Chapter 1 Multiple Choice Answers – Flashcards

Among the early river civilizations
Select one:
a. the use of metal tools spread very slowly.
b. the Huang he culture in China was the most isolated.
c. sedentary agriculture first developed in Mesoamerica.
d. writing was only found in the Nile river valley.
e. west Africa developed the first empire.

The Neolithic revolution occurred first in
Select one:
a. India.
b. Central America.
c. Egypt.
d. China.
e. the Middle East.

Which river valley civilization was most completely destroyed by natural disasters such as climate change?
Select one:
a. Tigris-Euphrates
b. Mekong
c. Nile
d. Huang he
e. Indus

A characteristic of the human species before the advent of civilization was
Select one:
a. the ability to spread to various geographic settings and climate zones.
b. the ability to organize large political units.
c. the inability to communicate about abstractions such as death.
d. land ownership was equal.
e. that all tasks were shared equally by men and women.

A society is almost certainly a civilization if
Select one:
a. it gathers food to survive.
b. it involves tool use.
c. it has some political structure.
d. it has religious rituals.
e. it practices sedentary agriculture.

The Paleolithic Age refers to
Select one:
a. the period before people learned how to communicate.
b. the period at which agriculture was developed.
c. the period in which simple stone tools were developed.
d. the latest of the two stone ages.
e. the period before the full development of the Homo sapiens species.

Sumerian civilization produced the first
Select one:
a. coined money.
b. examples of warfare among people.
c. written law code.
d. mass literacy.
e. monotheistic religion.

Jewish monotheism
Select one:
a. was spread actively by Jewish missionaries throughout the Middle East.
b. influenced no other religions.
c. proposed a less human-like and more abstract God.
d. included worship of various lesser gods.
e. emerged at the high point of Sumerian civilization.

Hunting and gathering societies
Select one:
a. organize rather small groups into political units.
b. are always warlike and require little land.
c. could not survive after Middle Eastern people developed agriculture.
d. are not able to produce art.
e. generally produce a food surplus.

Egypt differed from Mesopotamian civilization by stressing
Select one:
a. extensive trade.
b. greater social equality.
c. well-organized, durable empires.
d. firm religious beliefs.
e. more modest building projects.

Which of the following areas was NOT one of the earliest civilizations to develop?
Select one:
a. Northern China
b. Middle East
c. Northwestern India
d. West Africa
e. Northeastern Africa

The development of agriculture caused important changes in all of the following EXCEPT
Select one:
a. the stability of human settlements.
b. the development of complex social patterns.
c. population size and life expectancy.
d. the tendency to believe in many gods.
e. male-female relations.

The earliest known writing in a civilization first developed in
Select one:
a. Mesoamerica
b. China
c. Egypt
d. India
e. the Middle East

The development of writing
Select one:
a. helps explain why agriculture could develop.
b. was unusual in an agricultural society.
c. resulted from the needs of the various river valley civilizations to communicate with one another.
d. helps explain why governments could become more formal and bureaucratic.
e. resulted from new technologies, notably the invention of paper.

The characteristic political organization of the Tigris-Euphrates civilization was
Select one:
a. regional city-states.
b. large, durable empires.
c. democracy.
d. village-level government.
e. hunting bands.

Why did the original inhabitants of Australia not develop agriculture?
Select one:
a. The Australian climate was too severe.
b. They were prevented from doing so by the Neolithic revolution.
c. They were too isolated to learn of developments elsewhere until recently.
d. Australia never experienced an ice age.
e. Australian soil was too barren to grow crops.

Once developed, metal tools were preferred over stone tools for all of the following reasons EXCEPT
Select one:
a. they were more durable.
b. they could be used to make accurate weapons.
c. they were sharper and more precise.
d. they permitted more diverse shapes.
e. they were easier for ordinary people to make at home.

The transformation that was most responsible
for moving humans toward civilization was the
(A) use of fire.
(B) smelting of metals such as copper.
(C) growth of towns and cities.
(D) rise of agriculture.
(E) rise of specialized classes

Metalworking was important to agricultural
and herding societies for each of the following
reasons EXCEPT:
(A) Farmers could use more efficient metal
hoes to work the ground.
(B) Metal weapons were superior to those
made of stone or wood.
(C) Toolmakers could focus on their craft full
time and trade with farmers for food.
(D) Woodworkers and other manufacturing
artisans could improve their craft.
(E) Large metal boats could be constructed,
improving trade.

The start of sedentary agriculture
(A) occurred simultaneously in various places
and spread around the world.
(B) began only in the savannas of West Africa.
(C) started in the Middle East first but developed
independently in other areas.
(D) arose in the river valleys of the Huang-he
and Yangtze.
(E) began after the abandonment of hunting
and gathering.

Cuneiform and other types of writing are
important in part because they
(A) help organize elaborate political structures.
(B) lead directly to social stratification.
(C) can compel leaders to follow written
guidelines of behavior.
(D) hinder economic development in certain
circumstances.
(E) limit bureaucratic inefficiencies

Which of the following is NOT a feature of
Sumerian civilization?
(A) a simplified alphabet of 22 letters
(B) ziggurats
(C) cuneiform
(D) city-States
(E) a numeric system based on 10, 60, and
360

Unlike Sumer and the Indus Valley or
Harappan civilization, Egypt
(A) did not have an effective method of irrigation.
(B) lacked a coherent system of writing.
(C) began using metal tools much later.
(D) retained a unified state throughout most
of its history.
(E) worshipped many gods.

Unlike Sumer and Egypt, the Indus Valley or
Harappan civilization
(A) became a geographic center for a unified,
continuous culture lasting millennia.
(B) is particularly difficult to study because
its writing has not been deciphered.
(C) was secure from nomadic incursions and
invasions.
(D) never developed a military social class.
(E) developed a monotheistic religion.

Compared to river valley cultures in Egypt
and Mesopotamia, Chinese civilization
(A) probably developed after civilizations in
the Nile Valley and Mesopotamia.
(B) predates the rise of civilization in both
Egypt and Mesopotamia.
(C) developed simultaneously with Egypt and
Mesopotamia.
(D) did not rely on heavy irrigation as yearround
water was plentiful.
(E) has no verifiable historic origins and left
no written records.

In early China, unity and cultural identity
were provided by
(A) divine monarchs.
(B) shared religious ceremonies.
(C) a uniform language.
(D) Buddhism.
(E) a common system of writing.

Stone tools, hunting and gathering, and an
increasing number of Homo sapiens sapiens
are features of the
(A) Neolithic Age.
(B) Late Paleolithic Age.
(C) Bronze Age.
(D) Early Copper Age.
(E) River valley civilizations.