Unit 1: Egypt to China Vocab

Question 1

A king of ancient Egypt considered a god as well as a political and military leader.

Answer 1

Pharaoh

Question 2

A reed that grows along the banks of the Nile River in Egypt. From it, was produced a coarse, paper-like writing medium used by the Egyptians and many other people in the Mediterranean and ancient Middle East.

Answer 2

Paprus

Question 3

A series of rulers from the same family.

Answer 3

Dynasty

Question 4

A pattern of the rise and fall of dynasties in China.

Answer 4

Dynastic Cycle

Question 5

A political theory of ancient China in which those in power were given the right to rule from a divine source.

Answer 5

Mandate of Heaven

Question 6

The belief in superiority of one’s ethnic group.

Answer 6

Ethnocentrism

Question 7

Fine, yellowish silt deposited by wind and water. It constitutes the fertile soil of the Yellow River Valley on northern China.

Answer 7

Loess

Question 8

The Zhou Dynasty’s belief that China was the center of the world and that its culture was superior to all others.

Answer 8

Middle Kingdom

Question 9

Ruling from roughly 1046-256 BCE, this powerful dynasty was the longest in China’s history.

Answer 9

Zhou Dynasty

Question 10

Government run by religious leaders.

Answer 10

Theocracy

Question 11

China’s second longest river, often called the cradle of Chinese civilization.

Answer 11

Yellow River

Question 12

The earliest ruling dynasty of China from 1600 BCE to 1046 BCE to be established in recorded history, though other dynasties predated it.

Answer 12

Shang Dynasty

Question 13

The earliest known Chinese writing from the Shang Dynasty; they were used to tell the future.

Answer 13

Oracle Bones

Question 14

An Egyptian system of writing with pictures that represent words or sounds.

Answer 14

Hieroglyphics

Question 15

Fine sand, clay, or other material carried by running water and deposited as a sediment, esp. in a channel or harbor.

Answer 15

Silt