Text d. Time's arrows

Exercise 10. Discuss the questions:

1. When did human ancestors conceive the idea of making tools?

2. What tools did they make? How?

Exercise 11. Listen to the text (Script 32) which investigates the correlation between ancient weapons and modern man's evolution. What insights into the evolution of the human psyche are provided by ancient tools?

shard – осколок lump – кусок, глыба to bash – сильно ударить to ascribe – приписывать threshold – порог, черта to annihilate – истребить, уничтожить self-sacrifice – самопожертвование

Exercise 12. Listen to the text again and explain what the following figures refer to in the text:

30 mm 1.2 inches 71,000 9,000

40,000 60,000 150,000-200,000 50,000-60,000

Exercise 13. Are the following statements true or false according to the text? Correct the false ones.

1. Producing microliths required considerable skill.

2. Microliths have still been used in modern human history.

3. About 150,000 yers ago Homo sapiens left Africa.

4. About 150,000 yers ago Homo sapiens crossed a threshold in mental development.

5. Somу experts use microliths to demonstrate that anatomic transformations predated mental development during human evolution.

6. The microliths demonstrate that 71,000 years ago ancient people couldn’t invent and produce any relatively complex weapon.

7. The discovery of the 71,000-years-old microliths confirms that mentally and psychologically ancient people were not signicantly different from modern people.

8. Extreme altruism is believed to be one of the features that distinguish humans from other species.

9. Evolutionary biologists suggest that invention of weapons like bow and arrows resulted in wars.

10. Altruism is evolutionary reasonable.

Text e. The demographic transition

Exercise 14. Discuss the questions:

1. What is the population of the Earth now? How is it projected to change?

2. What are the main demographic trends currently observed?

3. What is demographic transition? Make a list of the major demographic transitions which occurred over the human history and the reasons that caused them.

Malthusian theory – мальтузианская теория народонаселения (по имени ее автора Томаса Мальтуса) to outstrip – обогнать, превзойти to evade – избежать, уклониться bonkers, bananas – (разг.) чушь, сумасшествие to deliver the goods – выполнить взятые обязательства upshot – вывод, итог, результат

Exercise 15. Listen to the text (Script 33) which explores the most recent demographic transition which has resulted in smaller families. How do scientists interpret this evolutionary unreasonable behavior of humans?

Exercise 16. Listen to the text again. What information does the text provide on:

a) the predictions and reality of the world’s population;

b) "R-selection" reproductive strategy,

c) "K-selection" reproductive strategy,

d) the Uppsala Birth Cohort,

e) the competitive advantage of K-type behavior,

f) the implications of K-selection in the modern society,

g) the common ground between the demographic transition and obesity epidemic in the modern world.