The Fertile Crescent and Mesopotamia - SAT Subject Test in World History

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Question

Which of the following is true of the Fertile Crescent?

Answer

Early farming communities characterized the Fertile Crescent. Some of the first irrigation systems were developed in this area, which led to an increase in food supply and, in turn, population. The Fertile Crescent was located in Mesopotamia (which is in the Middle East), not Mesoamerica or along the Yellow River. Finally, the Fertile Crescent area, which came to be known as Sumer, was governed by hereditary kings rather than democratically elected officials.

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Question

The Fertile Crescent lies between which two rivers?

Answer

The Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia resides between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. "Mesopotamia" literally means land between two rivers. The Fertile Crescent is an important part of the early story of human civilization because it was in the abundant flood plains of Mesopotamia that the agricultural revolution took place.

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Question

Which of these modern-day countries does not include territory within the "Fertile Crescent"?

Answer

"The Fertile Crescent," often also called "Mesopotamia," is a region of the Middle East and Asia Minor that is (compared to the dry, arid land around it) extremely fertile and favorable to agriculture. It is the part of the world where many of the oldest civilizations arose and remains relevant today. Modern nations that have at least some territory in the Fertile Crescent are Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Iran, Palestine, and Iraq. The climate and terrain of Afghanistan is very different; it is mountainous and drier.

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Question

Which of these ancient empires did not arise in the Fertile Crescent?

Answer

The Fertile Crescent is an area of land in the Middle East and Asia Minor. Due to the Euphrates and Tigris rivers it is extremely fertile and arable. It is where many of the earliest civilizations settled down and began farming and grew powerful. All of these empires, as well as the Phonecians, the Hittites, the Israelites, the Persians and several others arose in the Fertile Crescent.

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Question

The ancient Egyptian civilization flourished around __________.

Answer

The Nile river, which one runs for a few thousand miles through Northeast Africa, was the center of the ancient Egyptian civilization. They began farming in the fecund lands of the Nile River Basin around 3000 B.C.E. and would survive as an independent civilization for almost three thousand years.

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Question

Menes is significant for doing which of the following?

Answer

Menes is credited by most historians with uniting the Upper and Lower Egyptian civilizations into one empire. This occurred around 2900 B.C.E. and is the beginning of ancient Egypt as we know it.

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Question

Which civilization invented the ancestor of modern alphabets?

Answer

The Phoenicians invented the first alphabetic script in ancient times, in the late second millennium BCE. The Greeks and Romans simply adopted and changed this alphabet. The Egyptians and Sumerians developed hieroglyphic and cuneiform scripts, neither of which were alphabetic.

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