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Student name:__________
1) Explain how early peoples evolved into stable and secure cultures.
2) Explain how the emergence of ecosystems made for ever greater biological diversity.
3) Compare and contrast the early cultures of ancient Mexico.
4) Describe the early cultures of the American Southwest.
5) Analyze the differences between the cultures of the Pacific Northwest and the other
Native American cultures in North America.
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6) Analyze and explain the rise of agriculture and the worldwide spread of American crops.
7) Explain why Native Americans were largely spared the effects of most of the world’s
communicable diseases until 1492.
8) Describe the Americas on the eve of contact with European civilizations.
9) In an evolutionary context, why were Native Americans at a disadvantage compared to
Europeans?
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10) Discuss the historical detective work involved in tracking the movements of the earliest
Americans.
11) A(n) ________ is a member of a group of people who have no fixed home and who move
about, usually seasonally, in pursuit of food, water, and other resources.
12) The emergence of new _________—climates, waterways, and land environments in
which humans interacted with other animals and plants—made for even greater diversity in the
Americas.
13) The first inhabitants of the Americas hunted a vast array of huge mammals like
mammoths and giant bison, otherwise known as ________.
14) Between the third and ninth centuries, the ________ civilization founded dozens urban
centers scattered throughout the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras.
15) The master potters of the American Southwest were the ________ people.
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16) The ________ was a distinctive feature of Iroquois and Wendat architecture.
17) The adoption of ________ gave people in the Southwest and the Eastern Woodlands the
security necessary to develop complex societies.
18) The ________ lived along the Atlantic seaboard and the Great Lakes, in communities
smaller than those of either the Muskogeans or the Iroquois.
19) ________ was the port city and hub of the Mississippian trading network.
20) The Natchez practiced a(n) ________ form of kinship in which women owned land,
tools, and even children.
21) Most modern archeologists would agree that the earliest inhabitants of the Western
Hemisphere came from which of the following areas of the world?
A) Europe
B) South America
C) Asia
D) the Arctic
22) About 15,000 years ago BP, which land bridge was used by migrants to cross between
Siberia and Alaska?
A) Bering
B) Alaskan
C) Siberian
D) Asian
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23) Which group was the first to build cities in the New World?
A) Aztecs
B) Olmecs
C) Toltecs
D) Mayas
24) Both the Mogollon and the Hohokam peoples of the American Southwest tended to build
their dwellings near which of the following?
A) other villages
B) mountains
C) streams
D) sacred sites
25) Which of the following groups lived in what is now known as the Four Corners region of
the United States?
A) Woodlands
B) Hohokam
C) Ancestral Pueblo
D) Aztecs
26) The Mogollon, the Hohokam, and the Ancestral Pueblo were North American cultures
from which region of the United States?
A) Eastern Woodlands
B) Southwest
C) Great Plains
D) Great Basin
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27) The Mississippian people were a culture from the
A) Eastern Woodlands.
B) Pacific Northwest.
C) Great Plains.
D) Great Basin.
28) The Numic-speaking peoples were from which geographic region?
A) Eastern Woodlands
B) Pacific Northwest
C) Great Plains
D) Great Basin
29) In which of the following areas did people live in a society with deep divisions among
nobles, commoners, and slaves?
A) Subarctic
B) Pacific Northwest
C) Great Basin
D) Eastern Woodlands
30) The inhabitants of which region moved from their summer fishing camps to berry patches
in the fall, and into moose- and caribou-hunting groups in the winter?
A) Eastern Woodlands
B) Subarctic
C) Great Plains
D) Pacific Northwest
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31) At its height, around A.D. 650, Teotihuacán spanned more than 10 square miles and was
home to more than ________ people.
A) 10,000
B) 50,000
C) 100,000
D) 200,000
32) Scholars still debate the reasons for the collapse of the Maya civilization. One factor they
are NOT considering is
A) European diseases.
B) migrations.
C) ecological changes.
D) warfare.
33) Why were Native Americans not familiar with measles, tuberculosis, or smallpox?
A) They did not eat meat.
B) They did not practice farming.
C) They maintained better personal hygiene.
D) They did not own cattle.
34) The distinctive feature of Iroquois and Huron architecture was the
A) longhouse.
B) mound.
C) totem pole.
D) dwelling carved into sandstone.
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35) What has proved to be the most important contribution of Native Americans to the course
of human history?
A) the domestication of large animals
B) the deforestation of the Great Plains
C) the manipulation of plants for agriculture
D) the development of pottery and other stone works
36) What food, developed by Native Americans, forms the center of the contemporary
American diet?
A) corn
B) teosinte
C) beans
D) squash
37) Which of the following was the most significant barrier to communication and
technology transfer between groups in the Americas?
A) lack of interest among inhabitants
B) groups that did not know of each other’s existence
C) the perpetual state of war between groups
D) the north-south geography of the Americas
38) Why were Native Americans spared the effects of most of the world’s communicable
diseases until contact with Europeans in 1492?
A) Until that time, they had eaten a nutrient-rich diet.
B) Until that time, they had not domesticated any animals.
C) Until that time, they had not lived in large groups with close contact.
D) Until that time, they had rarely traveled out of their own communities.
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39) Recently, scholars have begun to find evidence of incredible manipulations of landscapes
and environments in the least likely of places,
A) the canyons of the Southwest.
B) the area now known as Mexico City.
C) the Amazon rainforest.
D) the Subarctic.
40) One of the major logistical obstacles that hindered New World agriculture and
advancement in comparison to the Old World was
A) religion.
B) culture.
C) communication and technology.
D) illness.
41) Which of the following, built around 1300, contained more than 2,000 rooms and had a
water and sewage-removal system?
A) Navajo
B) Ancestral Pueblo
C) Paquime
D) Pueblo
42) The Muskogean speakers rejected hierarchical societies in favor of egalitarian ones as
they matured into three great southeastern confederacies, the
A) Iroquois, Algonquian, and Mohawk.
B) Creek, Choctaw, and Chickasaw.
C) Chickasaw, Mohicans, and Iroquois.
D) Choctaw, Creek, and Apache.
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43) The distinctive feature of Iroquois and Wendat architecture was not the temple mound,
but the
A) pueblo.
B) tipi.
C) longhouse.
D) wigwam.
44) The Algonquians were part of which cultural group?
A) Eastern Woodlands
B) Subarctic
C) Great Plains
D) Southwestern
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Answer Key
Test name: chapter 1
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