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Passage 1: Set 1 Questions

1) The Sumer civilization in Mesopotamia (now southern Iraq) lasted nearly 3,000 years beginning around 5,000 BC. They were the first to practice full-scale agriculture, which led to permanent urban settlements and the need for record keeping and writing. 2) The history of wine is unclear, as evidence of early winemaking has been found across North Africa and South Asia. While people may have made alcoholic beverages from wild fruits over 10,000 years ago, the earliest evidence of large-scale wine production dates to 4,500 BC. 3) Both passages discuss the early stages of agriculture and its role in developing permanent settlements and the beginnings of writing.

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251 views3 pages

Passage 1: Set 1 Questions

1) The Sumer civilization in Mesopotamia (now southern Iraq) lasted nearly 3,000 years beginning around 5,000 BC. They were the first to practice full-scale agriculture, which led to permanent urban settlements and the need for record keeping and writing. 2) The history of wine is unclear, as evidence of early winemaking has been found across North Africa and South Asia. While people may have made alcoholic beverages from wild fruits over 10,000 years ago, the earliest evidence of large-scale wine production dates to 4,500 BC. 3) Both passages discuss the early stages of agriculture and its role in developing permanent settlements and the beginnings of writing.

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sathiyasuthan
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Set 1 Questions ❮ 21

Passage 1
The Sumer was an extraordinary civilization in Mesopotamia (now southern
Iraq) that lasted nearly 3,000 years. Historians believe that the Sumer civilization
began possibly around 5,000 BC and was the first to practice full-scale agriculture,
which gave rise to urban settlements. This is because the farming and cultivation
created a surplus of storable food, so people no longer had to migrate. 5
As these remarkable people began to create permanent settlements, it initiated
a need for the division of labor and the organization of the labor force. These
advancements in human society created the need for recordkeeping, and thus they
began to develop the written word around 3,500 BC.
Their exceptional achievements of agriculture, city settlements, and writing are 10
why the Sumer civilization deserves the title of “cradle of civilization” for all of
humanity.

Passage 2
The history of wine is intriguing, but remarkably unclear. We do not have
indisputable proof of where wine was first created.
Evidence of early winemaking has been found from North Africa to South 15
Asia. It is plausible that early foragers made alcoholic beverages from wild fruits,
including grapes. That means that people may have been making wine for more
than 10,000 years. Experts believe that they discovered that fermented fruit bever-
ages were safe to drink by accident, after attempts to store fruit for later consump-
tion were unsuccessful. 20
So while we have evidence of the consumption of wild fruits as part of the
human diet, we cannot prove definitively where and when they were used to make
wine. Early humans would have likely created small rations of wine, for consump-
tion by family members only. The earliest evidence we have of full-scale agriculture
sites that focused on wine production dates to 4,500 BC. 25
We also cannot gather archaeological evidence of winemaking before the use of
pottery as a storage vessel for wine, which did not take place until around 6,000
BC. After the pottery is dated to a specific time period, we can then look for the
organic compounds that are commonly found in wine. For now, using current
scientific methods, there is simply no way to know exactly where and when wine 30
was first made.

53. According to lines 2–3 in Passage 1, the Sumer civilization was the first
(A) to practice full-scale agriculture
(B) group of people to set foot in Mesopotamia
(C) to outlaw migration
(D) to invade urban settlements
(E) civilization to cook food
22 ❯ McGraw-Hill’s 500 SAT Critical Reading Questions

54. In lines 4–5 of Passage 1, the author states that the people of the Sumer
civilization no longer needed to migrate because they
(A) moved from Mesopotamia to southern Iraq
(B) developed the written word
(C) created a surplus of storable food
(D) had an organized labor force
(E) no longer needed recordkeeping

55. It can be inferred from Passage 2 that


(A) large-scale production of wine must have been in the region where
wild grapes were first domesticated
(B) evidence of wine has only been conclusive when taken from hard,
nonwooden vessels with porous surfaces
(C) wine production didn’t take root in Europe until the Greeks began
producing it around 4,500 BC
(D) the ancient Chinese made wine from native wild grapes until they
imported European grape seeds in the second century
(E) while pottery was used as far back as 25,000 BC, the earliest known
use of pottery as a vessel for food was around 10,500 BC

56. The authors of both passages discuss


(A) differences in regional wine production
(B) the development of language
(C) the first use of pottery as a storage vessel
(D) the early stages of full-scale agriculture
(E) the beginnings of the written word

57. All of the following are reasons given in Passage 1 for the development
of the written word EXCEPT
(A) creation of permanent settlements
(B) the need for the division of labor
(C) migration away from Mesopotamia
(D) the need for recordkeeping
(E) organization of the labor force
Set 1 Questions ❮ 23

58. Which of the following is a primary difference between passages 1


and 2?
(A) The dates regarding the Sumer civilization in Passage 1 are more
specific than the dates regarding the earliest wine production in
Passage 2.
(B) Passage 1 is more speculative about early human behavior than
Passage 2.
(C) Agriculture is the focus of Passage 1 but is largely ignored
in the discussion about winemaking in Passage 2.
(D) Passage 2 discusses the advantages of staying in one place more than
Passage 1 does.
(E) Sumer is inferred to be one of the earliest wine producers in Passage
1, while Passage 2 states this directly.

59. As used in line 14 of Passage 2, the word “indisputable” most nearly means
(A) pugnacious
(B) litigious
(C) palatial
(D) subservient
(E) irrefutable

60. In the last paragraph of Passage 1, the author expresses


(A) disdain for permanent urban settlements
(B) confusion over the need for recordkeeping in ancient societies
(C) admiration for the accomplishments of the Sumerians
(D) disappointment in the writings of Mesopotamian cultures
(E) support for modern labor unions

61. In Passage 2, the author mentions “current scientific methods” (lines


29–30) in order to
(A) emphasize the scale of early winemaking vineyards
(B) provide a timeline that illustrates just how old the practice of
winemaking is
(C) imply that current archaeological evidence is invalid
(D) commemorate the achievements of early scientific investigations
(E) suggest that with more advanced technology, we may be able to prove
wine’s origins

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