Name: ________________________________ Date: __________________________ Period: ______
Bones Prove Neolithic Food Production Made Our Legs Feeble
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Directions: (1) Use context clues, your background knowledge, the word bank, and the process of
elimination to fill in the blanks below. (2) Answer the questions as they occur. (3) Complete the
bubblemap by entering key terms from the reading. (4) Write a one paragraph summary of the reading.
WORD
BANK
agriculture
bones
Professor
trend
nomadic
upper
Scientists have long known that our hunter-gatherer ancestors had stronger and more robust bones
than modern-day humans. Our modern lifestyles and our reliance on machines often take the blame,
but it seems it was the spread of farming that really caused our (1) _______________ to weaken.
Scientists have struggled to pinpoint exactly when this change happened. According to a new study,
humans began to lose bone strength during the Neolithic Period. Farming and the domestication of
livestock allowed early humans to avoid the kind of strenuous activity that strengthened the bones of
our earlier, (2) _______________ ancestors. Early agriculture was labor intensive, but it also allowed
people to move around far less than when they were hunter-gatherers. The decline in our bone
strength continued for several thousand years as (3) _______________ intensified.
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Why were the bones of our nomadic ancestors stronger than ours? _______________________
______________________________________________________________________________
These conclusions come from a study entitled
“Gradual Decline in Mobility with the Adoption of
Food Production in Europe,” recently published by
Professor Christopher Ruff and his colleagues from
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
(5) _______________ Ruff analyzed a sample of
1,842 individuals from across Europe to study
changes in bone strength over 30,000 years of
human history. The researchers evaluated trends in
the relative strength of the (6) _______________
and lower limb bones. The study found that a large
decline in the bending strength of femurs and tibias
at the start of the Neolithic Period (from 7,300 to
4,000 B.C.). This weakening (7) _______________
continued through the Iron Age (2,250 to 1,650 B.C.).
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Given the title, what is the most likely organizational structure of the study cited above? Circle
the letter of the BEST answer.
a
chronological
b
pro and con
c
cause and effect
d
geographic
1
WORD
BANK
health
four
months
variety
scans
remains
joint
Human beings have become smaller and weaker over the past 10,000 years, scientists say. The earliest
fossilized human (9) _______________, from Ethiopia, date back 200,000 years. These humans were
larger and “more robust” than their modern-day counterparts, said Dr. Marta Lahr, an expert in human
evolution. The urbanization that followed the Neolithic Revolution also compromised human
(10) _______________ by making us more susceptible to disease. The development of agriculture
resulted in a human diet with less variety. We have lost some of the health benefits our earliest human
ancestors experienced from consuming a larger (11) _______________ of foods.
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Given the context, what do you suppose is the meaning of the word “robust” above?
______________________________________________________________________________
Bone is not a solid material. It has a coral-like threedimensional internal structure. The primary tissue of
bone is lightweight yet strong. Professor Ruff’s
research follows an earlier study, from the University
of Cambridge, which used X-rays and CT
(13) _______________ to study ancient human
femur bones. The Cambridge researchers focused
on the inside of the femoral head - the ball at the top
of the femur which fits into the pelvis to form the hip
(14) _______________. This joint is one of the most
load-bearing bone connections in the body. The
Cambridge study compared bones from four distinct
human populations including hunter-gatherers from
7,300 years ago and more recent agriculturalists.
The bone structure of all (15) _______________
populations was found to be very similar, but the
hunter-gatherers had a much higher amount of
actual bone. “In the hunter-gatherer bones, everything was thickened,” said lead researcher Dr. Colin
Shaw. Hunter-gatherers roamed the landscape searching for food. Their bones were constantly
thickening as a result of that physical activity. Just as is true with exercise and muscle fiber, this
nomadic exertion resulted in minor damage that caused the bone mesh to grow back stronger. Bone
mass was around twenty percent higher among the hunter-gatherer bones that Shaw studied. An
average person would lose that much bone mass after three (16) _______________ of weightlessness in
space.
17-18 Write a caption that explains the content and the relevance of the illustration above.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
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WORD
BANK
exercise
centimeters
instance
smaller
Another study from Cambridge University
has concluded that humans are shrinking
significantly in size. Experts say humans are
past their peak and that modern-day people
are ten percent (19) _______________ and
shorter than our hunter-gatherer ancestors.
Human fossils suggest that our brains have
been shrinking more quickly than our
bodies. Over the past 20,000 years, the
average volume of the human male brain
has decreased from 1,500 to 1,350 cubic
(20) _______________. The female brain
has shrunk by about the same proportion.
The brain volume lost is about that of a
tennis ball. Christopher Stringer, an expert
on human origins at the Natural History Museum in London explains that “As a general rule, the more
meat on your bones, the more brain you need to control massive muscle blocks.” An elephant brain, for
(21) _______________, can weigh four times as much as a human brain.
Researchers have ruled out diet differences and changes in body size as possible causes for the decrease
in human bone strength. Ruff’s study has concluded that a drop in physical activity is the root cause.
The findings support the idea that (22) _______________, rather than diet, is the key to preventing
heightened fracture risk and conditions, such as osteoporosis, in later life.
Directions: Complete the bubblemap by entering key terms from the reading in the circles below.
The Neolithic
Revolution
and Bones
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Directions: Write a one paragraph summary of the reading. Your paragraph must include four
sentences and most of the key terms from the bubblemap above.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Reviewer’s Directions: Review the paragraph above. Score each skill area by circling the appropriate
number. Use the notes section to further explain your assessment. Sign your review legibly.
PTS
IDEAS AND CONTENT
PTS
ORGANIZATION
PTS
READABILITY
5
fully accomplished task
4+ subject-specific facts
5
5
exceptional word usage
exceptional writing technique
effective tone and voice
4
accomplished task
at least 3 subject-specific facts
4
4
very good word usage
very good writing technique
effective tone and voice
3
minimally accomplished task
at least 2 subject-specific facts
3
attempted to organize ideas
logically
3
2
partially accomplished task
at least 1 subject-specific fact
2
minimally attempted to organize
ideas logically
2
ordinary word usage
attempted to adjust tone and
voice to audience
1
failed to accomplish task
no subject-specific facts
1
failed to organize or organized
illogically
1
less than minimal word usage and
writing technique
inappropriate tone and voice
organized ideas logically
organized ideas logically
attempted to adjust tone and
voice to audience
LANGUAGE CONVENTIONS
PTS
very few or no errors in capitalization, punctuation, spelling, or word usage/very few or no run-on sentences and/or sentence
fragments/no errors that impair the flow of communication - errors are infrequent
5 PTS
occasional errors in capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar, or word usage/may have run-on sentences, sentence
fragments/errors do not impede communication; the writer’s message is not seriously obscured
4 PTS
frequent errors in capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar, or word usage/run-on sentences and/or sentence
fragments/errors cause the reader to stop and re-read parts of the writing - errors impair communication
3 PTS
many errors in capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar, or word usage/run-on sentences and/or sentence
fragments/errors are serious and numerous, causing the reader to struggle to discern meaning
2 PTS
many errors in capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar, or word usage/errors are serious, numerous, and of a wide variety
- it is impossible to ascertain what the writer wants to communicate
1 PTS
NOTES: _________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________ REVIEWER’S NAME: ______________________________________
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