AP World History Unit 1 Study Guide – Flashcards
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What is the first recognizable cultural activity of human beings?
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Stone tool making
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Most early human activity centered on...?
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Gathering food
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What is the relationship between tool making and meat eating in the Stone Age?
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The increase in meat eating is linked to increased tool making
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The development, transmission, and transformation of cultural practices and events are the subject of...?
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History
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Since the foraging lifestyle was not particularly unpleasant or hard, foragers had a great deal of time left for...?
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Socializing, tool making, and creating art
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What is NOT true about the transition to plant cultivation and animal domestication 10,000 years ago?
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It was rapid and complete
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The most efficient method of clearing land for agriculture was by using...?
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Fire
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Women played a major role in the transition to crop cultivation because....?
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They were the primary gatherers of wild plant foods
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The earliest transition to agriculture was...?
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In the Middle East
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Scholars feel that early domestication of animals did not provide...?
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Transportation
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The American continents contained very few domesticated animals because...?
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There were few species suitable for domestication
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The gradual adoption of agriculture transformed the world most by causing...?
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Global population increase
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How does the chapter suggest that farmers were able to displace foragers from fertile lands...?
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The gradual peaceful infiltration on fertile lands
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The religions of farming communities tended to focus on....?
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An Earth Mother or female deity
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Recent discoveries of large stones and burial chambers may indicate...?
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Ancestor rituals
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The growth of settled agricultural communities resulted in....?
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Trade and craft specialization
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The Neolithic town Catal Huyuk prospered from...?
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Long-distance trade in obsidian, pottery, and cloth
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Metal working in the late Neolithic period was used for...?
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Decoration or in ceremonies
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What is NOT generally considered to be an attribute of civilization?
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The absence of social class divisions
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Early societies developed civilizations in the floodplains of great rivers because the rivers and floodplains provided...?
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Fertile silt and water for agriculture
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Creation myths often provide a society with a...?
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Satisfactory explanation of its environment
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Mesopotamia was sometimes seen as a dangerous place to live by its inhabitants because of...?
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Flooding
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Agriculture in Mesopotamia depended on...?
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Artificial canals and irrigation
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The earliest historically documented people of Mesopotamia were the...?
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Sumerians
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What is NOT included in the Semitic family of languages?
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Elamite
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The term city-state refers to...?
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An urban center and the agricultural hinterlands it controlled
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In Mesopotamian cities, the temples...?
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Housed the cult of the deity or deities
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In the third millennium B.C.E., the political system that became dominant in Sumer was...?
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A kingship with the support of priesthood and military
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The first king to unite many Sumerian city-states under the control of one king was...?
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Sargon
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The Babylonian leader, Hammurabi, is best known for his...?
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Law code
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What motivated the Mesopotamian conquests for far-reaching territories?
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The need for vital resources
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Surprisingly, merchant activity in Mesopotamia took place without...?
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Coins
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Historians can infer that Mesopotamian society was made up of...?
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Three classes
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Women in Mesopotamian society had a lower status than in a hunter-gatherer society because of...?
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The shift of the major role in food provision from women to men
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What about women in Mesopotamia was NOT true?
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They could initiate divorce
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Mesopotamian gods were anthropomorphic, meaning that they...?
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Were human-like in form and conduct
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Mesopotamian priests...?
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Inherited their positions from their fathers
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The abundance or amulets suggests...?
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The belief in the value of magic
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The Mesopotamian writing system is called...?
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Cuneiform
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The Mesopotamians developed skill in bronze metallurgy. What was NOT considered an advantage to bronze over other metals?
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It is inexpensive
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Although Mesopotamia was "resource poor," it did have abundant...?
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Clay
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The culture that developed in Egypt was unique largely because of...?
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Egypt's natural isolation and essential self-sufficiency
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The annual flood of the Nile can best be characterized as...?
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Fairly regular
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What was NOT included among Egypt's natural resources?
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Salt
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A pivotal event in early Egyptian history was...?
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The unification of all of Egypt under King Menes
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According to Egyptian belief, the function assigned by the gods to the Egyptian kings was to maintain ma'at, or the...?
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Divinely authorized order of the universe
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The Mesopotamian law code is famous. What might account for the fact that Egypt did not create a similar code of law?
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As a god on earth, the king was the source of all law
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Egyptian administrative and governmental records were...?
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Written on papyrus, an early form of paper
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Compared to Mesopotamia, the Egyptian population...?
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Was more rural and agricultural
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Egypt's external interests were primarily concentrated on...?
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Maintaining access to valuable raw materials
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Slavery in ancient Egypt was...?
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Limited, and of little economic significance
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Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley civilizations were all...?
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Based upon fertile floodplains and river valleys
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Metal objects unearthed in the Indus Valley...?
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Have been primarily jewelry and other decorative items
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What was NOT one of the components of the "system failures" that brought down the Indus Valley cities?
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That invaders from the north and east drove out inhabitants
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According to the chapter, why was China's development unique?
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It was geographically separated from the rest of East Asia
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The crops of China vary by region...?
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Wheat and millet in the north and rice in the south
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The Chinese acquired silk by...?
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Raising silk worms and pioneering silk cloth production
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What did the practice of Feng Shui accomplish?
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It orients buildings in harmony with heavens
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During the Shang period, ancestor worship became important because...?
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Ancestors had special influence with gods
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What type of possessions were signs of status and nobility and had important ritual uses?
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Bronze
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The "Mandate of Heaven" meant that the ruler retained the right to rule as long as...?
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He remained wise and principled guardian of his people
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The period at the end of the Zhou period and just before Chinese unification is called...?
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The Warring States Period
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The Chinese political system which relied primarily on strict laws and punishments in order to compel the people to behave is called...?
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Legalism
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What is NOT one of the ways that Confucian philosophy attempts to create social harmony?
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By emphasizing individual freedom
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Two indigenous Chinese philosophies that emerged from the Warring States Period are...?
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Confucianism and Daoism
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The fundamental idea of Daoism can be summarized as...?
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Accepting the world as you find it, avoiding useless struggles, and adhering to the "path" of nature
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The concept of yin and yang represented the complementary nature of...?
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Male and female roles in the natural order
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Civilization emerged in Nubia because of...?
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Its location and natural wealth
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How did Nubia become the "corridor" for long distance trade before 3000 B.C.E.?
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It connected sub-Saharan Africa with North Africa
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Egypt became aggressive towards Nubia during the Middle and New Kingdom periods because...?
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It sought to control Nubian gold mines
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What is NOT evidence of Egyptian cultural influence on Nubia?
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Actually, due to the overwhelming force of Nubian culture, Egyptians had no influence whatsoever on them
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Why was the Nubian offer to aid Palestine a mistake?
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The Assyrians invaded Egypt as retaliation, driving the Nubians southwards
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Why did the center of power shift to Meroe in the fourth century B.C.E.?
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It was a better location for agriculture and trade
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In the Nubian kingdom's matrilineal system, the monarch who usually inherited the throne was the...?
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Son of the dead king's sister
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The duration and isolation of Early American cultures...?
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Distinguished them from the world's other major cultural regions
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What plants were domesticated and formed the staple of the Mesoamerican diet?
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Corn, beans, and squash
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The cultural core of early Olmec civilization was located at...?
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San Lorenzo and La Venta
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Why did the Olmec lay out their cities in alignment with paths of stars?
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It reflects a strong belief in the significance of astronomical events
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Why was Chavin de Huantar's location pivotal in its success?
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It was located at the intersection of trade routes between the mountain valleys and the coastal lowlands
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The Mesopotamians developed skill in bronze metallurgy. What advantage is there to bronze?
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It can be melted and molded
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The Egyptian creation myth presents the universe as orderly and generous. This is due to...?
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The yearly flooding of the Nile
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The culture that developed in Egypt was unique largely because of...?
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Egypt's geographic isolation and natural environment
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The Chinese family was considered to include...?
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All generations, living and dead
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Which of the following occurred as a result of the development of agriculture in societies that previously relied on hunting and gathering?
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Populations' density increased
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What was a major effect of the Neolithic Revolution?
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The establishment of sedentary villages
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The Indus Valley system of writing...?
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Has not yet been deciphered
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Farming was probably a more difficult way of life than foraging because...?
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The diet was less diverse
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What is meant by culture?
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Learned patterns of expression and action
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Crucial to Egypt's agriculture was...?
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Its proximity to the Nile River
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Which of the following were common phenomena in early Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, and the Indus River Valley? I. A complex writing system II. Extensive irrigation III. Long distance trade IV. Centralization of civilization around navigable rivers
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I, II, III, and IV
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Creation myths generally are intended to provide a society with a...?
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Satisfactory explanation of its environment
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What is NOT true about the Shang Dynasty?
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It used the concept of the Mandate of Heaven to justify its rule
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What river is located by Harappa, Mehrgarh, Mohenjo-Daro, and Lothal?
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The Indus River
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The Neolithic Revolution began around 8,000 B.C.E. with the...?
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Advent of sedentary agriculture and domestication of animals
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Agricultural surpluses seem to have led most directly to...?
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Specialized services and socially differentiated hierarchies
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Compared to river valley cultures in Egypt and Mesopotamia, Chinese civilization...?
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Probably developed after civilization in the Nile Valley and Southeast Asia
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The Egyptian civilization was similar to the Sumerian civilization in...?
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Its system of social stratification
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The earliest civilizations in both the Eastern and Western hemispheres were similar in...?
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Their practice of polytheism
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The Indus Valley civilization...?
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Relied heavily on communal planning
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The early civilization with the least developed technology was...?
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Mesoamerica
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The roots of classical India included...?
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The Aryan written language, Sanskrit
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Shang China contributed to what?
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The development of central government in China
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Results of cultural diffusion among early civilizations included...?
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The invention of the wheel
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The Varna system was created by Aryans in order to...?
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Create social order between groups
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What was the long-term contribution of the Hebrew people?
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Judaism
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Naturalists first surmised that humans originated in...?
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Africa
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Modern research has found what percentage of human DNA to be identical to that of an ape?
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98%
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Homo Sapiens means...?
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Wise human
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Why is the name "Stone Age" misleading?
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People used tools made out of many things, not just stone
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What does NOT describe hunting and gathering bands?
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The bands could be of any size
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About how many hours do scholars estimate it took a member of a hunting-gathering band to secure food, clothing, and shelter for that day?
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Three to five
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What is NOT one of the theories that scholars have about why people made cave paintings?
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To predict the future
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What was NOT fundamental to the success of agriculture?
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Long-distance trade
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The first animal to be domesticated was the...?
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Dog
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What is NOT one of the reasons that people may have been drawn to agriculture?
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Colder weather, which meant fewer animals
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Agriculturalists produced more specialized material goods and art than hunter-gatherers because...?
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Larger communities of people could spare some members from food production for more specialized activities
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Creation myths do NOT...?
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Record actual historical events for posterity
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The physical and mental abilities that homo sapiens gradually acquired gave these human beings the capacity to adapt to new environments by...?
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Altering their way of life, rather than by evolving physically as do other species
