Question

Animals go about the world as nature made them. Why then, did man start to adorn himself by hanging things round his neck, arms, waist and legs or putting things on his head. We can imagine many reasons. If an exceptionally strong or brave man succeeded in killing an exceptionally large bear, might he not get the idea of boring a hole through one of its teeth with a sharp flint and tying the tooth round his neck in order to remind himself of his great achievement and to show his friends what a great man he was. Gradually it might become the custom in that tribe for all strong and brave hunters to wear a bear’s tooth, and it might be regarded as a disgrace not to wear one and a sign that one was weak or very young. People who wore ornaments would soon learn to arrange them in different ways according to their size and colour in order to make them more decorative and impressive. A necklace found in Italy with a skeleton of a young man of the stone age was quite elaborate. It consisted of stag’s teeth arranged at intervals with, between them, two upper rows made up of the vertebrae of a fish and one row of shells. Another reason why men might tie feathers, horns, skins and all kinds of other things to themselves would be in order to make themselves look fierce and more terrifying to animals or to the men of other tribes. Objects that came from a distance and were therefore scarce – such as sea shells to people living far inland- would come in time to have a special value, and might be worn only by chiefs and their families in order to show that they were particularly important people. Primitive tribes living today often associate themselves with some particular animal or bird, such as an eagle or lion, or with a particular place, such as a mountain or river. Man may have started doing this kind of thing very early in his history. Then every member of a group or family may have worn something such as feathers, claws or even a stone or wooden object of a certain shape or colour, to represent the animal or mountain to represent themselves to be connected with. So, as we have seen, clothing may have started as ornament or to distinguish one tribe from another or to show rank or because certain things were believed to have magic qualities. At first perhaps, he would simply tie a skin round his waist or over his shoulders but as time passed, he learnt how to treat skins in order to make them softer and more supple and how to join them together to make better garments......


question 1

Chiefs in olden times adorned themselves with objects
(a) they had found or hunted
(b) that they added special value to
© that came from a distant place and were scarce
(d) that were scarce and made with gold.

question 2

A hole was made in boar’s tooth by Primitive by

(a) using a needle and thread
(b) using a blunt needle and thread
© using a sharp flint to bore a hole
(d) using a decayed tooth of a boar

question 3

Primitive people identified with animals connected with their lives by ……………………………………… *

(a) adorning themselves with representative parts of the creature
(b) wearing feathers round their necks
© wearing their beliefs round themselves
(d) looking for a particular animal in their mountains

question 4


Man started to adorn himself to ………………………………………………………………………………………… *

(a) represent his tribe
(b) to keep the custom of his tribe
© remind himself of his achievement
(d) to attract others

question 5

The specialty of the necklace found in Italy was that …………………………………………………………………….. *
1 point
(a) it was very rare
(b) it was very costly
© it was not seen before
(d) it was very elaborate

question 6

(vi) Men tied feathers, horns and animal skins to themselves in order to…………………………………………… *

(a) make them good in appearance
(b) look terrifying to animals and men
© be friendly with others
(d) live alone

question 7

(vii) Man began to cloth himself because he………………………………………………………………………………… *

(a) to show his rank and wanted to be identified
(b) felt clothes as an ornament
© Both a and b
(d) None of the above

question 8

(viii) The word similar in meaning to ‘valiant’ is ……………………………………………………………………………. *

(a) terrifying
(b) adorn
© brave
(d) natural

question 9


(ix) The word ‘elaborate’ means ………………………………………………………………………………………… *

(a) large
(b) in detail
© belief
(d) very old

question 10


(x) Synonym of ‘supple’ is………………………………………………………………………………… *

(a) hard
(b) stiff
© clean
(d) valuable
​

Answer 1

Answer:

they had found or hunted

using a needle and thread

it was very rare

hard

stiff

clean

valuable

none of the above

valuable