Survey of World History Pre-Test Questions
Course Introduction
Survey of World History offers a comprehensive overview of major events, cultures, and transformative developments that have shaped human civilization from ancient times to the modern era. The course covers a broad geographic scope, exploring key societies, belief systems, and global interactions, such as trade, conflict, and migration, that influenced social, political, and economic change. Through a chronological and thematic approach, students examine the rise and fall of empires, the spread of ideas and technologies, and the interdependence of world regions, fostering a deeper understanding of how historical forces continue to impact the present.
Recommended Textbook
The Worlds History Combined Volume 5th Edition by Howard Spodek
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1320 Verified Questions
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Chapter 1: The Dry Bones Speak
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Q1) The skull nicknamed "Toumai" dates to at least ________ years ago.
A) 2.5 million
B) 3.75 million
C) 100,000
D) 1.5
Answer: A
Q2) Charles Darwin is best known for his work on ________.
A) paleoanthropology
B) history
C) botany
D) evolution
Answer: D
Q3) The hominid footprints from Tanzania indicate that hominids walked upright from around ________ years ago.
A) 3.5 million
B) 275,000
C) 5.2 million
D) 2.75 million
Answer: A
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Chapter 2: From Village Community to City-State
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Q1) In Mesopotamian city-states,the city was a place of ________,while the countryside was a place of ________.
A) peace; warfare
B) consumption; production
C) chaos; order
D) royal power; priestly power
Answer: B
Q2) The Behistun monument was used by H.C.Rawlinson to ________.
A) uncover the history of Hammurabi
B) trace the great flood of the Bible
C) understand the urban revolution
D) decipher cuneiform
Answer: D
Q3) The time prior to the invention of writing is called ________.
A) prehistory
B) the ancient world
C) the Middle Ages
D) the Neolithic Age
Answer: A
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Chapter 3: River Valley Civilizations
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Q1) Which of these patterns was illustrated by Akhetaten?
A) the emergence of cities in ancient Egypt
B) the height of the power of Egypt's pharaohs
C) the establishment of a new capital to signal a break with the past
D) the unification of ancient Egypt
Answer: C
Q2) The role of Isis in the Osiris myth relates to her function as the Egyptian deity of
A) rebirth
B) peace
C) kingship
D) death
Answer: A
Q3) Which of these indicates Mohenjo-Daro was a planned city?
A) roads
B) the size of the town
C) the size of its buildings
D) fortifications
Answer: A
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Chapter 4: A Polycentric World
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Q1) Which of these was commonly cultivated in the earliest American cultures?
A) barley
B) rice
C) maize
D) wheat
Q2) Which of these is a large,apparently urban,settlement that flourished from about 400 to 900 C.E.?
A) Kanem-Borno
B) Jenne-jeno
C) Kumbi Saleh
D) Meroë
Q3) Zimbabwes are examples of ________ urbanization in Africa.
A) villages leading to
B) foreign influences on
C) the sole example of indigenous
D) the late development of
Q4) What do you consider the most important differences and similarities between the first civilizations of the Americas and the earliest civilizations in Mesopotamia?
Q5) How did the dynasties of China differ from the dynasties of China?
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Chapter 5: Dawn of the Empires
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Q1) The Akkadian,Persian,and Macedonian empires illustrate a pattern of ________ in the Middle East.
A) hegemonic empires
B) empires based on dominance
C) ever-larger empires
D) foreign invasions
Q2) The Peloponnesian War can be said to have ________ the Macedonian invasion of Greece.
A) delayed
B) facilitated
C) prevented D) been caused by
Q3) A satrapy is a Persian ________.
A) emperor
B) coin
C) administrative district
D) writing system
Q4) Compare the empires created by Assyrian and Egyptian rulers.What were their most important similarities and differences?
Q5) Compare and contrast Persian and Greek political traditions.
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Rome and the Barbarians
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Q1) The mosaics "Justinian and Theodora" show that Byzantine emperors ruled based on both ________ support.
A) military and religious
B) commercial and spiritual
C) cultural and military
D) patrician and plebeian
Q2) Which of these was a prominent Visigothic ruler?
A) Attila
B) Odoacer
C) Alaric
D) Servius Tullius
Q3) The death of Alexander created an opportunity for ________.
A) his heirs
B) the Roman Empire
C) the rise of Macedon
D) his generals
Q4) Consider the difference between an empire based on hegemony and one based on dominance,using the Roman Empire as an example.
Q5) Compare the Roman Empire to Alexander's empire.Why did they have such different fates?
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Chapter 7: China
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of these was founded by the Toba people?
A) the Han dynasty
B) the Northern Wei dynasty
C) the Tang dynasty
D) the Sui dynasty
Q2) Concerning the challenges they present for inhabitants,the Yellow and Yangzi river regions are ________.
A) very different
B) identical
C) about the same
D) complete opposites
Q3) How was Confucianism utilized by Han and later rulers?
Q4) Chinese silk first reached Rome in the ________ century B.C.E.
A) sixth
B) tenth
C) fourth
D) first
Q5) Compare the beginnings and growth of Confucianism and Buddhism in China.
Q6) What do you consider the most important achievement of the Qin dynasty? Why?
Page 9
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Chapter 8: Indian Empires
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Q1) The prominence of Sanskrit under the Guptas highlights that dynasty's ________ roots.
A) Kushana
B) Harappan
C) Hindu
D) Aryan
Q2) Which of these dynasties ruled the region of Magadha in the second century B.C.E.?
A) Mauryan
B) Gupta
C) Huna
D) Sunga
Q3) Sangam poetry illustrates which of these themes in Indian history?
A) the clash between Buddhism and Hinduism
B) regional cultural traditions
C) the cultural dominance of northern India
D) the legacy of the Aryan migrations
Q4) Compare the spread of Indian culture to sinicization.How were these similar and different?
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Hinduism and Buddhism
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Q1) Like Shinto in Japan,Hinduism in India ________.
A) was introduced by foreign missionaries
B) developed in classical times
C) easily survived Buddhism's challenge
D) was profoundly influenced by Buddhism
Q2) Mahavir was the founder of ________.
A) Buddhism
B) Hinduism
C) Jainism
D) Sikhism
Q3) Which of these best describes dharma?
A) one's ethical duty
B) one's allotted path in life
C) fate
D) reincarnation
Q4) In Shinto,natural spirits are ________.
A) kami
B) bodhisattvas
C) tantras
D) vaishyas
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Chapter 10: Judaism and Christianity
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Sample Questions
Q1) St.Benedict is best known as a founder of ________ in Western Europe.
A) the papacy
B) the Carolingian Empire
C) the kingdom of Spain
D) monasticism
Q2) When a people is dispersed,usually outside of their homeland,this is called a(n)________.
A) deportation
B) exodus
C) sacrament
D) diaspora
Q3) Which of these popes presided over the Fourth Lateran Council in 1216?
A) Urban II
B) Leo IX
C) Innocent III
D) Gregory I
Q4) How did its emergence in the Roman context help to mold Christianity?
Q5) Compare Judaism to one of the other religions studied so far.Especially consider the role of each outside of the strictly religious sphere.
Page 12
Q6) Is Christianity a Jewish sect? Why or why not?
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Chapter 11: Islam
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Sample Questions
Q1) Al-Khwarazmi is best known as the developer of ________.
A) the modern science of chemistry
B) a theory concerning the circulatory system
C) algebra
D) the heliocentric model
Q2) Like the Byzantine Emperors,the caliphs were ________.
A) their faith's ultimate spiritual authorities
B) secular, rather than religious leaders
C) religious and spiritual leaders
D) chosen by popular acclaim
Q3) The followers of Ali are known as ________.
A) Shi'a
B) Sunnis
C) Sufis
D) sultans
Q4) Which of these is one of the five pillars of Islam?
A) jihad
B) daily prayer
C) dar al-Islam
D) Sufism
Page 13
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Chapter 12: Establishing World Trade Routes
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Q1) The Muslim hajj had the impact of ________ trade.
A) halting
B) fostering
C) slowing
D) dispersing
Q2) The importance of internal trade to China can be explained primarily by China's ________,relative to other countries.
A) large rivers
B) more fertile lands
C) large size
D) commercial innovation
Q3) Trade diasporas existed as early as ________.
A) 200 B.C.E.
B) 750 C.E.
C) 1450 C.E.
D) 3500 B.C.E.
Q4) Compare the trading networks of the Americas with other trading networks.Did they differ most in scope or in their mechanisms?
Q5) Compare the roles of China and Arab merchants in the Asian trading network.
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Chapter 13: The Opening of the Atlantic and the Pacific
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Q1) Compare the voyages of the Zheng He,the Vikings,and men such as Christopher Columbus.Consider their motives,their backing,and their methods.
Q2) The first European voyage that sailed around the southern tip of Africa was led by ________.
A) Christopher Columbus
B) Vasco Nuñez de Balboa
C) Bartolomeu Dias
D) Ferdinand Magellan
Q3) What were the long-term consequences of the Mongol Empire and its fall in European affairs of the Renaissance and after?
Q4) The Black Death has traditionally been identified as ________.
A) bubonic plague
B) chicken pox
C) typhoid
D) anthrax
Q5) Use The Triumph of Death to consider the different impacts of the Black Death on Europe.
Q6) What drove the Renaissance? Compare the different factors that drove this burst of artistic and intellectual activity.
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Chapter 14: The Unification of World Trade
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Q1) Which of these best describes the goal of mercantilism?
A) increasing a country's wealth
B) building international trade networks
C) regulating trade
D) laissez-faire
Q2) The main goal of the Portuguese in Asia and Africa was ________.
A) establishing plantations
B) finding sources of slaves
C) trade
D) settlement
Q3) Russian expansion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was accomplished largely at the expense of ________.
A) its serfs
B) the Orthodox Church
C) the landed gentry
D) imperial power
Q4) Compare the Ottoman and Mughal empires.What were their most important similarities and differences?
Q5) How did the emergence of the nation-state change the nature of imperialism?
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Chapter 15: Migration
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Q1) The Safavids were based in what is today ________.
A) Syria
B) India
C) Iran
D) Turkey
Q2) In the Americas,slavery was most closely tied to what other activity?
A) mining
B) ranching
C) sugar cultivation
D) manufacturing
Q3) Which of these were the warriors who took part in Ottoman conquests?
A) Sufis
B) gazis
C) qadis
D) millets
Q4) Which of these best characterizes the impact of the Columbian Exchange?
A) catastrophic but short-lived
B) minimal in most areas
C) significant, but primarily for the Americas
D) both profound and catastrophic
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Chapter 16: Political Revolutions in Europe and the Americas
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Q1) Which of these arguably gained supreme power in England as a result of the Glorious Revolution?
A) Oliver Cromwell
B) William and Mary
C) Parliament
D) Charles II
Q2) What was the relationship between the American,French,Haitian,and Latin American revolutions?
Q3) The Congress of Vienna met to conclude a peace ending the ________.
A) American Civil War
B) Napoleonic Wars
C) War of 1812
D) American Revolutionary War
Q4) Which of these conflicts was fought between1861 and 1865?
A) the French Revolutionary Wars
B) the Seven Years War
C) the American Revolutionary War
D) the American Civil War
Page 18
Q5) What was the relationship of the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment?
Q6) What were the most important factors that shaped the Latin American revolutions?
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Page 19
Chapter 17: The Industrial Revolution
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Q1) Chose two elements of European or American society and compare how these two were impacted by the Industrial Revolution.
Q2) Which of these best characterizes the consensus concerning the question "Why Did the Industrial Revolution Begin in Britain"?
A) Enclosures provided the main spark for industrialization.
B) Britain already had a partially mechanized textile industry before any other nation.
C) No one simple answer has emerged.
D) Capitalism was most advanced in Britain.
Q3) Hiram Maxim developed a ________ in 1883.
A) dynamo
B) machine gun
C) reaping machine
D) camera
Q4) The author of The Condition of the Working Class in England was ________.
A) Friedrich Engels
B) Samuel Smiles
C) David Ricardo
D) Adam Smith
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Chapter 18: Nationalism, Imperialism, and Resistance
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Q1) Clemens von Metternich was foreign minister for ________ in the mid-1800s.
A) Germany
B) Belgium
C) France
D) Austria
Q2) Which of these models argues that global networks are controlled by core nations?
A) globalization
B) long-distance trade
C) world system
D) triangular trade
Q3) The subject of the Berlin Conference was ________.
A) the Mahdi uprising
B) partitioning Africa
C) the Balkans
D) the weakened Ottoman Empire
Q4) Compare two examples of nationalism that led to different outcomes.What do you consider the most important factors that changed the outcome?
Q5) Consider anticolonialism in the late 1800s.What form did it take,and how successful was it?
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Chapter 19: Methods of Mass Production and Destruction
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Q1) The ruler of Russia at the outbreak of World War I was ________.
A) Nicholas II
B) Alexander II
C) Catherine II
D) Peter the Great
Q2) Fritz Haber was a leader in what field?
A) astrophysics
B) architecture
C) jazz
D) the chemical industry
Q3) Which of these came to power in the course of the Russian Revolution of 1917?
A) socialists
B) Bolsheviks
C) Joseph Stalin
D) Sergei Witte
Q4) Which of these gained most from the mandates created following World War I?
A) the Ottoman Empire
B) Turkey
C) Arab nationalists
D) Britain
Page 22
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Chapter 20: World War II
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Q1) Which of these men headed the Tokyo Tribunal held from 1946 to 1948?
A) Emperor Hirohito
B) Douglas MacArthur
C) Dwight Eisenhower
D) Bernard Montgomery
Q2) The Terror House museum is in ________.
A) Poland
B) Germany
C) Hungary
D) Austria
Q3) Which of these was the only Asian nation among the Five Great Powers at the Paris peace conference in 1919?
A) China
B) Korea
C) Japan
D) India
Q4) Consider two different groups that were affected differently by World War II and compare their experiences.
Q5) How did the League of Nations and the United Nations differ?
Q6) What commonalities led to the emergence of fascism in different countries?
Page 23
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Chapter 21: Cold War, New Nations, and Revolt Against Authority
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Q1) What are the strengths and weakness of the United Nation in pursuing its charter?
Q2) The Warsaw Pact was created to ________.
A) push the boundaries of the Soviet Union
B) bring communist countries together in one economic bloc
C) counter the creation of NATO
D) promote communism
Q3) Since its inception,the scope of the World Bank has ________.
A) remained the same
B) diminished
C) shifted towards Asia
D) greatly increased
Q4) The activities of the UN are ________.
A) mainly in the area of peace-keeping
B) confined to third-world nations
C) mostly humanitarian
D) extremely diverse
Q5) How did the Cold War impact relations among American nations?
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Q6) Why did the Soviet Union fall apart? What was the fate of communism in this process?
Chapter 22: China and India
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Q1) How did Mao's political ideas evolve after the victory of 1949?
Q2) The leader of the Guomindang,or Nationalists,after 1928 was ________.
A) Chiang Kai-shek
B) Sun Yat-sen
C) Mao Zedong
D) Deng Xiaoping
Q3) The Indian National Congress was established in what decade?
A) 1920s
B) 1940s
C) 1900s
D) 1880s
Q4) Which of these was India's great poet?
A) Subhas Chandra Bose
B) Rabindranath Tagore
C) Mohammed Ali Jinnah
D) Indira Gandhi
Q5) In the context of millennia of Indian history,why was India unified in the twentieth century?
Q6) Was partition inevitable?
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Q7) What were the most important factors leading to the communist victory in China?
Chapter 23: Contemporary History: Evolution, Settlements,
Politics, and Religion
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Q1) Like al-Qaeda,Boko Haram is inspired by ________.
A) anti-Shi'a Islamism
B) Arab nationalism
C) the desire to purify Islam
D) Sufism
Q2) China hosted the Olympics in what year?
A) 2012
B) 2008
C) 2004
D) 2000
Q3) The European Union currently has ________ member nations.
A) 28
B) 17
C) 32
D) 45
Q4) The author of The End of History is________.
A) Saskia Sassen
B) Jean-Paul Sartre
C) Francis Fukuyama
D) Jiang Zemin
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Chapter 24: Trade,Revolution,Technology,Identity
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Q1) "Fortress Europe" refers to a policy developed in response to ________.
A) the 2008 recession
B) terrorism
C) the creation of the European Union
D) rising immigration in the Europe Union
Q2) In France,immigration in recent decades is an indirect result of ________.
A) colonization
B) industrialization
C) modernization
D) World War II
Q3) How does globalization differ from earlier global trade networks?
Q4) Separatist movements seek independence to create ________.
A) democracies
B) theocracies
C) nation-states
D) empires
Q5) What is the role of new technologies in globalization? Are such technologies critical for globalization?
Q6) Is decolonization still taking place in Asia and Africa?
Page 27
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