1. The prophet Zarathustra’s teachings were the
basis of what religion?
a. Buddhism
b. Hinduism
c. Zoroastrianism
d. Judaism
The answer is c. The Persian prophet Zarathustra was
the father of Zoroastrianism.
2. Which of the following classical cultural traditions
focused more on the affairs of this world rather than the relationship of the
divine to human life?
a. Greek
b. Jewish
c. Indian
d. Persian
The answer is a. Greek rationalism focused on the
affairs of this world.
3. In which civilization did a “warring states”
period of violence and disharmony lead a number of thinkers to create their
classical cultural tradition?
a. Greek
b. Indian
c. Persian
d. Chinese
The answer is d. The Chinese believed strongly that
China ought to be united, and the violence and disharmony of the warring states
period drove thinkers to consider how order could be restored, thus creating
their classical cultural traditions.
4. What classical philosophy was based on the belief
that human society needs clear rules, strictly enforced, since most people are
stupid and shortsighted?
a. Daoism
b. Legalism
c. Confucianism
d. Zoroastrianism
The answer is b. Chinese legalism, a hardheaded and
practical philosophy, held that people need strictly enforced rules since they
cannot control themselves.
5. Which cultural tradition that emerged in the
classical period emphasized education as the key to moral improvement?
a. Judaism
b. Legalism
c. Buddhism
d. Confucianism
The answer is d. Confucius emphasized education as
the key to moral improvement, because he believed that people have a capacity
to better themselves.
6. Which ideology became so dominant in China that
it was almost synonymous with Chinese culture?
a. Legalism
b. Confucianism
c. Daoism
d. Buddhism
The answer is b. Confucianism became the most
important element of Chinese education and culture for many centuries.
7. Which statement best describes the Confucian
attitude toward the past?
a. People should live in the present rather than
paying attention to the past.
b. The world goes through cycles, so the past will
literally come again.
c. The past was a golden age that modern people
should strive to restore.
d. History teaches valuable moral lessons, but for
the most part people should look toward the future rather than the past.
The answer is c. Confucianism was an effort to
restore a past golden age, so it placed great emphasis on history.
8. This cultural tradition, born in the classical
era, urged withdrawal into the world of nature as the best response to disorder
in society.
a. Daoism
b. Confucianism
c. Buddhism
d. Legalism
The answer is a. Daoism, with its focus on the realm
of nature, urged withdrawal from the world.
9. This classical philosophy stressed
complementarity and balance between the sexes.
a. Greek
b. Daoism
c. Confucianism
d. Legalism
The answer is b. Daoism downplays a hierarchical
system dominated by men in favor of the notion of balance and the complementary
nature of the sexes. (See section “The Daoist Answer” in your textbook.)
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10. Which of the following inspired the Yellow
Turban Rebellion of 184–204 C.E.?
a. Legalism
b. Zoroastrianism
c. Buddhism
d. Daoism
The answer is d. Daoism, with its imagined utopian
society free from governments and landlords, inspired the great peasant
uprising known as the Yellow Turban Rebellion.
11. Which of the following is true of Hinduism?
a. It was created in about 500 B.C.E., at about the
same time as other great classical cultural traditions.
b. It was a missionary religion that actively sought
converts throughout the Indian subcontinent and beyond.
c. It was founded by the prophet Zarathustra
sometime around 1500 B.C.E.
d. It grew up over many centuries and had no
historical founder.
The answer is d. The religion that came to be known
as Hinduism grew organically in India over many centuries; it did not have a
historical founder.
12. What is the name of India’s earliest sacred
texts?
a. Vedas
b. Upanishads
c. Ramayana
d. Kamasutra
The answer is a. The Vedas, a collection of poems,
hymns, prayers, and rituals, are India’s earliest sacred texts.
13. What is a Brahmin?
a. A member of India’s warrior caste
b. A member of India’s priestly caste
c. A Buddhist priest
d. A Zoroastrian priest
The answer is b. India’s priestly caste is the
Brahmin.
14. Reincarnation is a central feature of which
system of thought and belief?
a. Confucianism
b. Daoism
c. Hinduism
d. Zoroastrianism
The answer is c. The notion of samsara or
reincarnation is central to Hinduism.
15. Why is Siddhartha Gautama important to world
history?
a. He was the founder of Zoroastrianism.
b. He was the author of the Upanishads.
c. He was the founder of Daoism.
d. He was the founder of Buddhism.
The answer is d. Siddhartha Gautama, who came to be
known as the Buddha, lived from c. 566 to c. 486 B.C.E. and founded Buddhism.
16. Which of the following is the central teaching
of Buddhism?
a. That humans should flee worldly matters and
retreat to nature
b. That the cause of human suffering is desire for
individual fulfillment, which should be purged to achieve serenity
c. That a good god and an evil god fight for control
of the cosmos and humans must choose to support the good god to be saved
d. That a single God rules both heaven and earth and
humans should submit to his will
The answer is b. “Life is suffering” is the most
central teaching of the Buddha, who taught that people should live modest and
moral lives combined with meditation to free themselves from craving for
individual fulfillment and thus from suffering.
17. Which of the following statements is true of
women in early Buddhism?
a. The Buddha taught that they could not achieve
enlightenment until after they had reincarnated as men.
b. They were accepted as equal members of the
monastic order that the Buddha created.
c. They were not treated as equals but still found
more freedom and independence than was available elsewhere in Indian society.
d. They were not allowed to take part in the
monastic life.
The answer is c. Many women were attracted to
Buddhism because it gave them more freedom than other alternatives, although
they were not treated as the equals of men.
18. A spiritually developed person who postpones
entry into nirvana in order to help others is known as a
a. mahayana.
b. buddha.
c. samsara.
d. bodhisattva.
The answer is d. Mahayana Buddhism teaches that
people can be helped by bodhisattvas, spiritually developed people who postpone
their entry into nirvana.
19. Which of the following is a reason why Buddhism
died out in India?
a. It had always been resented as an alien religious
tradition.
b. A new kind of popular Hinduism developed that
appealed to the masses.
c. Hindu rulers persecuted Buddhists.
d. Buddhism had so many ritual restrictions that
most people found it impossible to practice.
The answer is b. In the first millennium C.E., a new
popular form of Hinduism developed that competed very successfully with
Buddhism.
20. Which of the following statements best describes
India’s bhakti religious movement?
a. It was the adoration of and identification of a
particular god or goddess.
b. It focused on sacrifices made to the gods by
Brahmin priests.
c. It taught that people could win release from
suffering and the cycle of reincarnation by living a modest life and practicing
meditation.
d. It taught that people should retreat from the
world and seek oneness with nature.
The answer is a. The bhakti or “worship” movement
was an outgrowth of Hinduism; those involved in the movement focused their
adoration on a single god or goddess with prayers, songs, and rituals.
21. Zoroastrianism won state support in which
country in the classical period?
a. India
b. Assyria
c. Persia
d. China
The answer is c. The Achaemenid rulers of Persia
granted a degree of state support to Zoroastrianism.
22. Which classical religion was the source of many
Jewish ideas including the belief in a conflict between God and Satan, a Last
Judgment, and the eventual arrival of a savior?
a. Buddhism
b. Zoroastrianism
c. Hinduism
d. Jainism
The answer is b. Belief in a divine conflict between
good and evil, a coming final judgment, and the coming of a savior are all core
beliefs that Zoroastrianism passed on to Judaism.
23. What was distinctive about the conception of God
that evolved in Judaism?
a. It believed that God was interested in human
affairs.
b. It believed that the will of God was revealed
through prophets.
c. It believed that God transcends gender, being
both female and male but more than either.
d. It was monotheistic.
Incorrect. The answer is d. Judaism insisted on
exclusive loyalty to a single God who was over time recognized as the only god
in existence.
24. What name is given to the Greek philosophical
view that the world is a physical reality governed by natural laws that humans
can understand?
a. Confucianism
b. Legalism
c. Rationalism
d. Daoism
The answer is c. Greek intellectuals developed the
belief that human reason, rationalism, could understand the natural laws that
operate the world.
25. Who was the Athenian philosopher whose method
was to constantly question the assumptions and logic of others, which helped
lead to his execution for corrupting the youth of the city?
a. Socrates
b. Sophocles
c. Plato
d. Aristotle
The answer is a. Socrates (469–399 B.C.E.) was famed
for teaching by constant questioning, which in time led to his death.
26. Which Greek rationalist philosopher argued that
simple, unchanging mathematical order lay beneath the chaos and complexity of
the visible world?
a. Thales
b. Pythagoras
c. Hippocrates
d. Socrates
The answer is b. Pythagoras, mostly known today for
the Pythagorean theorem, believed that the cosmos could be explained in terms
of a simple, unchanging mathematical order that underlay all apparent chaos.
27. Which of the following was true of both Jesus
and Siddhartha Gautama?
a. They were both great miracle workers.
b. They were both intensely concerned with social
justice.
c. They both stressed that their followers should
practice kindness.
d. They were both born to poor families.
The answer is c. Both religious teachers emphasized
loving kindness and love of neighbor.
28. Which of the following statements is true of
women in early Christianity?
a. They were treated as complete equals to men.
b. They were not allowed to play a significant role
in the new sect.
c. It was believed that they could not be saved because
as daughters of Eve, they had introduced sin into the world.
d. As the religion developed, its leadership became
almost exclusively male.
The answer is d. Women played leadership rules in
the infant Christian Church, but soon the hierarchy became almost exclusively
male.
29. What ended the Roman Empire’s intermittent
persecution of Christians in the early fourth century C.E.?
a. Christianity had by that point become the
majority religion of the empire.
b. Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and
made the religion legal.
c. A philosophical shift in Roman thinking made it
unacceptable to persecute people for having different beliefs.
d. Emperor Theodosius banned all pagan worship.
The answer is b. The conversion of Constantine to
Christianity in the early fourth century was one of the greatest turning points
in Christian history, providing new security and encouragement to the faith.
30. Which of the following statements is true of the
Christian world of about 500 C.E.?
a. It was theologically very diverse and fragmented.
b. It had theological squabbles but did not divide
into distinct sects.
c. It had mild divisions but no clear-cut
distinction between right and wrong belief.
d. Christianity was unified; divisions on matters of
doctrine only appeared later.
The answer is a. Early Christianity was punctuated
by feuds over points of doctrine that made the religion very diverse and
fragmented.
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