Western Civilization to 1600
Exam Questions
Course Introduction
This course provides a comprehensive overview of Western civilization from its origins in the ancient Near East through the Renaissance and Reformation up to 1600. Students will explore the political, social, economic, intellectual, and cultural developments that shaped the Western world, including the rise of classical Greece and Rome, the spread of Christianity, the formation of medieval societies, and the transformative changes of the early modern period. Emphasis is placed on the contributions of various civilizations, key historical figures and events, and the enduring influence of Western thought and institutions on global history.
Recommended Textbook
The Humanities Culture Continuity and Change Volume 1 3rd Edition by Henry M. Sayre
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Chapter 1: The Rise of Culture: From Forest to Farm
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Q1) Why do Paleolithic female figurines vastly outnumber those representing males?
A)Males were likely the carvers.
B)Males probably outnumbered females.
C)Females played a central role in the culture.
D)All prehistoric gods were female.
Answer: C
Q2) Why did the Neolithic era witness increased pottery creation?
A)More permanent settlements could support artists.
B)Tending crops provided more free time for art than hunting did.
C)Neolithic people had learned to control fire for use in kilns.
D)Fragile pottery was impractical for Paleolithic hunter-gatherers.
Answer: D
Q3) Which of the following statements reflects the changed thinking regarding prehistoric art due to the discovery of Chauvet Cave?
A)Art progressed from awkward beginnings to increased sophistication.
B)The Paleolithic art in each cave probably was created by a single person.
C)Art did not necessarily evolve in a linear progression from its early days in prehistory.
D)Paleolithic cave art was a form of graffiti created by young people.
Answer: C
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Chapter 2: Mesopotamia: Power and Social Order in the
Early Middle East
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Q1) Explore the revelations about the Mesopotamian sense of order that the Standard of Ur and King Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh convey.
Answer: The Standard of Ur and King Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh both provide insights into the Mesopotamian sense of order. The Standard of Ur, a Sumerian artifact dating back to around 2600 BCE, depicts scenes of war and peace, with soldiers and prisoners organized in neat rows, showcasing the Mesopotamian emphasis on order and hierarchy in society. This sense of order is also evident in the meticulous organization of King Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh, which contained thousands of clay tablets with cuneiform writing on various subjects such as literature, history, and science. The library was arranged and cataloged with great care, reflecting the Mesopotamian belief in the importance of preserving knowledge and maintaining order in the intellectual realm. Overall, both the Standard of Ur and King Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh reveal the Mesopotamian commitment to order and organization in different aspects of their civilization, from social structure to intellectual pursuits.
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Chapter 3: The Stability of Ancient Egypt: Flood and Sun
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Q1) Why were the Kushites able to control Egypt during the eighth century BCE?
A)The Egyptians needed stronger leadership to thwart an Assyrian invasion.
B)The Egyptian pharaohs had become weakened due to inbreeding.
C)The Kushites invaded Egypt,killed the pharaoh,and seized control.
D)The Kushites controlled most of Egypt's debt from building programs.
Answer: A
Q2) Egyptian artists painted human faces,arms,legs,and feet in profile,but human eyes and shoulders frontally because they believed this to be the A)favored format of the gods.
B)best way to fit a large number of figures into a scene.
C)most efficient way to align these body parts.
D)most characteristic view.
Answer: D
Q3) Egyptian sculptors idealized pharaohs' anatomy in their sculptures to A)make them appear attractive to potential queens.
B)convey the notion that their perfection mirrored that of the gods.
C)attempt to win favor of the gods of the underworld.
D)mask an inability to represent individual likenesses.
Answer: B
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Chapter 4: The Aegean World and the Rise of Greece: Trade,War,and Victory
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Q1) In the Iliad,why does Achilles become angry with the Greek leader Agamemnon and withdraw from the Trojan War?
A)Agamemnon takes the beautiful Briseis from Achilles.
B)Agamemnon names Hector,not Achilles,as general.
C)Achilles sympathizes with Priam,the Trojan king.
D)Achilles wants to attack the Trojans,rather than surrender.
Q2) Cycladic figurines are thought to have served a mortuary function because most were
A)found in temples.
B)inscribed with a person's name.
C)found in graves.
D)painted black.
Q3) The text presents the analogy of classical Greek architecture orders and a human figure.Examine two of these orders-the Doric and the Ionic-and two of the archaic Greek statues pictured in the text within the context of this analogy.
Q4) Compare the Archaic Greek kouros with the kore,focusing on form,function,context,and meaning.
Q5) Compare Achilles to Odysseus,focusing on their characters,their skills,and their motivations.
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Chapter 5: Golden Age Athens and the Hellenic World: The
School of Hellas
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Q1) Explore the relationship between Aristotle's Golden Mean and the Greek concepts of arête (see Chap.4)and eudaimonia.
Q2) Why were the Athenian citizens endowed with so much leisure time?
A)They imported their food,so they had no need to work the fields.
B)Revenue from the Delian League supported them.
C)Their humble living circumstances required minimal upkeep.
D)Slaves outnumbered Athenian citizens more than two to one.
Q3) The Greek word eudaimonia refers to
A)knowledge of the past.
B)success in athletics.
C)the good or flourishing life.
D)balance in all things.
Q4) Drama was originally associated with the cult of A)Mithras. B)Isis.
C)Cybele. D)Dionysus.
Q5) Argue for or against Pericles's decision to rebuild Athens' Acropolis based upon his rationale and the funding source.
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Chapter 6: Rome: Urban Life and Imperial Majesty
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Q1) Compare the Roman insula with a domus,focusing on the ways the architecture emphasizes class distinctions.
Q2) In Virgil's Aeneid,why must Aeneas leave Dido,causing her to commit suicide?
A)He has a wife to whom he must return.
B)As queen of Carthage,she is forbidden to marry a foreigner.
C)He owes a duty to the gods to continue on his journey.
D)She tells him to leave because the goddess Juno decreed so.
Q3) The Arch of Titus was constructed to
A)commemorate Titus's sack of the Second Temple of Jerusalem.
B)celebrate Titus's appointment as emperor.
C)serve as a gateway into the Colosseum.
D)provide structural support for Rome's largest aqueduct.
Q4) As early as the eighth century BCE,the Greeks colonized
A)the area around the present-day city of Milan.
B)the southern coastal regions of the Italian peninsula.
C)the area immediately surrounding Rome.
D)the present-day Italian region of Tuscany.
Q5) List and explain three examples of Etruscan influence on Roman culture.
Q6) Explore the ways in which its monumental architecture (the Colosseum,the Pantheon,the forums,and the baths)came to define Rome.
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Chapter 7: Emerging Empires in the East: Urban Life and
Imperial Majesty in China and India
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Q1) Compare Hinduism's beliefs with Buddhism's.
Q2) Compare Buddha's Four Noble Truths with Confucius's teachings.
Q3) Oracle bones were used to
A)record business transactions.
B)foretell the future.
C)make contact with ancestors.
D)practice writing.
Q4) Daoists advocate living in total simplicity to A)reach nirvana.
B)cleanse the soul.
C)preserve moral order.
D)understand qi.
Q5) The yin-yang symbolizes the A)harmonious merging of the Shang and the Zhou dynasties.
B)perpetual interplay and mutual relation among all things.
C)moment of transition that ultimately leads to wisdom.
D)five elements and the five powers of creation.
Q7) Compare the symbolism of Qin Shihuangdi's burial with that of Buddha's. Page 9
Q6) Compare the Chinese concept of balance to the Hindu tripartite of Brahman: Brahma,Vishnu,and Shiva.
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Chapter 8: The Flowering of Christianity: Faith and the
Power of Belief in the Early First Millennium
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Q1) Early Christians developed symbols to identify themselves to each other because they
A)were an illiterate people.
B)considered images to be sinful.
C)rejected the Latin alphabet.
D)feared persecution for their faith.
Q2) In Christian iconography,the evangelist John is symbolized by
A)a winged man.
B)an ox.
C)a lion.
D)an eagle.
Q3) Why is Venice home to a vast amount of Byzantine art?
A)Wealthy residents of Constantinople fled to Venice after their city fell to the Muslims.
B)Most of the Constantinople's artists and skilled laborers came from Venice.
C)Venetian mercenaries looted Constantinople's art during the Fourth Crusade.
D)During Leo III's purge,the people of Constantinople smuggled art to Venice to save it.
Q4) List and explain three ways that Constantine's council at Nicea defined the Christian religion.
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Chapter 9: The Rise and Spread of Islam: a New Religion
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Q1) List Islam's five pillars and discuss the ways they fit with the claim that Islam is a religion of practice.
Q2) The surahs in the Qur'an are arranged
A)chronologically.
B)from shortest to longest.
C)alphabetically,
D)from longest to shortest.
Q3) Even when it is outlawed,art finds a means of expression.Explain this statement in terms of Islamic mosque decoration.
Q4) The word "hadith" refers to A)the history of Islam.
B)Islam's five pillars.
C)Muhammad's sayings.
D)the verses in the surahs.
Q5) The explosion in book availability in the Arabic world was enabled by the eighth-century
A)invention of the printing press.
B)development of schools in mosques.
C)introduction of the art of papermaking.
D)expansion of African trade routes.
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Chapter 10: Fiefdom and Monastery, pilgrimage and Crusade: The Early Medieval World in Europe
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Q1) List and explain medieval women's contributions to the arts.
Q2) The purpose of medieval romances such as Lancelot was to
A)provide historical accounts.
B)celebrate the joys of marriage.
C)entertain with stories of adventure.
D)place women on pedestals.
Q3) All of the following were motivations for the First Crusade EXCEPT
A)gaining free access to Jerusalem.
B)receiving monetary rewards.
C)creating a homeland for Jews.
D)reducing conflict in Europe.
Q4) The main task of Christian missionaries in England was to A)transfer the people's allegiance from their king to God.
B)build churches for the people.
C)copy the gospels for widespread distribution.
D)establish schools and hospitals for the people.
Q5) Analyze the reasons medieval women were able to assume more responsibility and thus some measure of power during this period.
Q7) Compare Beowulf's and Roland's sacrifice for the greater good. Page 13
Q6) List and briefly describe the main features of a Romanesque church.
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Chapter 11: Centers of Culture: Court and City in the Larger World
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Q1) Discuss the use of the ballgame in the Popol Vuh and in Mesoamerican cultures.
Q2) Identify and explain the contradictions concerning women and education in the beliefs of the Heian Japanese.
Q3) The symbolic sacred chamber at the heart of the Hindu temple is known as the A)lingam.
B)mandapa.
C)garbhagriha.
D)sikhara.
Q4) Buddhist monks in Nepal and Tibet adapted Buddhism by A)joining it with Bon,the native mystical religion.
B)integrating the ethical elements of Confucianism.
C)replacing the stupas with mountaintop temples.
D)appointing village chiefs to serve as priests.
Q5) The Tang Chinese believe their capital city's grid plan mirrored the A)social hierarchy of the region.
B)diversity of the city's inhabitants.
C)order of the cosmos.
D)home of the gods.
Q6) Discuss the historical significance of Sei Shonagon's zuihitsu,Pillow Book.
Q7) Describe the appearance and construction of the Ethiopian rock churches. Page 15
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Chapter
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Q1) Explain how the Gothic cathedral influenced musical composition and performance.
Q2) Identify two architectural innovations that enabled the Gothic structures to be constructed,and show how they contributed to new heights and design.
Q3) Giovanni Pisano sculpted his Mary,Sister of Moses leaning forward to A)correct the illusion of curving inward.
B)allow the work to fit underneath a gable.
C)allow viewers below to see her face.
D)impart greater drama to the drapery folds.
Q4) Trace the development of the university,its curriculum,and its degree achievement.Compare the original university program with the one you are experiencing.
Q5) Peter Abelard based his teaching upon the methods of A)Jesus.
B)King David.
C)Socrates.
D)Aristotle.
Q6) Summarize and explain Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica argument on the existence of God.
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Q7) Compare Gothic cathedral architecture with Sainte-Chapelle's Radiant style.
Q8) Discuss the position and role of women and medieval education.
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Chapter 13: Siena and Florence in the Fourteenth Century:
Toward a New Humanism
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Q1) Compare the governments of late-medieval Siena and Florence.
Q2) Dante designed his Inferno so that sinners were assigned progressively worse levels based upon their sins and punishment not for but by their sins.Explain his rationale for this design,citing specific examples of his sinners,their placements,and their punishments.
Q3) Explain Dante's use of numbers in the Divine Comedy,focusing on their symbolism.
Q4) List and explain the importance and innovations of the Florentine bankers.
Q5) The main charge for which Joan of Arc was tried and executed was A)witchcraft.
B)insanity.
C)conspiracy.
D)cross-dressing.
Q6) Only 22 of Chaucer's planned 120 Canterbury Tales exist because he A)burned the remaining tales for fear of political persecution.
B)died before the completing the remaining tales.
C)accepted a diplomatic post in France,where the remaining tales were seized and destroyed.
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D)buried the remaining tales,and they have yet to be found.
Q7) Discuss the social realism of Boccaccio's Decameron and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
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Chapter 14: Florence and the Early Renaissance: Humanism in Italy
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Q1) Masaccio places the vanishing point in The Tribute Money behind Christ's head to A)make the distant mountains seem larger.
B)emphasize the absence of the tax collector's halo.
C)make the figures behind Christ seem smaller.
D)identify Christ as the fresco's most important figure.
Q2) The Florentines drove the Medici family from the city in 1494 upon the A)urging of Savonarola,who proclaimed the Medici to be decadent.
B)conquest of the city by Ludovico Sforza's forces.
C)formation of an unpopular alliance between Piero de' Medici and the French king.
D)transfer of the papal funds from the Medici banks.
Q3) Explain Pico della Mirandola's Oration on the Dignity of Man as a humanist manifesto,a document that Pope Innocent VIII considered heretical and even imprisoned Pico for writing.
Q4) Why was Michelangelo's David not placed on the Florence Cathedral's facade as was originally planned?
A)Church officials objected to its nudity.
B)The Medici family claimed it for their garden.
C)It could not be lifted there due to its size.
D)Michelangelo refused to part with it.
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Chapter 15: The High Renaissance in Rome and Venice:
Papal Patronage and Civic Pride
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Q1) In the School of Athens,Raphael represents Plato pointing upward to signify the location of
A)God.
B)the realm of ideal forms.
C)the setting of his book,The Republic.
D)his allegorical cave.
Q2) Almost all of Madalena Casulana's known musical works are A)in the form of the frottole.
B)polychoral.
C)composed for the toccata.
D)in the form of the madrigal..
Q3) Among Venice's most educated citizens and dominating the literary scene was a group of A)"honest courtesans."
B)Persian merchants.
C)humanist churchmen.
D)Chinese traders.
Q4) Discuss the High Renaissance use Vitruvius's ideas of symmetry,proportion,and ratio in art,architecture,and music,citing one example for each area.
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Chapter 16: The Renaissance in the North: Between Wealth and Want
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Q1) The opened scene of Matthias Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece offered patients the promise of A)recovery.
B)salvation.
C)marriage.
D)sinlessness.
Q2) Bruges's status as an important trade center owed to its A)waterway that led from a lock on the North Sea.
B)proximity to a road system.
C)location on the North Sea coastline.
D)system of canals connecting it to other cities.
Q3) Identify and explain the ways in which Albrecht Dürer represents a new trend in Northern art.
Q4) In his landscape study The Large Turf,Albrecht Dürer blended his Northern European interest in minute detail with an Italian Renaissance interest in A)Greco-Roman mythology.
B)using the secular to symbolize the religious.
C)one-point linear perspective.
D)the natural world.
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Chapter 17: The Reformation: a New Church and the Arts
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Q1) Ulrich Zwingli launched his program of iconoclasm in Zurich to
A)protest the excesses of the Vatican.
B)sell the art in order to fund his churches.
C)prevent distractions during his services.
D)protest Luther's defense of religious art.
Q2) Martin Luther rebelled against the Church mandate about celibacy for those in a religious vocation,because
A)faith,to him,equalized everyone,including the clergy.
B)he was already excommunicated when he married.
C)marriage prevented clergy from committing adultery.
D)God decreed that humans should procreate.
Q3) The Roman Catholic Church condemned François Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel for
A)being a frivolous work of fiction.
B)attacking medieval theology's dogmas and sacraments.
C)glorifying Martin Luther's ideas about reforming the Church.
D)including violence and bawdy humor.
Q4) Identify and describe the reasons for the Church's objections to the Bible being made accessible to the masses.
Q5) Describe life in sixteenth-century Geneva under John Calvin's direction.
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Chapter 18: Encounter and Confrontation: the Impact of Increasing Global Interaction
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Q1) Describe the appearance and meaning of a karesansui Zen garden.
Q2) The growing interest in portraiture in Islamic India was influenced by A)Netherland merchants.
B)the Ottoman Empire.
C)Chinese traders.
D)the British East India Company.
Q3) Why is Zhu Di's palace complex known as the Forbidden City?
A)It is built on the Mongol Kublai Khan's grave.
B)Only the imperial family was allowed inside it.
C)It faces north,the "forbidden" zone of evil.
D)Only those on official business could enter it.
Q4) What must the Noh drama's main character resolve before his or her soul can find peace?
A)ancestral obligation
B)responsibilities to society
C)debts to the gods
D)inner conflicts
Q5) Define the "stillness of inaction" in relation to a Noh drama,and explain its intended effect on an audience.
Q6) Describe the rules,setting,and function of the Japanese tea ceremony. Page 25
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Chapter 19: England in the Tudor Age: This Other Eden
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Q1) Publication of what work directly inspired sacred music during the Elizabethan age?
A)Psalms,Sonnets,& Songs
B)The First Book of Common Prayer
C)Amoretti
D)"Green Growth the Holly"
Q2) Which form became known as "Marlow's mighty line"?
A)terza rima
B)blank verse
C)rhyming couplets
D)free verse
Q3) Christopher Marlowe's Dr.Faustus turns to black magic out of A)dissatisfaction with traditional scholarship.
B)a desire to achieve immortality.
C)a wish to be the world's greatest professor.
D)anger about dissention in religion
Q4) Identify and discuss three changes in England brought about by Henry's sale of the monastic lands.
Q5) Analyze the English propagandizing of the marriage between Pocahontas (Rebecca)and John Rolfe-how it was used as propaganda and why.
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Chapter 20: The Early Counter-Reformation and
Mannerism: Restraint and Invention
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Q1) Why was Veronese's Last Supper so offensive to the Roman Inquisition that he changed its title to Feast in the House of Levi?
A)It includes female servants.
B)It portrays Jesus drinking wine.
C)It features buffoons and drunkards.
D)It uses a lavish setting.
Q2) The Council of Trent insisted on the use of religious imagery to
A)remind the faithful of the glories of the Church.
B)emphasize differences between Catholics and Protestants.
C)continue the tradition of supporting artists.
D)move the faithful to adore and love God.
Q3) The overarching theme of Bronzino's Allegory with Venus and Cupid is A)sensual indulgence.
B)the force of wrath.
C)the illusion of faith.
D)the power of memory.
Q4) Identify at least three characteristics of Mannerist style in visual art.
Q5) Identify the post-Council of Trent Catholic regulations about religious art and,describing at least one example,explain the irony of the developments in secular art.
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