Quiz created: 091010

Human Birth & Bipedalism

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Points to note: (1) Questions with only one possible answer are one point each. (2) Questions with one or more possible answers (represented by check boxes) give a point for each correct answer, but also subtract a point for each wrong answer! (3) The program will not attempt to score your efforts at all if you have not tried at least half of the questions. (4) This quiz is for your own use only. No record of your progress is kept or reported to anyone.


1. Human bipedalism is facilitated by
a narrow pelvis  wide hips  long fingers  short legs  tool use  No Answer
2. In general, compared with the human male, the pelvis of the human female
exhibits a larger acetabulum, the socket where the upper leg connects to the hip 
a more sharply curved “tail bone” pointing under the pelvis. 
a wider span between the bones on one side and those on the other 
widely flaring hip bones, more parallel to the side-to-side plane of the body than among other primates 
No Answer
3. For most women, the “pelvic inlet” of the birth canal is
the distance from the top of one hip bone to the top of the other 
the distance from one side to the other at the bottom of the entire pelvis 
the narrowest part of the birth canal 
larger measured from front to back than from side to side 
No Answer
4. In most births, the baby’s head as it passes through the birth canal
faces the mother’s side 
faces the mother’s backbone 
faces the mother’s front 
follows its feet and body through the birth canal , with the hands held over its head and coming out last 
No Answer
5. A symphysis is the point where two bones meet. Shortly before birth, the mother’s body produces a hormone to cause the relaxation of the ligaments that hold together (Select two.)
the pubic symphysis at the bottom of the birth canal 
the two sacroiliac symphyses where the bottom of the spinal column meets the hip bone 
the coronal symphysis on the head, which is fused in the mother but still flexible in the infant 
the symphyses in the bones making up the residual “tail” at the very bottom of the spine, so that it can be pushed out of the way 
the lumbar vertebrae, forcing the mother to lie down during delivery 
6. A baby’s head is very slightly flexible because
babies have less dense bones than adults 
smaller bones are weaker than larger ones 
the symphyses of the skull have not yet fused 
hormones released by the mother’s body temporarily soften the both her bones and those of her child, increasing their flexibility 
No Answer
7. After a child’s head has emerged from the birth canal, its entire body normally rotates slightly
so that mother and baby will be face to face after birth 
in a way that positions the shoulders parallel with the widest dimension of the birth canal 
so that the shoulders are pressed down onto the chest, reducing their total width 
so that the shoulders are pressed towards each other under the baby’s chin, temporarily reducing their width, but sometimes breaking the child’s clavicle(breast bone) 
No Answer
8. The essay argues that human birth is especially dangerous in the absence of a midwife or other assistant in part because
the fetus may inhale blood while passing through the birth canal, causing it to choke 
the fetus may ingest blood while passing through the birth canal, which produces a severe auto-immune response immediately after birth and may cause it to stop breathing 
the severe pain caused to the mother often causes her to lose consciousness, sometimes for several hours, during which an unattended baby can die of exposure 
the emerging fetus often faces the back of the mother, who may injure its back in pulling on it 
No Answer
9. Birth though cesarean section does not involve
surgery now that lasers are available 
very much pain, which is why the Romans preferred it 
the fetus passing through the birth canal 
babies who are brought to full term, but is used only for premature ones unlikely to survive if left in the womb for a full gestation period 
No Answer
10. For most animals longer gestation periods are correlated with more rapid maturation after birth. Some have argued that human gestation is shorter than it “should” be, resulting in
the need for animal companions 
especially painful birth 
lower human intelligence today that some fossil hominids are believed to have had 
prolonged infantile dependency 
a very low rate of multiple births 
No Answer

      Points out of 11:

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This consummately cool, pedagogically compelling, self-correcting,
multiple-choice quiz was produced automatically from
a simple text file of questions using D.K. Jordan's
dubiously original, but publicly accessible
Think Again Quiz Maker
of October 6, 2008.