Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-book review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Which human quality is it most reasonable to say Harari sees as responsible for humanity’s domination of the planet?

A) Intelligence

B) Aggression

C) Emotion

D) Creativity

2. Which most clearly expresses Harari’s view of humanity’s success?

A) Human domination of the planet is the goal of evolution and natural selection.

B) Human domination of the planet is a fleeting evolutionary phenomenon that will inevitably end.

C) Human domination of the planet has created devastating consequences for other species.

D) Human domination of the planet demonstrates that evolution is inevitable.

3. Which of the following statements would Harari be most likely to agree with?

A) The Cognitive Revolution was the cause of the Agricultural Revolution.

B) The Agricultural Revolution would not have been possible without the Cognitive Revolution.

C) The Scientific Revolution is the inevitable outcome of the Agricultural Revolution.

D) The Scientific Revolution made the Agricultural Revolution obsolete.

4. Which of the following statements would Harari be most likely to agree with?

A) The Cognitive Revolution and the Scientific Revolution had only positive impacts on human quality of life.

B) The Cognitive Revolution and the Agricultural Revolution both created serious negative impacts on human quality of life.

C) The Agricultural Revolution and the Cognitive Revolution both had mixed impacts on human quality of life.

D) The Agricultural Revolution and the Scientific Revolution both had mixed impacts on human quality of life.

5. Which of the following does Harari point to as an outcome of the Agricultural Revolution?

A) Social hierarchies

B) Specialized occupations

C) Global exploration

D) Imagined realities

6. Which of the following statements would Harari be most likely to agree with?

A) Capitalism is an unnecessary source of inequality in modern societies.

B) Large, successful societies inherently contain inequality among members.

C) Inequality is a byproduct of the Agricultural Revolution and was reduced during the Scientific Revolution.

D) Human inequality is a consequence of genetic evolution.

7. What does Harari see as the fundamental purpose of imagined realities?

A) They promote equality and happiness.

B) They eliminate chaos from social systems.

C) They eliminate instability in social institutions.

D) They promote cooperation and prosperity.

8. How does Harari view cultural change?

A) It is the main source of human unhappiness.

B) It trends toward greater equality and freedom.

C) It may happen quickly or slowly, but it is inevitable.

D) It goes hand-in-hand with genetic change.

9. Which of the following is the best example of the kind of “shared fiction” that Harari talks about in Sapiens?

A) Agriculture

B) Language

C) Capitalism

D) Exploration

10. Which of the following best characterizes Harari’s perspective on evolution?

A) Evolution is a blind process without any goal or purpose.

B) Evolution is “moral” in the sense that it tends to increase human fitness.

C) Evolution seeks to perpetuate desirable characteristics and eliminate undesirable characteristics.

D) Evolution, over time, causes superior organisms to dominate the planet.

11. What relationship does Harari propose between happiness and shared fictions?

A) As shared fictions evolve over time, they tend to fit better to the environment, creating greater human happiness.

B) Shared fictions create a set of expectations that are equally met for all participants, contributing greatly to happiness.

C) When shared fictions are stable, people tend to be happier, but rapidly changing shared fictions decrease happiness.

D) Shared fictions determine where people find meaning, allowing people to be happy in widely varying social conditions.

12. Which best describes Harari’s attitude toward human institutions like religions, politics, and economic systems?

A) Idealistic

B) Pragmatic

C) Pessimistic

D) Cynical

13. Which of the following would Harari most likely agree may soon become ineffectual for human beings?

A) Cultural evolution

B) Shared fictions

C) Selective breeding

D) Natural selection

14. According to Harari, which of the following most accurately conveys the way human life has improved from the time of the Cognitive Revolution through to modern times?

A) It has consistently required less work.

B) It has grown consistently safer.

C) It has consistently supported larger populations.

D) It has grown consistently more egalitarian.

15. Which of the following statements best characterizes Harari’s interpretation of cultural change over time?

A) The environment in which we live is too chaotic and inconsistent to allow for culture to change in a steady direction, and cultural change is simply a response to this ever-changing environment.

B) The human ability to create imagined realities extends to our ability to shape culture to deliberately increase human happiness over time.

C) Despite elements of chaos and inconsistency, human culture progresses and develops in ways that mirror evolutionary change, tending to increase fitness over time.

D) Ideas like “progress” and “development” are illusions, created by the human tendency to seek patterns in the world, and cultural change does not have purpose or direction.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. What evolutionary paradox related to human intelligence does Harari explore in his discussions regarding imagined realities, changes in society, and our ability to adapt to these changes?

2. How would Harari contrast the kinds of changes that physical and cultural evolution have created in our species in the past with the kinds of changes that he predicts might be a part of our species’ future?