
stromatolites. The earliest evidence for this new kind of cell comes fromabout
1.8 billion years ago. It may have appeared much earlier, but the earlier
history of life is controversial dueto gene transfer among the three domains
and the sheer difficulty of finding evidence. This new cell proved to bea
momentous increase of complexity, and no other cell innovationhas appeared
since.
This new cell, called a eukaryote(you-CARRY-oat),differs from a
prokaryote in various ways. Eukaryotes aremuch larger than prokaryotes, 10 to
1,000 times larger.Their DNA is enclosed in a protective membrane that
constitutesa well-developed nucleus. The cell is large enough The larger cells
apparently ingested the mitochrondria andchloroplasts but did not digest them.
This aspect of eukaryoteswas not understood until biologist Lynn
Margulisproposed it in 1967, strongly indicating that evolution proceedsby
cooperation as well as by competition. Biologistsnow largely accept her idea,
in part because mitochondriacarry their own DNA.
Some eukaryotes are single-celled—for example, diatomsor
microscopic algae. Others are multicellular—forexample, all the eukaryotic
cells in human bodies.
Page: 65, 71
Chapter 05: Origins of Agriculture and the Early Agrarian Era
True/False
1. As
was observed during the agricultural revolution, foragers are good at finding
ways to extract more energy from a given area, a process known as intensification.
Answer: False
Page: 105
Explanation: Foragers are good at finding new energy sources by
spreading into new niches and environments, a process that is termed
extensification. Farmers, on the other hand, find ways to extract more energy from
a given area, a process that is calledintensification.
2. American
archaeologist Peter Richerson contends that intergroup competition subsequent
to the adoption of agriculture during the Holocene more orless forced
communities to adopt farming, leading to its inevitable diffusion.
Answer: True
Page: 108
Explanation: American archaeologist Peter Richerson and his
colleagues believe that the adoption of agriculture during the Holocene not
only became possible but in the long run compulsory.Richerson contends that
subsequent intergroup competition more or less forced communities to adopt
farming, leading to its inevitable diffusion.
3. In
the early Agrarian era people had a clear understanding of the potential
benefits of animal fertilizer for thousands of years, and used irrigation
extensively.
Answer: False
Page: 112
Explanation: In the Early Agrarian era most energy and labor
came from humans, so children became increasingly important as potential farm
laborers. Apparently people had no understandingof the potential benefits of
animal fertilizer for thousands of years, until the so-called secondary
products revolution. For much of the era there was very limited use of
irrigation.
4. Basic
anthropological theory states that the largerthe group, the more explicitly
power and authority will beexercised.
Answer: True
Page: 115
Explanation: Basic anthropological theory states that the
largerthe group, the more explicitly power and authority will beexercised; and
gradually throughout the Early Agrarianera, the egalitarianism of Paleolithic
kinship groups was replacedby steep hierarchies of wealth and power,
evidencedby burials around the world with great differences in theabundance and
value of burial goods.
5. As
humans moved from nomadic foraging to sedentary farming during the early
Agrarian era, farmers did not farm and graze fertile soils adequately and did
not sufficiently rely on irrigation.
Answer: False
Page: 123
Explanation: Without any intention or perhaps even awareness of
doing so, early farmers often pursued unsustainable agricultural practices.
These included the overfarming and overgrazing of poorsoils (which led to
desertification); excessive dependence on irrigation (which led to
salinization); and widespread forest and jungle clearing (which led to serious
erosion problems).
Multiple Choice
1. Which
of the following statements is true of the emergence of agriculture from
foraging?
2. Foragers
unequivocally viewed agriculture as a more attractive lifeway.
3. Farmers
replaced the process of extensification with the process of intensification.
4. The
advent of agriculture was a rapid process and an abrupt break from foraging.
5. For a
long time, foraging persistedin close proximity toearly farming communities.
Answer: D
Page: 107
Explanation: Archaeology indicates that foragers did not
alwayssee agriculture as a more attractive lifeway. Foraging persistedfor
centuries or even millennia in close proximity toearly farming communities.
2. Hunter-gathering
was a much better survival strategy forhuman communities in the Pleistocene
because:
3. the
variety in plant species was diminishing.
4. climactic
conditions became warmer and more stable.
5. animal
migration paths were often altered.
6. large
steppe species like mammoths and bison were displaced.
Answer: C
Page: 107
Explanation: With animal migration paths so often altered,and
with different plant species emerging and disappearing,hunter-gathering was a
much better survival strategy forhuman communities in the Pleistocene.
3. _____ resembles
the sort of market gardening that many subsistence and community gardeners
continued to pursue in the twentieth century.
4. Jungle
clearing
5. Horticulture
6. Desertification
7. Salinization
Answer: B
Page: 112
Explanation: Horticulture resembles the sort of market gardening
that many subsistence and community gardeners continued to pursue in the
twentieth century. It used traditional techniques and implements such as stone
axes hafted onto wooden handles for clearing the land; foot plows and hoes for
planting; bone or stone sickles hafted onto wooden handles for harvesting; and
stones for grinding grain.
4. _____
means growing crops on human-made floating fields of timber and soil, anchored
in the middle of lakes.
5. Swidden
agriculture
6. Domestication
7. Chinampa
agriculture
8. Extensification
Answer: C
Page: 113
Explanation: Chinampa agriculture, devised by
Mesoamericanfarmers, means growing crops on human-made floatingfields of timber
and soil, anchored in the middle of lakes.The use of chinampa agriculture is
associatedwith Aztec urbanization.
5. Which
of the following accurately describes bottom-up power?
6. Power
based on autonomy
7. Power
based on consent
8. Power
based on force
9. Power
based on coercion
Answer: B
Page: 121
Explanation: In bottom-up power, the focus is on notions of consent,
on theidea that power initially comes from below. The processidentified with
bottom-up power is that people living inlarger and more complex societies
eventually wanted orneeded some mechanism of coordinated management, sothey
agreed to obey rulers.
Essay
1. Discuss
what archeology has revealed about gender relations in Early Agrarian era
communities.
Archaeology has revealed something about genderrelations in
Early Agrarian era communities, but this evidenceis ambiguous and provides at
best only a partialanswer to the question of what impact agriculture and
theemergence of sedentary village life had on the status ofwomen. This
transition clearly changed the relative positionsof men and women, but there is
no standard modelas to exactly how the change was manifested. Part of
theproblem is that it is often difficult to isolate male from femaleremains in
the archaeological record, and many of theartifacts discovered do not
explicitly show that they wereused exclusively by either sex. Anthropologists
and genderhistorians often try to reconstruct what might have beengoing on
during this transition by making comparisonswith modern-day early farming
societies. One assumption,for example, is that because men generally make the
stonetools used by twentieth-century horticultural societies,they probably did
so in the Early Agrarian era as well, butthis is hardly conclusive.
Studies of San foragers in southern Africa led someresearchers
to argue that sedentism reduced the status ofwomen. Nomadic groups tended to be
more egalitarian,with men’s and women’s roles equally important for
groupsurvival. Sedentism changed all this, the argument suggests, by confining
women to the relative isolation of thehome and freeing up men to play more
public roles, includingcattle herding and “politics.” Eventually this
transitionmeant that certain women’s jobs were designated as being of lower
status, including drawing water from the well andother household chores.
Another interpretation of Early Agrarian gender rolesis that
women may have taken the lead in persuading thecommunity to abandon nomadism
and settle down throughactively and intentionally experimenting with plant
cultivation,because survival as a nomadic forager was particularlyhard work for
women. Anthropologists find evidenceto support such a model in observations
ofSudanese affluent foragers. On the otherhand, analysis of skeletons from
AbuHureya in Syria shows that farming wasprobably even more physically
demandingthan foraging for women. Many of thefemale skeletons analyzed had
deformedtoe bones and powerful upper arms, probablyfrom grinding grain all day,
whereasthe male skeletons did not have thesedeformities.
These ambiguous interpretations arecomplicated by evidence
suggesting thatliving standards initially declined in EarlyAgrarian villages
for residents of bothsexes, compared to the lifeways of foragers.This may have
been because farmersrelied on fewer foodstuffs than foragers,so their diets
were less varied and less nutritious,which explains why the remainsof some
early farmers appear physicallyshorter than individuals in neighboringforaging
communities. Famine was areal possibility and constant threat ifstaple crops
failed, and farmers probablyworked harder and longer hours and sufferedhigher
levels of stress (we can tellthis from study of bones) than foragersas they
attempted to stave off the myriadthreats to survival faced by Early
Agrariancommunities. Within these communities, however, it isprobably safe to
say that men’s and women’s roles (and consequently status) were increasingly
clearly defined.
Page: 116-117
2. Why
and how did consensual power emerge in the Early Agrarian era?
As populations grew in the Early Agrarian era, the need
tocoordinate activities must have become more apparent. Asmall community of
just a few families can sort out its ownproblems and coordinate its communal
tasks face-to-face, but a village of several hundred people, let alone a townof
several thousand, can’t do this without leaders of somekind. As farming spread
fromits centers of origin and more and more villages began toappear, some of
them grew large enough to be describedas towns. These towns in turn began to
exert control overthe smaller villages.
What tasks would people in burgeoning agrarian communitiesneed
leaders to take care of? They needed leadersfor defense (to lead them in
conflicts against neighboringcommunities); for religion (to mediate with the
gods, particularlywhen the community was so dependent on successfulharvests);
for legal matters (such as the settling ofdisputes); and for administration
(for example, to maintainincreasingly complex irrigation systems). In other
words, leaders were needed for the first time in human historyto take care of
those tasks that the community could nolonger manage without a coordinating
mechanism. Whichparticular individuals should be selected? What attributesdid
one need to become a leader? The most obvious answerwas individuals who possess
particular talent as a priest orshaman, a warrior or diplomat, or an organizer
of groupprojects. But often the selection seems to have had little todo with
talent and more to do with birth, particularly in theselection of a chief.
The form of government adopted by many EarlyAgrarian villages
was a chiefdom, a complex human society,led by a chief, in which the chief or
an elite noblegroup is selected to make decisions for the community. Asfarmers
got better at their jobs, the community was able toproduce agricultural
surpluses, which freed up the leadersfrom food production and allowed for the
emergence of justsuch an elite group within the community. Generally chiefswere
the oldest sons of the senior lineages within thesecommunities, which still
thought of themselves in terms offamily, so that an accident of birth
determined commonerand noble, and the possible futures open to each.
What remains unclear in this process is how agriculturalsurpluses
began to accumulate in the first place, particularlywhen anthropologists are
able to show that manyfarmers in simple villages today regard the notion of
growingmore than they need to survive as somewhat ridiculous.The need to store
grain to survive through the winter isoften undermined by archaeological
evidence that thesesurpluses were often destroyed by rot or vermin.
An alternative explanation is that chiefs arose by givingaway
surplus food or other goods to create a sense ofobligation from the recipients.
Giftgiving was an essential means of maintaining intergroupharmony in the
Paleolithic, and it remained significantin the Early Agrarian. This opened up a
route to powerthrough the display of extravagant generosity to
potentialsupporters, a method practiced by the so-called Big Menof Polynesian
societies. Generosity (through gift giving)is highly valued in all small-scale
societies. The Big Menused this deeply ingrained sense of reciprocity
engenderedby gift giving to gain power. Modern anthropologicalstudies have
shown how the potential Big Man graduallyaccumulates and stores away
significant resources (pigs,blankets, other valuable or useful objects), then
redistributesthem in times of communal need. The Big Man gainsconsiderable
social leverage through the accumulation ofreciprocal IOUs, until eventually
the beneficiaries of theBig Man’s largesse have no option but to support him.An
Eskimo proverb vividly illustrates this path to power:“Gifts make slaves, as
whips make dogs.”
Page: 122
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