WHAP - Practice Exam - 2017 MCQ

The particular consequences invoked in the ritual curse in the treaty most strongly support which of the following statements about ancient Mesopotamia?

• States’ legitimacy was based on claims to secular authority.

• Ongoing environmental degradation occurred as a byproduct of the spread of pastoralism.

• Maintaining and expanding agricultural production was seen as a core task of governments.

• The domestication of plants occurred before the domestication of animals.

A historian would most likely use this passage in the treaty to illustrate which of the following?

• The precarious nature of early civilizations’ relationship to their physical environment

• The negative effect of overpopulation on urban sanitation and health

• The emergence of social hierarchies supported by unequal distribution of surplus food

• The nutritional deficiencies suffered by early agricultural populations

Which of the following was an important long-term effect of the expansion of the Assyrian Empire?

• The diffusion of monotheistic religious beliefs to East Asia

• The development of the Greek alphabet

• The initial diffusion of advanced mathematical knowledge, such as algebra and trigonometry

• The establishment of Jewish diasporic communities as a result of Assyrian military conquest

Compared to the regulations in the excerpt, Buddhist practices concerning gender roles in the period 600 c.e. to 600 b.c.e. differed in that they

• rejected the validity of marriage as an institution

• offered women and men the possibility of monastic life as an alternative to marriage

• gave the bride’s mother, rather than the father, the primary role in making marriage decisions

• asserted that only marriages based on the free choice of both spouses were valid

The views expressed in the excerpt are best seen as evidence of which of the following in Mauryan society?

• The persistence of patriarchy

• The absence of inter-caste marriages

• The social acceptance of children born out of wedlock

• The rulers’ lax enforcement of religious doctrine

Which of the following changes to Mauryan religious policy occurred under Chandragupta’s grandson, Emperor Ashoka?

• The emergence of a syncretic Indo-Greek system of religious belief

• The secularization of the Mauryan state

• The promotion of Buddhist teachings through edicts by the ruler

• The establishment of Islam as the dominant religion of northern India

According to the passage, Xunzi was advocating an approach to governance that most clearly reflected the principles of

• Daoism

• Legalism

• Confucianism

• Buddhism

Xunzi’s idealized vision of Chinese society in the passage differs most strongly from the social structure of which of the following?

• Roman society during the late empire

• Hindu society in South Asia during the Gupta Empire

• Muslim society during the early Caliphates

• Mongol society during the period of Mongol conquests

Ideas similar to those expressed in the passage have directly contributed to the development of which of the following aspects of later Chinese imperial history?

• The long-standing tradition of Chinese leadership in technological, agricultural, and commercial innovation relative to the rest of the world

• The expectation that emperors must be judged by a different set of ethical standards all other members of society

• The virtual elimination of the threat of rebellion against established political authority

• The practice of recruiting capable bureaucrats on the basis of educational achievement rather than noble birth

Which of the following best explains the overall demographic trend shown in the chart?

• The spread of the bubonic plague by the Mongol invasions

• Migrations to Christian population centers in the Mediterranean

• Forced migration of populations by the Roman government

• Invasions by Germanic and Central Asian peoples