<h1 class="page-title">TOEFL: Prose Summary and Fill in a Table Questions</h1>
<h2 class="hd hd-2 unit-title">Prose Summary and Fill in a Table Questions</h2>
<h4>Prose Summary questions ask you to select the major ideas from a passage by distinguishing them from minor points or ideas that are not in the passage. Fill in Table questions ask you to correctly categorize facts presented in the passage.</h4>
<h4>Watch the following Inside the <i><em>TOEFL</em></i>® Test video to learn more.</h4>
https://youtu.be/a42S043txgk

<strong>Video Transcript</strong>
<h4><em>Michael: Hi, I'm Michael from ETS. Today on Inside the TOEFL Test, we're going inside the TOEFL iBT Reading section. Specifically, the Prose Summary questions. And we'll also look at a similar but less common question type, the Fill in a Table question.</em></h4>
<h4><em>On-screen: </em>
<em>Inside the TOEFL® Test – Reading</em>
<em>Prose Summary</em>
<em>Fill in a Table</em></h4>
<h4><em>Michael: The Prose Summary questions are designed to show that you recognize the major ideas and the relative importance of information in a reading passage.</em></h4>
<h4><em>In a Prose Summary question, there are 6 answer choices, and you will need to select the 3 correct choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. </em>
<em>The incorrect answer choices will misrepresent information in the passage or will discuss minor points.</em></h4>
<h4><em>On-screen: Prose Summary – Major ideas and relative importance of information in a reading passage</em>
<em>6 answer choices</em>
<em>3 correct choices express the most important ideas (green check appears next to statement)</em>
<em>3 incorrect choices misrepresent information or discuss minor points (red x appears next to statement)</em></h4>
<h4><em>Michael: In the real test, you will drag and drop your answers into the box.</em>
<em>Prose Summary questions are worth 2 points toward your raw score. You get 2 points if you choose all 3 correct answers. You get one point if you choose 2 correct answers. And you get zero points for 1 or no correct answers.</em></h4>
<h4><em>On-screen: Drag your choices to the spaces where they belong. To review the passage, click on View Text.</em></h4>
<h4><em><strong>Scholars have wondered about the meaning of the subjects, location and overpainting of Lascaux cave images.</strong></em>
<em><strong>[image of a box with three bullets to move answer options to]</strong></em></h4>
<h4><em>Six answer options:</em></h4>
<ol>
 	<li>
<h4><em>The paintings may have recorded information about animal migrations, and may only have been useful for one migration at a time</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>The human figures represented in the paintings appear to be less carefully shaped than those of animals.</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>It is possible that the animals in the paintings were of mythical significance to the tribe, and the paintings reflected an important spiritual practice.</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Unlike painters of the recently discovered paintings, other Lascaux cave painters usually printed on rocks near cave entrances or in open spaces outside the caves.</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Some scholars believe that the paintings motivated hunters by allowing them to picture a successful hunt.</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Scientific analysis suggests that paintings were sprayed on the rock walls with tubes made from animal bones.</em></h4>
</li>
</ol>
<h4><em>Score up to 2 points</em></h4>
<table class="data-table line-h line-v">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<h4><em>Points</em></h4>
</td>
<td class="lastColumn">
<h4><em>Correct Answers</em></h4>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<h4><em>2</em></h4>
</td>
<td class="lastColumn">
<h4><em>3</em></h4>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<h4><em>1</em></h4>
</td>
<td class="lastColumn">
<h4><em>2</em></h4>
</td>
</tr>
<tr class="lastrow">
<td>
<h4><em>0</em></h4>
</td>
<td class="lastColumn">
<h4><em>1 or 0</em></h4>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h4><em> </em></h4>
<h4><em>Michael: Note that your answers don't have to be in any particular order. And you can change your answers at any point during the allotted time for the reading section.</em></h4>
<h4><em>On-screen: [cursor is dragging answers into the spaces and reordering the selected answers]</em></h4>
<h4><em>Michael: The Fill-In A Table questions are similar except that instead of choosing the three most important ideas, you will need to drag and drop your answers into two (or three) categories.</em></h4>
<h4><em>On-screen: Drag your choices to the spaces where they belong. To review the passage, click on <strong>View Text</strong>.</em>
<em>[Box lists "Opportunists" and 4 answer spaces to drag answer options to]</em>
<em>[Second box lists "Competitors" and 3 answer spaces to drag answer options to]</em></h4>
<h4><em>Answer options</em></h4>
<ul>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Very frequently the amount of energy they spend in body maintenance</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Succeed in locations where other organisms have been removed</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Invest energy in the growth of large, strong structures</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Can rarely find suitable soil for reproduction</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Reproduce in large numbers</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Have mechanisms for protecting themselves from predation</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Have relatively short life spans</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Have populations that are unstable in response to climate conditions</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Produce individuals that can withstand changes in the environmental conditions</em></h4>
</li>
</ul>
<h4><em>Michael: Each reading passage will have one Prose Summary question, or one Fill In A Table Question, but not both.</em></h4>
<h4><em>On-screen:</em>
<em>Prose summary</em>
<em>Fill in a Table</em></h4>
<h4><em>Sample Questions  - Prose Summary</em></h4>
<h4><em>Michael: Let's look at a sample Prose Summary question. This type of question covers the whole reading passage, not just a single sentence or paragraph. Here's the passage about meteorites and dinosaur extinction.</em></h4>
<h4><em>On-screen: <strong>Meteorite Impact and Dinosaur Extinction</strong></em></h4>
<h4><em>There is increasing evidence that the impacts of meteorites have had important effects on Earth, particularly in the field of biological evolution. Such impacts continue to pose a natural hazard to life on Earth. Twice in the twentieth century, large meteorite objects are known to have collided with Earth.</em></h4>
<h4><em>If an impact is large enough, it can disturb the environment of the entire Earth and cause an ecological catastrophe. The best-documented such impact took place 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period of geological history. This break in Earth's history is marked by a mass extinction when as many as half the species on the planet became extinct. While there are a dozen or more mass extinctions in the geological record, the Cretaceous mass extinction has always intrigued paleontologists because it marks the end of the age of the dinosaurs. For tens of millions of years, those great creatures had flourished. Then, suddenly, they disappeared.</em></h4>
<h4><em>The body that impacted Earth at the end of the Cretaceous period was a meteorite with a mass of more than a trillion tons and a diameter of at least 10 kilometres. Scientists first identified this impact in 1980 from the worldwide layer of sediment deposited from the dust cloud that enveloped the planet after the impact. This sediment layer is enriched in the rare metal iridium and other elements that are relatively abundant in a meteorite but very rare in the crust of Earth. Even diluted by the terrestrial material excavated from the crater, this component of meteorites is easily identified. By 1990 geologists had located the impact site itself in the Yucatán region of Mexico. The crater, now deeply buried in sediment, was originally about 200 kilometres in diameter.</em></h4>
<h4><em>This impact released an enormous amount of energy, excavating a crater about twice as large as the lunar crater Tycho. The explosion lifted about 100 trillion tons of dust into the atmosphere, as can be determined by measuring the thickness of the sediment layer formed when this dust settled to the surface. Such a quantity of material would have blocked the sunlight completely from reaching the surface, plunging Earth into a period of cold and darkness that lasted at least several months. The explosion is also calculated to have produced vast quantities of nitric acid and melted rock that sprayed out over much of Earth, starting widespread fires that must have consumed most terrestrial forests and grassland. Presumably, those environmental disasters could have been responsible for the mass extinction, including the death of the dinosaurs. Several other mass extinctions in the geological record have been tentatively identified with large impacts, but none is so dramatic as the Cretaceous event. But even without such specific documentation, it is clear that impacts of this size do occur and that their results can be catastrophic. What is a catastrophe for one group of living things, however, may create opportunities for another group? Following each mass extinction, there is a sudden evolutionary burst as new species develop to fill the ecological niches opened by the event.</em></h4>
<h4><em>Impacts by meteorites represent one mechanism that could cause global catastrophes and seriously influence the evolution of life all over the planet. According to some estimates, the majority of all extinctions of species may be due to such impacts. Such a perspective fundamentally changes our view of biological evolution. The standard criterion for the survival of a species is its success in competing with other species and adapting to slowly changing environments. Yet an equally important criterion is the ability of a species to survive random global ecological catastrophes due to impacts.</em></h4>
<h4><em>Earth is a target in a cosmic shooting gallery, subject to random violent events that were unsuspected a few decades ago. In 1991 the United States Congress asked NASA to investigate the hazard posed today by large impacts on Earth. The group conducting the study concluded from a detailed analysis that impacts from meteorites can indeed be hazardous. Although there is always some risk that a large impact could occur, careful study shows that this risk is quite small.</em></h4>
<h4><em>Michael: And here's the question.</em></h4>
<h4><em>On-screen: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE (3) answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.</em></h4>
<h4><em>Scientists have linked the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous with a meteorite impact on Earth. </em>
<em>• </em>
<em>Answer choices</em></h4>
<ol>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Scientists had believed for centuries that meteorite activity influenced evolution on Earth.</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>The site of the large meteorite impact at the end of the Cretaceous period was identified in 1990.</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>There have also been large meteorite impacts on the surface of the Moon, leaving craters like Tycho.</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>An iridium-enriched sediment layer and a large impact crater in the Yucatán provide evidence that a large meteorite struck Earth about 65 million years ago.</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Large meteorite impacts, such as one at the end of the Cretaceous period, can seriously affect climate, ecological niches, plants, and animals.</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Meteorite impacts can be advantageous for some species, which thrive, and disastrous for other species, which become extinct.</em></h4>
</li>
</ol>
<h4><em>Michael: Now let's look at each of the answer choices to see which three are correct.</em>
<em>Answer #1 isn't supported by any of the information in the passage, so we know that this one is not correct.</em></h4>
<h4><em>On-screen: [first answer option is highlighted]Scientists had believed for centuries that meteorite activity influenced evolution on Earth. [red x appears next to answer option]</em>
<em>Michael: Answer #2 is a factually correct statement, but identifying the specific date when something happened generally doesn't qualify as one of the most important ideas. So this one is probably not correct, but let's look at the others to make sure.</em></h4>
<h4><em>On-screen: [second answer option is highlighted]The site of the large meteorite impact at the end of the Cretaceous period was identified in 1990. [faded red x appears next to answer option ]</em>
<em>Michael: For answer #3, the reference to the crater Tycho is used to give a sense of the size of the crater that struck the Yucatán. However, the topic of meteorite activity on the moon is not a focus of this passage.</em></h4>
<h4><em>On-screen: [third answer option is highlighted] There have also been large meteorite impacts on the surface of the Moon, leaving craters like Tycho. [red x appears next to answer option]</em>
<em>Michael: Answer #4 combines several facts that together provide a summary of an important idea from the passage. This is supported by the information given in paragraphs 2 and 3.</em></h4>
<h4><em>On-screen: [fourth answer option is highlighted] An iridium-enriched sediment layer and a large impact crater in the Yucatán provide evidence that a large meteorite struck Earth about 65 million years ago.  [green check appears next to answer option]</em></h4>
<h4><em>[passage excerpt comes on screen with highlighted text]</em>
<em>If an impact is large enough, it can disturb the environment of the entire Earth and cause an ecological catastrophe. The best-documented such impact took place 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period of geological history. This break in Earth's history is marked by a mass extinction when as many as half the species on the planet became extinct. While there are a dozen or more mass extinctions in the geological record, the Cretaceous mass extinction has always intrigued paleontologists because it marks the end of the age of the dinosaurs. For tens of millions of years, those great creatures had flourished. Then, suddenly, they disappeared.</em></h4>
<h4><em>The body that impacted Earth at the end of the Cretaceous period was a meteorite with a mass of more than a trillion tons and a diameter of at least 10 kilometres. Scientists first identified this impact in 1980 from the worldwide layer of sediment deposited from the dust cloud that enveloped the planet after the impact. This sediment layer is enriched in the rare metal iridium and other elements that are relatively abundant in a meteorite but very rare in the crust of Earth. Even diluted by the terrestrial material excavated from the crater, this component of meteorites is easily identified. By 1990 geologists had located the impact site itself in the Yucatán region of Mexico. The crater, now deeply buried in sediment, was originally about 200 kilometres in diameter. </em>
<em>Michael: Answer #5 is about the effects of meteorite impacts, which is an important idea of the passage. We can see this in paragraph 4, where it talks about the mass destruction from the cold, darkness and fires. And in paragraph 5 where it talks about the catastrophic results.</em></h4>
<h4><em>On-screen: [fifth answer option is highlighted] Large meteorite impacts, such as one at the end of the Cretaceous period, can seriously affect climate, ecological niches, plants, and animals. [green check appears next to answer option]</em></h4>
<h4><em>[passage excerpt comes on screen with highlighted text]</em>
<em>This impact released an enormous amount of energy, excavating a crater about twice as large as the lunar crater Tycho. The explosion lifted about 100 trillion tons of dust into the atmosphere, as can be determined by measuring the thickness of the sediment layer formed when this dust settled to the surface. Such a quantity of material would have blocked the sunlight completely from reaching the surface, plunging Earth into a period of cold and darkness that lasted at least several months. The explosion is also calculated to have produced vast quantities of nitric acid and melted rock that sprayed out over much of Earth, starting widespread fires that must have consumed most terrestrial forests and grassland. Presumably, those environmental disasters could have been responsible for the mass extinction, including the death of the dinosaurs. Several other mass extinctions in the geological record have been tentatively identified with large impacts, but none is so dramatic as the Cretaceous event. But even without such specific documentation, it is clear that impacts of this size do occur and that their results can be catastrophic. What is a catastrophe for one group of living things, however, may create opportunities for another group. Following each mass extinction, there is a sudden evolutionary burst as new species develop to fill the ecological niches opened by the event.</em></h4>
<h4><em>[passage excerpt comes on screen with highlighted text]</em>
<em>Impacts by meteorites represent one mechanism that could cause global catastrophes and seriously influence the evolution of life all over the planet. According to some estimates, the majority of all extinctions of species may be due to such impacts. Such a perspective fundamentally changes our view of biological evolution. The standard criterion for the survival of a species is its success in competing with other species and adapting to slowly changing environments. Yet an equally important criterion is the ability of a species to survive random global ecological catastrophes due to impacts.</em>
<em>Michael: Answer #6 is another important idea that is stated in a similar sentence in paragraph 5: ‘What is a catastrophe for one group of living things, however, may create opportunities for another group."</em></h4>
<h4><em>On-screen: [sixth answer option is highlighted] Meteorite impacts can be advantageous for some species, which thrive, and disastrous for other species, which become extinct. [green check appears next to answer option]</em></h4>
<h4><em>[passage excerpt comes on screen with highlighted text]</em>
<em>This impact released an enormous amount of energy, excavating a crater about twice as large as the lunar crater Tycho. The explosion lifted about 100 trillion tons of dust into the atmosphere, as can be determined by measuring the thickness of the sediment layer formed when this dust settled to the surface. Such a quantity of material would have blocked the sunlight completely from reaching the surface, plunging Earth into a period of cold and darkness that lasted at least several months. The explosion is also calculated to have produced vast quantities of nitric acid and melted rock that sprayed out over much of Earth, starting widespread fires that must have consumed most terrestrial forests and grassland. Presumably, those environmental disasters could have been responsible for the mass extinction, including the death of the dinosaurs. Several other mass extinctions in the geological record have been tentatively identified with large impacts, but none is so dramatic as the Cretaceous event. But even without such specific documentation, it is clear that impacts of this size do occur and that their results can be catastrophic. What is a catastrophe for one group of living things, however, may create opportunities for another group. Following each mass extinction, there is a sudden evolutionary burst as new species develop to fill the ecological niches opened by the event.</em></h4>
<h4><em>Michael: So for this question, answers 4, 5 and 6 are the correct three choices.</em></h4>
<h4><em>On-screen: [answer options 4, 5 and 6 move to the selected bulleted spots]</em></h4>
<h4><em>Skill-building tips – Creating Outlines</em></h4>
<h4><em>Michael: You can work to improve your reading skills by creating your own outlines or charts when you read a passage. Pick a chart format that is helpful for you, like one of these…</em>
<em>…and as you read, identify the main ideas and supporting details. As you practice more, you will be able to take fewer notes to outline the points.</em></h4>
<h4><em>On-screen: [displays different outline forms]</em>
<em>Chart 1: Spider map</em>
<em>Idea</em>
<em>Example</em>
<em>Example</em>
<em>Example</em>
<em>Example</em></h4>
<h4><em>Chart 2: Basic Outline Form</em></h4>
<ol>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Main Idea</em></h4>
<ol>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Subsidiary or supporting idea to I</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Subsidiary or supporting idea to I</em></h4>
<ol>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Subsidiary idea to B</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Subsidiary idea to B</em></h4>
<ol>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Subsidiary idea to 2</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Subsidiary idea to 2</em></h4>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Main Idea</em></h4>
<ol>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Subsidiary or supporting idea to II</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Subsidiary or supporting idea to II</em></h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Subsidiary or supporting idea to II</em></h4>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4><em>Main Idea</em></h4>
</li>
</ol>
<h4><em>Chart 3: Graphic Organizer- Main idea chart</em>
<em>Topic</em>
<em>Main Idea </em>
<em>Supporting Detail</em>
<em>Supporting Detail</em>
<em>Supporting Detail</em>
<em>Supporting Detail</em></h4>
<h4><em>Michael: There are lots of ways to improve your English skills. Whatever you do, keep practicing. And good luck on your TOEFL test.</em></h4>
<h4 class="page-title">TOEFL: Scoring the Reading Section</h4>
<h3>How the Reading Section is Scored</h3>
<h4>The Reading section of the test contains multiple-choice tasks for which test takers must select the correct answer. Watch this video to learn more about how ETS scores the Reading and Listening sections of the <i><em>TOEFL</em></i>® test.</h4>
https://youtu.be/Wbz-K6_G99c
<h3>Reading Practice Test Directions</h3>
<h4>This section measures your ability to understand academic passages in English.</h4>
<h4>There is one passage in this practice test. Give yourself 20 minutes to read the passage and answer the questions about it.</h4>
<h4>You may look back at the passage when answering the questions. You can skip questions and go back to them later as long as there is time remaining.</h4>
<h4><strong>Please note:</strong></h4>
<h4>The practise questions are real <i><em>TOEFL iBT</em></i>® test questions, but the testing experience has been adapted for presentation in this course.</h4>
<h4>Your performance on this practice test is not a predictor of how you might perform on the actual <i><em>TOEFL iBT</em></i>® test.</h4>
<h4>Your scores for this practice test will show correct vs. incorrect choices. You will also see an explanation for why each answer choice is correct or incorrect. Scores and scoring information are for preparation use only; they are not official or scaled scores.</h4>
<h4></h4>
<h2 class="hd hd-2 unit-title"><strong>Reading Practice Test</strong></h2>
<strong>Directions:</strong> Read the passage. Then answer the questions. Give yourself 20 minutes to complete this practice set.
<h3>Pastoralism in Ancient Inner Eurasia</h3>
<a href="https://secure.flickr.com/photos/14071207@N00/3062808163"><img src="https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3212/3062808163_6c9f278927.jpg" alt="map of the middle east" width="684" height="513" /></a>
<h4>Pastoralism is a lifestyle in which economic activity is based primarily on livestock. Archaeological evidence suggests that by 3,000 B.C., and perhaps even earlier, there had emerged on the steppes of Inner Eurasia the distinctive types of pastoralism that were to dominate the region’s history for several millennia. Here, the horse was already becoming the animal of prestige in many regions, though sheep, goats, and cattle could also play a vital role. It is the use of horses for transportation and warfare that explains why Inner Eurasian pastoralism proved the most mobile and the most militaristic of all major forms of pastoralism. The emergence and spread of pastoralism had a profound impact on the history of Inner Eurasia, and also, indirectly, on the parts of Asia and Europe just outside this area. In particular, pastoralism favours a mobile lifestyle, and this mobility helps to explain the impact of pastoralist societies on this part of the world.</h4>
<h4></h4>
<h4>The mobility of pastoralist societies reflects their dependence on animal-based foods. While agriculturalists rely on domesticated plants, pastoralists rely on domesticated animals. As a result, pastoralists, like carnivores in general, occupy a higher position on the food chain. All else being equal, this means they must exploit larger areas of land than do agriculturalists to secure the same amount of food, clothing, and other necessities. So pastoralism is a more extensive lifeway than farming is. However, the larger the terrain used to support a group, the harder it is to exploit that terrain while remaining in one place. So, basic ecological principles imply a strong tendency within pastoralist lifeways toward nomadism (a mobile lifestyle). As the archaeologist Roger Cribb puts it, “The greater the degree of pastoralism, the stronger the tendency toward nomadism.” A modern Turkic nomad interviewed by Cribb commented: “The more animals you have, the farther you have to move.”</h4>
<h4></h4>
<h4>Nomadism has further consequences. It means that pastoralist societies occupy and can influence very large territories. This is particularly true of the horse pastoralism that emerged in the Inner Eurasian steppes, for this was the most mobile of all major forms of pastoralism. So, it is no accident that with the appearance of pastoralist societies there appear large areas that share similar cultural, ecological, and even linguistic features. By the late fourth millennium B.C., there is already evidence of large culture zones reaching from Eastern Europe to the western borders of Mongolia. Perhaps the most striking sign of mobility is the fact that by the third millennium B.C., most pastoralists in this huge region spoke related languages ancestral to the modern Indo-European languages. The remarkable mobility and range of pastoral societies explain, in part, why so many linguists have argued that the Indo-European languages began their astonishing expansionist career not among farmers in Anatolia (present-day Turkey), but among early pastoralists from Inner Eurasia. Such theories imply that the Indo-European languages evolved not in Neolithic (10,000 to 3,000 B.C.) Anatolia, but among the foraging communities of the cultures in the region of the Don and Dnieper rivers, which took up stock breeding and began to exploit the neighbouring steppes.</h4>
<h4>Nomadism also subjects pastoralist communities to strict rules of portability. If you are constantly on the move, you cannot afford to accumulate large material surpluses. Such rules limit variations in accumulated material goods between pastoralist households (though they may also encourage a taste for portable goods of high value such as silks or jewelry). So, by and large, nomadism implies a high degree of self-sufficiency and inhibits the appearance of an extensive division of labour. Inequalities of wealth and rank certainly exist and have probably existed in most pastoralist societies, but except in periods of military conquest, they are normally too slight to generate the stable, hereditary hierarchies that are usually implied by the use of the term <i><em>class. </em></i>Inequalities of gender have also existed in pastoralist societies, but they seem to have been softened by the absence of steep hierarchies of wealth in most communities, and also by the requirement that women acquire most of the skills of men, including, often, their military skills.</h4>
<h4></h4>
<h4><strong>Directions:</strong> Now answer the questions.</h4>
<h4></h4>
<h4>Paragraph 1</h4>
<h4>Pastoralism is a lifestyle in which economic activity is based primarily on livestock. Archaeological evidence suggests that by 3,000 B.C., and perhaps even earlier, there had emerged on the steppes of Inner Eurasia the distinctive types of pastoralism that were to dominate the region’s history for several millennia. Here, the horse was already becoming the animal of prestige in many regions, though sheep, goats, and cattle could also play a vital role. It is the use of horses for transportation and warfare that explains why Inner Eurasian pastoralism proved the most mobile and the most militaristic of all major forms of pastoralism. The emergence and spread of pastoralism had a profound impact on the history of Inner Eurasia, and also, indirectly, on the parts of Asia and Europe just outside this area. In particular, pastoralism favours a mobile lifestyle, and this mobility helps to explain the impact of pastoralist societies on this part of the world.</h4>
<h4></h4>
<h4></h4>