Ancient Civilizations (Grade 6) Midterm — Units 1–2

Part 1: Multiple Choice

1. How did a food surplus change early farming villages?
   1. A. Everyone had to return to hunting
   2. B. Villages stopped trading with neighbors
   3. C. People no longer needed to live in groups
   4. D. Some people could do jobs other than farming
2. Why did farming allow populations to grow?
   1. A. It ended sickness in early villages
   2. B. It required no work from most people
   3. C. It produced a steady supply of extra food
   4. D. It made hunting wild animals easier
3. Which early skill helped Paleolithic people stay warm, cook food, and scare off animals?
   1. A. Digging canals
   2. B. Writing on clay
   3. C. Controlling fire
   4. D. Smelting iron
4. The cave paintings at Lascaux, France, were made during which period?
   1. A. The Paleolithic era
   2. B. The Iron Age
   3. C. The Neolithic era
   4. D. The Bronze Age
5. What does it mean to domesticate a plant or animal?
   1. A. To trade it with other groups
   2. B. To paint pictures of it in caves
   3. C. To hunt it until it disappears
   4. D. To tame or raise it for human use
6. Çatalhöyük, one of the earliest large farming settlements, is in which present-day country?
   1. A. Egypt
   2. B. Peru
   3. C. China
   4. D. Turkey
7. Before farming began, most Paleolithic people lived as what?
   1. A. Merchants in walled cities
   2. B. Ranchers on fenced land
   3. C. Nomadic hunter-gatherers
   4. D. Farmers in large villages
8. Which change best describes the Neolithic Revolution?
   1. A. The rise of the first large empires
   2. B. The invention of the first writing systems
   3. C. The shift from hunting and gathering to farming
   4. D. The discovery of how to make iron tools
9. Since prehistoric people left no writing, how do we learn about them?
   1. A. By reading their royal records
   2. B. By reading their written letters
   3. C. By studying their law codes
   4. D. By studying artifacts, fossils, and remains
10. What does the word "Neolithic" mean?
    1. A. Early Metal Age
    2. B. New Stone Age
    3. C. Middle Stone Age
    4. D. Old Stone Age
11. What was a ziggurat in Sumerian city-states?
    1. A. A stone marketplace
    2. B. A wall around the city
    3. C. A large stepped temple
    4. D. A royal burial pyramid
12. Which invention is often credited to the ancient Sumerians?
    1. A. The compass
    2. B. Paper
    3. C. The wheel
    4. D. Gunpowder
13. What is the Epic of Gilgamesh?
    1. A. An Egyptian guide to the afterlife
    2. B. One of the oldest known works of literature
    3. C. A Greek history of the Persian Wars
    4. D. An early written code of laws
14. What is a city-state?
    1. A. An independent city that rules nearby land
    2. B. A group of farms with no leader
    3. C. A village of traveling herders
    4. D. A large empire led by one king
15. What was the writing system developed by the Sumerians called?
    1. A. Cuneiform
    2. B. Sanskrit
    3. C. Hieroglyphics
    4. D. The Greek alphabet
16. What is Sargon of Akkad known for?
    1. A. Uniting Sumer's city-states into an empire
    2. B. Building the Great Pyramid of Giza
    3. C. Writing the first Greek poems
    4. D. Founding the city of Rome
17. What does the name "Mesopotamia" mean?
    1. A. Land of the pharaohs
    2. B. Land of the rising sun
    3. C. Land between the rivers
    4. D. Land of many mountains
18. Why did Mesopotamian farmers build irrigation canals?
    1. A. To bring river water to crops in a dry land
    2. B. To keep nomads away from their villages
    3. C. To create routes for invading armies
    4. D. To drain swamps so they could build houses
19. Why is Hammurabi's Code important?
    1. A. It is one of the earliest written law codes
    2. B. It was the first book of religious stories
    3. C. It created the first democracy
    4. D. It ended slavery in Babylon
20. Mesopotamia developed between which two rivers?
    1. A. Tigris and Euphrates
    2. B. Huang He and Yangtze
    3. C. Nile and Jordan
    4. D. Indus and Ganges

Part 2: Written Response

21. Describe two ways the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers shaped life in Mesopotamia.