Humanities: Western Traditions
Practice Questions
Course Introduction
This course explores the foundational ideas, artistic expressions, and cultural developments that have shaped Western civilization from ancient times to the present. Through an interdisciplinary study of literature, philosophy, art, history, and religion, students will examine the key figures, movements, and texts that define the Western tradition. Emphasis will be placed on critical analysis, the development of core humanistic themes such as reason, individualism, freedom, and justice, and the ongoing influence of Western thought on contemporary society.
Recommended Textbook
Western Civilization A Brief History Volume I 11th Edition by Marvin Perry(check images and others
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Page 2
Chapter 1: The Ancient Near East: the First Civilizations
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Q1) Nubia
Answer: Nubia is a region located in present-day Sudan and southern Egypt. It is an ancient civilization that existed along the Nile River, and its history dates back to around 2000 BCE. Nubia is important because it was a center of trade and cultural exchange between Egypt and other African societies. It was also known for its rich deposits of gold, which made it a valuable region for ancient civilizations. The Nubian people developed their own distinct culture, language, and architecture, and they had a significant influence on the history of ancient Africa. The region is also known for its impressive pyramids and other archaeological sites. Today, Nubia is an important area for archaeological research and the preservation of ancient African history and culture.
Q2) The reputation of Nefertiti rests on
A) her inscriptions made while a court poet.
B) her rank as a temple priestess under Tutankhamen.
C) the prominence of her role at the court of Akhenaten.
D) the belief that as a goddess she helped to guard the underworld.
E) her role as guardian of the temple.
Answer: C
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Chapter 2: The Hebrews: a New View of God and the Individual
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Q1) During the age of classical or literary prophecy
A) Hebrews were wandering in the Sinai Peninsula.
B) prophets responded to problems in Israel's social structure.
C) small farmers, as well as large landholders, lived comfortably.
D) Israel was still a tribal society.
E) there was no class distinction between the wealthy and the poor.
Answer: B
Q2) Judith and Deborah are remembered as
A) mothers of the ancient patriarchs.
B) women who found the baby Moses cast adrift on a river.
C) wives of foreign rulers who urged their husbands to let the Hebrews return to their own land.
D) prophetesses and leaders of their communities.
E) women who could not testify in court as competent witnesses.
Answer: D
Q3) Israel
Answer: Answer not provided.
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Chapter 3: The Greeks: From Myth to Reason
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Q1) Of the following, the pair that is least well matched is
A) Homer and the Iliad.
B) Solon and a Spartan military leader.
C) Draco and law codes.
D) Pisistratus and tyranny.
E) Athens and Democracy.
Answer: B
Q2) Thales
Answer: Thales was an ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician who is often considered one of the first Western philosophers. He is known for his contributions to geometry and for being one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Thales is believed to have lived in the city of Miletus in present-day Turkey around 624-546 BCE. He is important because he is considered one of the first individuals to use reason and observation to explain natural phenomena, rather than attributing them to the actions of gods or mythical beings. Thales is also known for his belief that water is the fundamental substance of the universe, a theory that laid the groundwork for future scientific inquiry and understanding of the natural world.
Q3) Aristotle
Answer: Answer not provided.
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Chapter
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Q1) The author argues that the Romans greatest gift to Western Civilization was in the area of law. Explain what advancements the Romans made in the rule of law.
Q2) Discuss the establishment of the Roman Empire, evaluating whether each of the following was particularly significant: personality, military strength, or the principle of legitimacy. How would you explain the source of sovereignty during that period?
Q3) Which statement is not true of the two consuls
A) they came from nobility
B) they commanded the army
C) they served as judges
D) they initiated legislation
E) they functioned as chief priests of Rome
Q4) Which is not thought to have contributed to the decline of Rome
A) pressure of Germanic tribes on the Roman frontier
B) deterioration of the Roman army
C) economic stagnation in the west
D) overpopulation of Roman cities
E) Christians growing concern for the afterlife rejected civil obligations
Q5) Tiber River
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Chapter 5: Early Christianity: a World Religion
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Q1) On the map of Europe, locate each of the following and note what the site may be associated with: Milan, where Ambrose was bishop; Hippo, where Augustine was bishop; Bethlehem, where Jerome retired to pray and study; and Rome, where Peter was martyred.
Q2) On the map of Europe, trace the missionary activities of Paul of Tarsus.
Q3) How is Christianity an outgrowth of Judaism? Cite religious and historical evidence to explain the connection between the two religions.
Q4) The writer of the book City of God was
A) St Augustine
B) St Benedict
C) St Ambrose
D) St Jerome
E) St Francis
Q5) Synoptic Gospels
Q6) Messiah
Q7) Teacher of Righteousness
Q8) How did Christianity reject classical humanism? What elements did Christianity retain?
Q9) Saint Augustine
Q10) Discuss the impact of the message of Augustine to the Christian community. Page 7
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Chapter 6: The Rise of Europe: Fusion of Classical, Christian, and Germanic Traditions
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Q1) Ottoman Empire
Q2) Vikings
Q3) excommunication
Q4) All of the following are true of William the Conqueror except A) was descended from the Normans that had settled in France B) divided England into shires
C) ordered the writing of a Domesday Book
D) was followed by Henry I
E) kept all of England as his own fiefdom
Q5) Peter Waldo
Q6) Explain how the Christian Church became the cementing factor of Western civilization during the Middle Ages.
Q7) Charles Martel
Q8) Explain the rise and application of anti-semitism in medieval Europe?
Q9) The English King that signed the Magna Carta was
A) King John
B) King Henry II
C) King Richard I
D) King Charles II
Page 9
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Chapter 7: The Flowering and Dissolution of Medieval
Civilization
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Q1) When Aristotle's writings were translated into Latin and reintroduced to the West
A) church scholars accepted them enthusiastically.
B) church scholars largely discounted them as pagan delusions.
C) there was controversy about whether they would endanger faith.
D) there were doubts about whether the writings were really Aristotle's.
E) they were found to be synonymous with Christian beliefs.
Q2) John Wycliffe believed that the sacraments
A) were necessary for salvation.
B) were necessary for salvation except when no priest was available when an individual died.
C) should be limited to two alone, baptism and extreme unction. D) were unnecessary for salvation.
E) represented the body and blood of Christ.
Q3) On the map of Europe, locate where the following intellectuals worked or taught: Thomas Aquinas at Paris; Robert Grossteste, at the University of Oxford near London; Albert the Great at Paris; and Anselm in Normandy.
Q4) Robert Grosseteste
Q5) Jan Hus
Q6) Jacquerie
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Chapter 8: Transition to the Modern Age: Renaissance and Reformation
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Q1) All of the following were criticisms of the church before the Reformation except A) selling of indulgences
B) nepotism
C) accumulation of wealth by bishops
D) sexual activity of priests
E) widespread marriage of bishops
Q2) The new outlook during the Renaissance applied almost exclusively to all the following except
A) princes.
B) courtiers.
C) talented artists.
D) wealthy urban families.
E) peasants.
Q3) The Council of ____ reaffirmed the church's teaching that both faith and good works were necessary for attaining salvation.
A) Constantinople
B) Worms
C) Alexandria
D) Rome
E) Trent
Page 12
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Chapter 9: Political and Economic Transformation: National
States, Overseas Expansion, Commercial Revolution
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Q1) Oliver Cromwell
Q2) Ferdinand Magellan
Q3) Compare the motivations for exploration and expansion of Portugal and Spain.
Q4) Reconquest
Q5) An insight into the degree of Charles V's power can be seen in the fact that he
A) ruled Spain, the Netherlands, and Austria.
B) never became Holy Roman Emperor.
C) strongly supported the Protestant cause.
D) witnessed the nadir of Hapsburg power.
E) was defeated by England.
Q6) Francisco Pizarro
Q7) How do you account for the dramatic increase of Spanish power in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries?
Q8) English trade in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were centered the production of
A) pottery and watches.
B) raw wool and woolens.
C) iron and steel.
D) cotton and silk.
E) sugar and cotton.
Page 13
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Chapter 10: Intellectual Transformation: the Scientific
Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment
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Q1) Who developed the theory of universal gravitation?
A) Kepler
B) Newton
C) Galileo
D) Brahe
E) Copernicus
Q2) Discuss why capitalists could find a champion in Adam Smith. Would Adam Smith have wanted to be such a champion? Can some issues that interested Adam Smith have a relationship to contemporary ones?
Q3) Thomas Hobbes
Q4) the Congregation of the Index
Q5) Which thinker wrote Candide
A) Rousseau
B) Locke
C) Diderot
D) Voltaire
E) Hobbes
Q6) "I think, therefore I am."
Q7) Nicolaus Copernicus
Q8) Aristotelian-Ptolemaic System
Page 15
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Chapter 11: The Era of the French Revolution: Affirmation of Liberty and Equality
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Q1) émigrés
Q2) The collapse of the alliance between France and Russia could be blamed on all of the following except
A) Russia's support of Spanish rebels
B) Russia's illicit trade with Britian
C) France's growing influence in Central Europe
D) the creation of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw
E) Napoleon's craving for glory
Q3) the Tennis Court Oath
Q4) Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
Q5) Before the outbreak of the French Revolution, what was the relationship between the serfs and their lords?
A) Lords were willing to give up some of their rights to avoid unrest.
B) Banalities were abolished.
C) Serfs created associations to avoid paying lords fees for the use of their mills.
D) Lords damaged peasant crops during hunting parties and had no obligation to pay for the damage
E) The Estates General eliminated all peasant obligations.
Q6) Jacobins
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Chapter 12: The Industrial Revolution: the Transformation of Society
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Q1) spinning jenny
Q2) The Chartist reform movement was lead by
A) The House of Commons.
B) King William IV.
C) Feargus O'Connor.
D) Thomas Malthus.
E) Robert Owen.
Q3) Britain was able to avoid revolution because it
A) took a militaristic stand against worker violence.
B) made violence appear to be an attack on nationalism.
C) it made unions legal.
D) created worker committees.
E) became a symbol of reform rather than revolution.
Q4) Which of the following inventions made it more efficient to bring many workers together, rather than sending work out to individuals in their own homes?
A) The cotton gin
B) The flying shuttle
C) The water frame spinning machine
D) The spinning mule
E) The steam engine
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Chapter 13: Thought and Culture in the Early Nineteenth Century
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Q1) Conservatism
Q2) Who has been called the dominant figure among French romantics?
A) Flaubert
B) Zola
C) Sand
D) Hugo
E) Bacon
Q3) All of the following are true statements about the romantics except they
A) denounced the rationalism of the philosophes because it crushed the emotions and impeded creativity.
B) yearned to rediscover in the human soul the pristine freedom that has been squashed by habits, values, rules, and standards imposed by civilization.
C) saw feeling as an obstacle to clear thinking.
D) wanted individuals to play their own music; write their own poetry; paint their own vision of nature; and live, love, and suffer in their own way.
E) saw reason as cold and dreary, and its understanding of people and life meager and inadequate.
Q4) Compare and contrast liberalism with conservatism.
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Chapter 14: Surge of Liberalism and Nationalism:
Revolution, Counterrevolution, and Unification
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Q1) Young Italy
Q2) Metternich refused to support the Greek independence movement because
A) it might introduce Eastern Orthodoxy to Central Europe.
B) Austria alliance with the Ottoman Empire guaranteed their neutrality.
C) he feared it might destroy the balance of power in Europe.
D) Greek nationalist had expressed a desire to spread into Macedonia.
E) Muslim minorities in the empire might become enraged.
Q3) The Franco-Prussian War ended with the
A) crowning of William I of Prussia as Kaiser William I.
B) defeat of Austria forces by French and Prussian armies.
C) enforcement of Metternich balance of power foreign policy.
D) defeat of Prussia by Napoleon III.
E) the unification of Germany but at the cost of Alsace-Lorraine to France.
Q4) Magyars
Q5) Who founded the organization known as Young Italy?
A) Garibaldi
B) Mazzini
C) Cavour
D) Emmanuel
E) Napoleon III
Page 20
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Chapter 15: Thought and Culture in the Mid-Nineteenth
Century: Realism, Positivism, Darwinism, and Social
Criticism
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Q1) "law of the three stages"
Q2) Which of the following is not a good match?
A) Turgenev and Sketches
B) Leo Tolstoy and War and Peace
C) Charles Dickens and Bleak House
D) Flaubert and Madame Bovary
E) Henrik Ibsen and Hard Times
Q3) In describing positivism, which of the following statements would NOT be correct?
A) Knowledge based on concrete facts would provide useful insights.
B) Social sciences were not applicable to positivism.
C) Comte is considered the father of positivism.
D) Science is the highest achievement of the human mind.
E) Plato's metaphysics was rejected by positivists.
Q4) natural selection
Q5) Gustave Courbet
Q6) A Doll's House
Q7) realism Page 21
Q8) According to Karl Marx, how does history unfold? How is the movement of history connected to Marx's larger view of human society?
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Chapter 16: Europe in the Late Nineteenth Century:
Modernization, Nationalism, Imperialism
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Q1) Which treaty was signed between China and England after the Opium War?
A) Treaty of Taiping
B) Treaty of Nanking
C) Treaty of Ghent
D) Treaty of Verdun
E) Treaty of Versailles
Q2) Who should be credited with publicizing the dreadful conditions imposed on blacks who worked on rubber plantations in the Congo?
A) Mohandas Gandhi
B) Edward Morel
C) Charles Gordon
D) David Livingstone
E) Henry Stanley
Q3) Which of the following novelists pointed out that the Europeans were moral barbarians?
A) Victor Hugo
B) Charles Dickens
C) Rudyard Kipling
D) Joseph Conrad
E) Leo Tolstoy
Page 23
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Chapter 17: Modern Consciousness: New Views of Nature, Human
Nature, and the Arts
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Q1) Max Planck
Q2) Modern artists would agree with each of the following except
A) the audience must be participants in the spirit of artistic creation.
B) there was more to be found in artistic creations than had been discovered by the old masters.
C) one should scatter complacent views of the traditions of western cultural forms.
D) there is no objective reality of space, motion, and time that has the same meaning to all observers.
E) reason must be the primary force in structuring a work of art and its message.
Q3) Quantum mechanics explained to the scientific world
A) that one cannot predict with certainty what will occur in the subatomic realm.
B) that Newton was correct in positing laws for matter close to earth, but not necessarily in a black hole.
C) an accurate method for measuring light.
D) a way to predict when a radioactive atom will decay.
E) that a heated body radiates energy in a continuous unbroken stream.
Q4) higher man
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Chapter 18: World War I: the West in Despair
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Q1) The greatest mistake of the liberals who led the March revolution was
A) the decision to remain in the war.
B) the attempt to arrest Lenin.
C) failing to execute the tsar.
D) confiscation of the landlords' lands.
E) accepting the Brest-Litovsk treaty with the Germans.
Q2) Entente Cordiale
Q3) One of the major causes of World War was Austria-Hungary's problems with its Southern Slavs. Indicate these areas and the areas that were also of interest to Russia and the Ottoman Empire that also caused Austria-Hungary concern.
Q4) The German decision of January 1917 to launch a campaign of ____ precipitated American entry into World War I.
A) unrestricted submarine warfare
B) impressments of American civilian ships
C) attacks on the French mainland
D) refusal of the German's to concede defeat
E) gunboat diplomacy
Q5) Gavrilo Princip
Q6) Woodrow Wilson
Page 25
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Chapter 19: An Era of Totalitarianism
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Q1) How may one say that the experience of Nazism illustrates the dynamic power of myth? How did myth confer power on Hitler's movement?
Q2) Historians would agree that Mussolini
A) was determined to gain power legally.
B) gave in to party pressure of the ras and immediately abandoned the governmental institutions in Italy.
C) relied on the counsel of Matteotti.
D) succeeded because the liberal Italian government was weak.
E) was successful because King Victor Emmanuel III was in love with the Fascists.
Q3) In what ways did the work of Lenin contribute to an ideology of world revolution?
Q4) The official style in art and literature of the communist regime was known as A) comintern.
B) commissaries.
C) collectivization.
D) socialist realism.
E) Kulaks.
Q5) Martin Heidegger
Q6) Collectivization
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Chapter 20: World War 2: Western Civilization in the Balance
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Q1) The Japanese defeat at __________ serves as the turning point in the Pacific.
A) Philippines
B) Iwo Jima
C) Midway
D) Guadalcanal
E) Guam
Q2) What was the fate of the majority of Soviet POWs held by the Nazis?
A) Death in the POW camps
B) Resettlement in the Balkans
C) Enlistment in Vlasov's army
D) Transport to Britain
E) Enlistment in the German army
Q3) On a map of Europe, fill in the following areas using colored pencils: Hitler's Greater Germany, states allied with Germany, and areas occupied by Germany and its allies.
Q4) On a map of Europe, designate the location of the following military engagements: Warsaw, Dunkirk, the London blitz, Leningrad, Moscow, Stalingrad, and Normandy.
Q5) What was Hitler's New World Order?
Q6) Blitzkrieg
Page 27
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Chapter 21: Europe After World War 2: Recovery and Realignment, 1945-1989
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Q1) Charles de Gaulle
Q2) What changes in communist policy occurs during the leadership of Brezhnev?
A) Andrei Sakharov was sent to Siberia at hard labor.
B) Ties with Russia's satellite states were tightened.
C) The Russians were permitted some increased contact with the Western world.
D) Anti-Semitism resulted in the ejection of Jews from the Soviet Union.
E) Personal dictatorship was strengthened in the Soviet Union.
Q3) General Charles de Gaulle may be associated with each of the following except
A) leading the free French forces in World War II.
B) pursuing friendly policies with African states.
C) establishing a government with a strong executive authority.
D) attempting to revise the constitution to his liking.
E) insisting that France be admitted to NATO.
Q4) The Federal Republic of Germany
A) moved the Bundestag to Berlin.
B) was formed from the Soviet zone of occupation.
C) remained a center of communist influence.
D) experienced a significant national trauma when the Berlin Wall was erected.
E) was the frontier for closer relationships between the east and the west.
Q5) Solidarity
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Chapter 22: The Troubled Present
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Q1) What role has international peace keepers played in the modern world? What are examples of successes and failures?
Q2) In many ways one can say that the course of the war in Afghanistan parallels that of Vietnam, discuss and give examples.
Q3) When Osama bin Laden was killed he was living in
A) Afghanistan.
B) Iraq.
C) Pakistan.
D) Saudi Arabia.
E) Iran.
Q4) Considering the problem with Islam and Muslim immigrants into Europe, discuss the modern mind-set, traditions, and history of both Western Europe and the Mid East that makes assimilation and acceptance so difficult.
Q5) Shock Therapy
Q6) Bosnian Serbs
Q7) Boris Yeltsin
Q8) Arab Spring
Q9) Third World
Q10) Angela Merkel
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