1. The realization that we are vulnerable and
blindly dependent on technology was suddenly grasped in New York when:
a. Terrorists hijacked airplanes and murdered
thousands
b. An overload relay tripped in a power station
c. A major earthquake cut off all communications
d. A blizzard stranded almost everyone for days
e. A fire almost burnt down the city
2. One of the consequences of this crisis was:
a. Communications at the UN ceased
b. Subways were ground to a halt, trapping passengers
in the dark
c. Dangerous situations occurred in hospital emergency
rooms
d. Chaos ruled at airports as airplanes in flight
needed to land
e. Trick question - all of the above resulted
3. The TRAP that James Burke refers to can best be
summed up as:
a. Technology can grow so large that it becomes more
important than our individual freedoms … then we are ruled by technology
b. If we don't bother to understand the technology
that surrounds us, we eventually become slaves to technology
c. If we don't bother to understand the technology
that surrounds us, we will eventually lose that technology
d. Our lives are so dependent on technology that if we
find ourselves without it, chaos rules because technology provides order in our
society
e. Technology is the root of all evil because it tends
to corrupts us
4. If you are forced to start from scratch, the first
thing you need is:
a. Money and people willing to work for it
b. A plow and know how to use it
c. Weapons to maintain power
d. Books so you can teach future generations what you
learned
e. Boats so you can trade with others
5. About 12,000 years ago in several different places:
a. Got cold and started snowing
b. It got hot and stopped raining
c. Became cloudy and humid
d. Airborne debris from major volcanoes decreased the
amount of sunlight
e. Tropical storms wiped out crops
6. To survive this event, people
a. Moved to the river valleys
b. Dispersed to populate areas formerly inhabited
c. Pooled their resources and consumed much less
d. Created a system of euthanasia
e. Practiced birth control
7. What initially triggered great advances such as
weaving, pottery, and writing?
a. The first universities were established
b. The great insight of philosophers like Aristotle
and Plato
c. A surplus of food
d. Writings found in the Bible and other religious
books
e. The practice of slavery
8. Which of these byproducts of an organized
civilization is NOT mentioned in the video?
a. Domestication of animals
b. Metallurgy
c. Government bureaucrats and taxes
d. Military strategy
e. Geometry, surveying and stonework
9. The Egyptian calendar was created by linking the
flood of the Nile and:
a. The lunar cycle
b. The rising of the star Sirius
c. The flowering of palm trees
d. The migration of birds
e. The height of the sun
10. An example of an accelerated use of technology …
changing a culture profoundly can be found in:
a. China
b. India
c. Kuwait
d. Mexico
e. Indonesia
11. One of the final points (in this video) James
Burke tries to make is:
a. Our technology network is so vast yet we understand
it so little
b. Change in one area can trigger changes in another
area
c. Change can be driven by many different events such
as accident, genius, craftsmanship, geography religion, war, money, and ambition
… and everybody is involved
d. Given similar circumstances and a little reasoning,
great inventions could be credited to just about anyone
e. Great inventions are a result of someone putting
the pieces together in just the right way
f. Trick question - James Burke makes all these
critical points in a very short time
PS: I believe the implication here is that the evolution of technology
proceeds in a logical manner. That is, if we had to start from scratch, we would
eventually end up in a very similar situation we find ourselves today … and once
there, we become trapped into relying on this technological network for
survival. The entire series is extremely interesting so I've placed tapes 1-9 on
reserve in the library at the South Campus.
12. Great civilizations require a sophisticated
system of communication. After Rome fell, communication was still intact because
of:
a. A system of marathon runners
b. The church
c. The Vikings
d. A uniform language
e. An elaborate system of mirrors and an early form of
the Morse code
13. Which of these examples is NOT mentioned as an
application of the water wheel?
a. Power a millstone
b. Trip hammer for bashing metal ore, cloth or leather
c. Trip hammer to operate a suction pump
d. To power a conveyer belt to lift heavy bales of hay
e. To operate a system of bellow pumps (for a furnace)
f. To operate a sawmill
14. Great organizational management systems were first
realized:
a. By monks in monasteries
b. By the first commercial companies like Miners Inc.
and Wine-R-Us
c. Village flea markets
d. Grain traders
e. Maritime spice traders
15. A great economic leap in European society occurred
when Arabs introduced this Chinese invention.
a. Gunpowder
b. The spinning wheel
c. The loom
d. Both a and b
e. Both a and c
f. Both b and c
16. All this prosperity was brought to a screeching
halt by:
a. Freezing winters
b. Rainy summers
c. Bad harvests
d. Famine
e. The Black Death
f. Trick question - all of the above
17. The survivors of this bad time:
a. Put all their money in banks because looting was
rampant
b. Had nothing … so they immigrated to other countries
c. Spent lots of money on cloths and partied like it
was 1999
d. Pooled their money and initiated a system of health
insurance
e. Became very antisocial because contact with people
seemed to bring bad results
18. One of the byproducts of all this was an abundance
of cheap:
a. Money
b. Transportation
c. Paper
d. Health costs
e. Single room apartments
19. The roots of modern printing (movable type) came
from the skills of a:
a. Blacksmith
b. Goldsmith
c. Tanner
d. Miner
e. Banker
20. The book produced some fundamental changes in
society. Probably the greatest and most important (according to Burke) was:
a. People with specialized interests and skills could
readily exchange ideas
b. It forced everyone to learn how to read
c. It was the main reason to establish universities
d. It brought people from the country to the city
e. People could get very rich if they owned books
21. The smaller pocketbook allowed common folks to
learn about the accomplishments of the ancient:
a. Vikings
b. Greeks and Romans
c. Egyptians
d. Mesopotamians
e. Chinese
22. With this knowledge, a wealthy prince used this
technology to build
a. A huge factory for making flour from wheat
b. An early version of the subway
c. An observatory
d. An early version of Disneyland
e. A huge fleet of sailboats
23. The problem of weaving intricate patterns in a
loom was solved by using an idea used in:
a. An automated organ
b. The printing press
c. Sailboats
d. Map making
e. Road construction
24. The punch card controlling mechanism of the loom
was adapted to keep track of:
a. The gross national product
b. The US census data
c. Presidential election returns
d. Individual banking accounts
e. Astronomical data of stars
25. This idea was then used:
a. To establish our system of telecommunications
b. As a way to program early computers
c. Develop the atomic bomb
d. Help develop television
e. To help invent the airplane
Note: Although only one answer is the correct response to this last question,
other tapes in this video series trace the roots of each item listed above.