AP World History questions n answers graded A+

AP World History(2.1) When and where did civilization first develop? - correct answer Mesopotamia in 3500 BCE (2.1) Where did civilization separately develop? - correct answer China and Central America (2.1) Four distinctive features of a civilization - correct answer 1. Develops economic surplus (extra/after basic needs) 2. Develops a formal government 3. Develops writing, which helps w/ communication, trade, and record keeping 4. Develops larger urban centers, leading to the population growth in these centers Most historians feel you must have at least 2, but up to 3, to be considered a civilization (2.1) Agricultural civilizations - correct answer - Most people lived in the countryside - Most people remained illiterate (2.1) How were cities and writing influential? - correct answer In shaping societies with different characteristics from those of the earliest agricultural settlements (2.1) Civilization increased human... - correct answer impact on the environment - arguably bad (2.1) The earliest civilization seemed to develop where? - correct answer river valleys (2.2) What area generated the first example of human civilization? - correct answer The Middle East (2.2) In between what two rivers was the first civilization, Mesopotamia, founded? - correct answer The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (2.2) Did Mesopotamia have an example they could follow for building their civilization? - correct answer No, it developed absolutely from scratch, with no examples from any place else to imitate. (also happened with China and Central America) (2.2) By 4000 BCE, the farmers of Mesopotamia were familiar with what? What were some other achievements. - correct answer Bronze and copper working, and they had already invented the wheel for transportation. They had a well-established pottery industry and interesting artistic forms. Coordination between communities was required for farming because of irrigation. This coordination served as the basis for complex political societies. (2.2) The Sumerians - Writing - correct answer - Developed a cuneiform system by 3500 BCE, the first known case of human writing - Used geometric shapes to symbolize spoken sounds - 300 symbols - Writing and reading remained complex skills, which only a few had time to master - Scribes wrote on clay tablets, using styluses shaped like a modern pen (2.2) The Sumerians - Art - correct answer - Statues and painted frescoes were used to adorn the temples of the gods - Statues of the gods also decorated individual homes (2.2) The Sumerians - Astronomy and Mathematics - correct answer - Sumerian science aided a complex agricultural society, and people sought to learn more about the movement of the sun and stars, founding the science of astronomy, and improved their mathematical knowledge. - They employed a system of numbers based on units of 10, 60, and 360 that we still use in calculating circles and hours. - Sumerians and their successors in Mesopotamia created patterns of observation and abstract through about nature that a number of civilization, including our own, still rely on, and they also introduced specific systems, such as charts of major constellations, that have been in use, at least among educated people, for 5000 years not only in the Middle East but, by later imitation, in India and Europe as well. (2.2) The Sumerians - Religion - correct answer - They developed complex religious rituals - Each city had a patron god and erected impressive shrines to please and honor this and other deities.