NEO 2

Question 1

ornithologists

Answer 1

a person who studies birds
example: ornithologists and the people who see the bird in its native habitat

Question 2

lean

Answer 2

If a period of time is lean, there is not enough of something, especially money or food, at that time
example: often store their extra
seeds to survive lean times, an adaptation that was taken up by human populations

Question 3

feast-or-famine

Answer 3

marked by extremes (as of success and failure or prosperity and depression)
example: must also cope with the challenging feast-or-famine situation o

Question 4

fluctuations

Answer 4

: an act or instance of fluctuating : an irregular shifting back and forth or up and down in the level, strength, or value of something
example: One might expect such species to be regularly wiped out (at least locally) when fluctuations in the growing season result in seed failures of their food

Question 5

subsist

Answer 5

to obtain enough food or money to stay alive:
example: the species has to subsist on the ever-diminishing supply of seeds produced by the annual
grasses at the end of the last wet season.

Question 6

scarce

Answer 6

not easy to find or get:
example: As food becomes scarcer, the species feeds actively and gains sufficient weight reserves to be able to migrate to more auspicious areas

Question 7

auspicious

Answer 7

suggesting a positive and successful future:
example: As food becomes scarcer, the species feeds actively and gains sufficient weight reserves to be able to migrate to more auspicious areas.

Question 8

inhospitable

Answer 8

providing no shelter or sustenance
example: By moving over distances of 30 to 120 miles (50 to 200 km), the birds subsist in an
inhospitable universe by moving from one patch of habitat with suitable food to another.

Question 9

patch

Answer 9

a small area that is different in some way from the area that surrounds it:
example: By moving over distances of 30 to 120 miles (50 to 200 km), the birds subsist in an
inhospitable universe by moving from one patch of habitat with suitable food to another.

Question 10

synchrony

Answer 10

the way in which two or more things happen, develop, move, etc. at the same time or speed:
example: The biological synchrony found among the birds in a breeding colony can be
remarkable. Millions of eggs in millions of nests hatch on the same day.

Question 11

metallurgy

Answer 11

Metal-production technologies
example: Metal-production technologies (metallurgy) have had a profound influence on the course of human history.

Question 12

smelting

Answer 12

(the process of extracting metal from ore by heating)
example: with smelting (the process of extracting metal from ore by heating) beginning by 5000 B.C.E. in modern-day Serbia.

Question 13

ore

Answer 13

rock or soil from which metal can be obtained:
example: with smelting (the process of extracting metal from ore by heating) beginning by 5000 B.C.E. in modern-day Serbia.

Question 14

furnace

Answer 14

a container that is heated to a very high temperature, so that substances that are put inside it, such as metal, will melt or burn:
example: the remains of furnaces, and a large number of heaps of slag (waste left behind after processing metallic ores)

Question 15

coat

Answer 15

to cover something with a layer of a particular substance:
example: crushed iron ore was used to coat pottery in Egypt

Question 16

diffusion

Answer 16

the action of spreading in many directions:
example: The diffusion of iron technology through Africa was relatively slow