AP World History
Mr. Hoard (whoard@aacps.org)
Summer Assignment 2013
Welcome to AP World History. I hope that this class will be fun, rigorous, and
intellectually challenging. Let me give you some important keys to success: 1) Be
thorough. Don’t give me the shortest answer you can because you will not get full
credit and you won’t have the depth of understanding you’ll need. 2) Read the
textbook with a dictionary nearby. This is a college level course and you will need
to have a college level vocabulary to succeed. 3) Do not fall behind and do not
wait until the last minute to do things. Just as in college you will need to work in
this class nearly every night. As Christina PA says, “It’s a conspiracy. If I read, my
grades go up.”4) This class is like a marathon. The AP test will be in mid May
2014, and in order to pass the test, you’ll need to work hard between now and
then.
Your first assignment is to email me at whoard@aacps.org.
Your second assignment (outlining Chapter 1, completing the IDs and Study
Questions) is to be completed over the summer. All written work will be due
Monday, 12 August, 2013; put your completed work in a box in the office labeled
AP World History. No exceptions will be made to this due date.
For the IDs, I expect dates (if possible) of the person or event, where it occurred,
and why it was important. You can list the dates and the country, but the
explanation of the event’s significance must be in complete sentences. Imagine
that you are writing a 1 paragraph Wikipedia summary for the item and you
shouldn’t go far wrong.
For example, for Cuneiform
Cuneiform: 3500 BCE, Mesopotamia. Cuneiform is the first known writing
system. The cuneiform alphabet was complex (with about 200 symbols), and
reading and writing took a long time to learn. As a result, only a very limited
number of people learned to read and write. The invention of cuneiform allowed
knowledge to be passed more certainly from generation to generation.
Have a great summer and come back excited and ready to work.
AP World SQs
Chapter 1: From Human Prehistory to the Early Civilizations
1. What were the important developments of the late Paleolithic period?
2. What was the Neolithic Revolution and what was its importance?
3. What are the characteristics that are critical for a society to develop into a
civilization?
4. What were the important characteristics of Mesopotamian civilizations?
(Be sure to distinguish between the Sumerians and the Babylonians.)
5. What were the important characteristics of Egyptian civilization?
6. What were the important characteristics of early Chinese civilization?
7. Analyze the contributions of the early civilizations to later civilizations.
8. What were the two main ways that ideas and technologies were
transmitted between civilizations? How could each of these transmission
methods work? (I know you don’t have any concrete examples yet, but
think about examples from other history classes that you’ve taken.)
9. Give specific examples of the ways in which the 4 early civilizations
influenced later regional civilizations.
10. Evaluate the significance of Jewish monotheism in the religious history of
early civilizations.
AP World IDs
Chapter 1: From Human Prehistory to the Early Civilizations
1. Social differentiation
2. Cuneiform
3. Barbarian
4. City-state
5. Hammurabi
6. Ideograph
7. Shang Dynasty
8. Phoenicians