vocabulary

Question 1

Shogun

Answer 1

a hereditary commander-in-chief in feudal Japan.

Question 2

Daimyo

Answer 2

(in feudal Japan) one of the great lords who were vassals of the shogun.

Question 3

Zen

Answer 3

Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty as Chán. It was strongly influenced by Taoism, and developed as a distinguished Chinese style of Buddhism.

Question 4

Seppuku

Answer 4

another term for hara-kiri.

Question 5

Samurai

Answer 5

Samurai were the military-nobility and officer-caste of medieval and early-modern Japan.

Question 6

Longboat

Answer 6

a large boat that may be launched from a sailing ship.

another term for longship.

Question 7

Steppe

Answer 7

a large area of flat unforested grassland in southeastern Europe or Siberia.

Question 8

Rus

Answer 8

the medieval Russian state established by Scandinavian traders in the 9th century; the capital was first in Novgorod and then in Kiev

Question 9

Slavs

Answer 9

Slavs are the largest Indo-European ethno-linguistic group in Europe.

Question 10

Principality of kiev

Answer 10

was a Ruthenian state in the regions of central Ukraine around the city of Kiev that existed after the fragmentation of the Kievan Rus’ in the early 12th century.

Question 11

Leif Ericson

Answer 11

as an Icelandic explorer and the first known European to have discovered North America, before Christopher Columbus.

Question 12

Vinland Sagas

Answer 12

represent the most complete information we have about the Norse exploration of the Americas.

Question 13

Danelaw

Answer 13

the body of laws established in the parts of England settled in the 9th century by Danish invaders
the parts of Anglo-Saxon England that came under Danish law and where Danish customs were observed

Question 14

Silk Roads

Answer 14

an ancient caravan route that linked Xian in central China with the eastern Mediterranean.

Question 15

Epitaphs

Answer 15

a phrase or statement written in memory of a person who has died, especially as an inscription on a tombstone.

Question 16

Foot-binding

Answer 16

was the custom of applying painfully tight binding to the feet of young girls to prevent further growth.

Question 17

Empress Wu

Answer 17

also known as Wu Zhao, Wu Hou, and during the later Tang dynasty as Tian Hou, referred to in English as Empress Consort Wu or by the deprecated term “Empress Wu”, was a Chinese sovereign who ruled unofficially as Empress and later, officially as Emperor of China

Question 18

Civil Service Exam

Answer 18

An examination one must pass in order to receive most jobs in the Japanese bureaucracy.