Foundations of Human Civilizations Quiz

Without a stable food supply, civilizations could not exist because

• there would be nothing to trade.

• people would not be able to stay in one place.

• all the people would starve.

• people would have to spend too much time farming.

Why was culture, such as stories, art, and religion, important to civilizations?

• It gave people something to do with their free time.

• It helped to unify the people of the civilization.

• It gave people a way to domesticate animals.

• It gave people a reason to be afraid of others.

Which of the following is the best definition of circa?

• before

• near

• around

• unknown

What discovery provided warmth and protection for nomadic hunter-gatherers?

• how to cook food

• how to make wool clothing

• how to build stone houses

• how to make fire

What was the cause of civilizations developing a division of labor?

• Civilizations had large armies.

• Civilizations had large quantities of food.

• Civilizations had small populations.

• Civilizations had written languages.

This wooden tool was most likely used by which society?

• Hunter-gatherer

• Roman

• Mesopotamian

• Egyptian

Unlike nomadic tribes, civilizations remained in a single place. What was a result of this?

• Civilizations developed religious beliefs.

• Civilizations developed hunter-gatherer economies.

• Civilizations developed spoken languages.

• Civilizations developed geographic boundaries.

Historians believe that the development of trade influenced what other development in ancient civilizations?

• the development of religion

• the development of spoken language

• the development of social classes

• the development of agriculture

The wild origins of crops including wheat, barley, and peas are traced to the Near East region. Cereals were grown in Syria as long as 9,000 years ago, while figs were cultivated even earlier; prehistoric seedless fruits discovered in the Jordan Valley suggest fig trees were being planted some 11,300 years ago. The origins of rice and millet farming date to the same Neolithic period in China. The world’s oldest known rice paddy fields, discovered in eastern China in 2007, reveal evidence of ancient cultivation techniques such as flood and fire control. Though the transition from wild harvesting was gradual, the switch from a nomadic to a settled way of life is marked by the appearance of early Neolithic villages with homes equipped with grinding stones for processing grain.

—adapted from The Development of Agriculture, National Geographic

This passage describes the significance of:

• the rise of the barter economy.

• creating food surpluses.

• the domestication of plants.

• labor specialization.

Which of these items was unlikely to be used by nomadic hunter-gatherers?

• 
• 
• 
•