Social Studies Assessments Sixth Grade 1 Explain why and how historians use eras and periods as constructs to organize and explain human activities over time

1. The castle-like buildings found in the Pacific Region show the influence of which of Canada’s founding peoples?

B. British settlers

C. French colonies

D. Native Americans

B. Canada attracted settlers from many different countries, namely France and England.

C. Because most Canadians live near the U.S. border.

D. Because Canada is the world’s largest country.

B. earth.

C. ocean.

D. sun.
Answer: D

2. AZTEC VS. MAYAN CALENDARS

The Aztec Calendar was similar to that of the Maya. The ritual day cycle was called Tonalpohualli and was formed by a cycle of numerals 1 through 13 with a cycle of 20 day names, many of them similar to the day names of the Maya. Where the Aztec differed most significantly from the Maya was in their number system and in their less precise way of recording dates. Normally, they noted only the day on which an event occurred and the name of the current year. The same day can occur twice in a year because of their number system. Years of the same name recur at 52-year intervals. Other errors in the records are only partially explained by the fact that different towns started their year with different months.

According to the excerpt, which of these were similarities between the Mayan and Aztec calendar?

B. Accuracy in recording dates

C. Names of the days on the calendar

D. Number systems on the calendar

B. Islamic calendar

C. Egyptian calendar

D. Aztec calendar

B. Aztec

D. Mongolian

2. These items belonged to a Native American tribe that lived in the American Southwest. In the center are a mortar and a pestle for grinding grain. To the left and right of these are two sets of tools called metates and manos, which are also used for grinding. The small circular items, called donuts, may have been used to straighten arrows.

What do these artifacts tell you about the Native Americans who used them?

B. The women did the cooking while the men hunted.

C. They carved canoes to use for fishing.

D. They made their tools out of stone.

3. Which of these Native American cultures existed in the Eastern Woodlands?

A. Olmec

C. Caddo

4. Which of the following is described in the box?

A. Egyptian calendar

B. Aztec calendar

C. Gregorian calendar

D. Islamic calendar
Answer: C

H1.2.2 Read and comprehend a historical passage to identify basic factual knowledge and the literal meaning by indicating who was involved, what happened, where it happened, what events led to the development, and what consequences or outcomes followed.
1. Christopher Columbus is given credit for discovering the New World, but was he really the first person to step foot in this new land? What about the Native Americans? What about Leif Ericson? Or what about Americus Vespucci?

About 20,000 years ago, the first Native Americans came over a land bridge between Asia and North America. This bridge was over 1,000 miles wide. In 1492, when Columbus sailed, about 1 million American Indians lived in the United States and Canada, and about 20 million Indians lived in South America.

In 1000 A.D., Vikings from Norway traveled from Iceland to Greenland. They were led by Eric the Red. Eric the Red founded a colony on Greenland. Later his son, Leif Ericson, led a group to Newfoundland in Canada. Unfortunately, no maps were made of these travels. However, in 1965, a Viking map dated 1440 was found. The Viking map showed parts of northeastern Canada.

About the same time Columbus was making his third voyage, another explorer sailed for North America. His name was Americus Vespucci. Vespucci made maps of his travels. A German school teacher who was writing a new geography book found these maps. The school teacher called the New World “America” in honor of Vespucci.

According to the passage, who was the first to discover America?
A. Americus Vespucci

B. Christopher Columbus

C. Leif Ericson

D. Native Americans

These two historians claim that early in the eighth century, monks and lay brothers of the Celtic Church left Ireland for Faroe. About the year 770, however, Norwegian Vikings attacked and colonized Faroe, Shetland, Orkney and the Hebrides or Western Isles. The invaders were ruthless, and the Celts who survived escaped to Iceland in small boats, taking with them their religious objects and writings and their tools.

In their new homeland, they fished, raised sheep, and grew a few vegetables in the poor soil. Then, one stormy day in 874, a Danish trader named Gardar found shelter in a cove and spent the winter there. When he went home, he told of his discovery. Eleven years later, two Norwegian men named Ingolf and Hjorlaf arrived with a number of Viking sailors, wanting to settle there.

The Celts didn’t want to live with the Norwegians, so they packed their things again. Setting off in their boats, they left their homes forever and sailed to Cape Breton (in what is now Nova Scotia, Canada). If this story is true, they were the first white men to reach America. Nobody knows for sure where on Cape Breton Island they settled, but two young Eskimos who were kidnapped in 1016 by a Scandinavian named Karlsefi told their kidnapper they had seen men dressed in white who walked around singing loudly, carrying poles with pieces of cloth attached. This confirmed a report made by a Scandinavian named Thorvald 10 years before.

In Account 2, which of the following is evidence to suggest that the Celts were the first to reach America?
A. The Danish trader Gardar’s story of meeting the Celts in Iceland.

B. The Eskimos’ sighting of men dressed in white in the year 1016.

C. The arrival in Iceland of two Norwegian men named Ingolf and Hjorlaf.

D. The Viking attack and colonization of Faroe in the year 770 A.D.

“At the beginning of the new year the rulers of each village came to Cuzco, bringing their quipus [knots], which told how many births there had been during the year, and how many deaths. In this way the Inca and the governors knew which of the Indians were poor, the women who had been widowed, whether they were able to pay their taxes, and how many men they could count on in the event of war, and many other things they considered highly important.”

According to this author, the Inca used quipus (knots of thread) to do which of the following?

A. To tell stories and Incan legends

B. To play various children’s games

C. To keep records of their people

D. To make new construction tools
Answer: C

H1.2.3 Identify the point of view (perspective of the author) and context when reading and discussing primary and secondary sources.
1. Analyze the passage below. Who do you think wrote it?

Hernando Cortes landed on the coast of Mexico in 1519. As soon as he heard about the fabulous riches of the Aztec Empire, he made a daring plan to conquer it. Within two years, the Spanish destroyed the powerful Aztec Empire. How did a tiny Spanish force defeat the Aztecs?

Many factors helped Cortes. First, the Aztec emperor Montezuma hesitated to fight the Spanish. He believed that Cortes was the god-king Quetzalcoatl, returning as he promised he would. Second, Cortes won allies among the people the Aztecs had conquered. Their armies strengthened the Spanish forces. Third, smallpox and other diseases that Europeans brought to the Americas killed thousands of Aztecs.
A. A member of Cortes’ army

B. Hernando Cortes

C. Montezuma

D. A modern historian

This picture was most likely painted by someone who

A. thought the American patriots were cruel.

B. was a trader or merchant in the colonies.

C. thought that England’s taxes were unfair.

D. was a member of an American Indian tribe.
Answer: A

3. This lithograph shows onlookers waving their hats during the Boston Tea Party. What attitude or feeling is the artist trying to convey?

A. Shame

C. Sadness

D. Humor
Answer: B

4. In this image from the Industrial Revolution, the photographer shows children working in a factory and wearing ripped clothing. What is the reason he chose to feature these boys in the picture?

A. To show the true hardship of the time.

B. To show the benefits of industry.

C. To encourage more children to work.

D. To show the laziness of people on the job.
Answer: A

H1.2.4 Compare and evaluate competing historical perspectives about the past based on proof.
1. The following is a description of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, written in 1520:

This city has many public squares, in which are situated the markets and other places for buying and selling. There is one square twice as large as that of the city of Salamanca, surrounded by porticoes, where are daily assembled more than sixty thousand souls, engaged in buying and selling; and where are found all kinds of merchandise that the world affords, for instance articles of food, as well as jewels of gold and silver, lead, brass, copper, tin, precious stones, bones, shells, snails, and feathers.… There are all kinds of green vegetables, especially onions, leeks, garlic… fruits also of numerous descriptions, amongst which are cherries and plums, similar to those in Spain.

B. It shows the Aztecs as simple-minded people who cannot trade.

C. It describes goods like gold and silver, which are only found in Spain.

D. It assumes that the reader understands Aztec customs and beliefs.

When my father died, he left my mother with five children. We were all young at the time, and mother had no one to help take care of us. Her lot was very hard indeed. She had to work all the day for her owner and at night for those who were dearer to her than life. She used to get a little corn, without the owner’s knowledge, and boil it for us to satisfy our hunger. As for clothing, Edloe (our owner) would give us a coarse suit once in three years; mother sometimes would beg the cast-off garments from the neighbors, to cover our nakedness; and when they had none to give, she would sit and cry over us and pray to the God of the widow and fatherless for help. At last, my oldest brother was sold from her and carried where she never saw him again. She went mourning for him all her days, like a bird robbed of her young--like Rachel bereft of her children, who would not be comforted because they were not. She departed this life on the 27th of September, 1847, for that world “where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.”

Jan. 25, 1913

Dear Sir:

Replying to your letter of 22nd concerning slavery, I have to say: my Father was the largest slave owner in this (DeKalb) County.

The owners of slaves here were generally kind and humane to their colored people who were well fed and comfortably clothed and lived in comfortable and convenient houses. They were worked moderately and were well cared for in sickness.

The houses were well supplied with good though inexpensive furniture. Cooking and eating arrangements were cleanly and wholesome with an abundance of good nourishing food. They had comfortable clothing suitable to the changing seasons.

What is the primary conflict between these two accounts of slavery?

B. One says slaves had to beg for food; the other said they grew their own.

C. One account claims that slaves worked hard; the other says they were lazy.

D. One portrays slave owners as cruel, and the other portrays them as kind.

This city has many public squares, in which are situated the markets and other places for buying and selling. There is one square twice as large as that of the city of Salamanca, surrounded by porticoes, where are daily assembled more than sixty thousand souls, engaged in buying and selling; and where are found all kinds of merchandise that the world affords, for instance articles of food, as well as jewels of gold and silver, lead, brass, copper, tin, precious stones, bones, shells, snails, and feathers.… There are all kinds of green vegetables, especially onions, leeks, garlic… fruits also of numerous descriptions, amongst which are cherries and plums, similar to those in Spain.

B. To detail a message from the Aztec king.

C. To describe an Aztec city marketplace.

D. To reveal Aztec military weaknesses.

B. South West

C. Eastern Woodlands

D. Arctic

B. Sickle

C. Plow

D. Axe
Answer: A

B. People use water as a source of food.

C. Water helps keep mosquitoes and diseases away.

D. Water is used for crops.

B. domestication.

C. flooding.

D. irrigation.

B. Farming made the population decrease.

C. Farming let people move around more.

D. Farming gave people tools to build houses.

B. Glaciers covered their land and forced them to move.

C. A neighboring society invaded and made them leave.

D. The Western Hemisphere had better land for crops.

3. Inuit diets were nearly 100% animal protein from whales, seals, and caribou. Why did the Inuit not eat vegetation or plants?

B. They left plants for the animals to eat.

C. It was too much work to grow crops in the Arctic.

D. Their supply routes were closed in winter.

B. To follow their food supply

C. Because of the French and Indian War

D. Earthquakes and flooding

B. Huts out of adobe, clay, and mud.

C. Igloos out of snow and ice blocks.

D. Wigwams out of wood poles and deerskin.

B. pottery.

C. paper.

D. roofs.

B. Europe

C. Australia

D. Asia
Answer: D

B. The water was a natural defense.

C. The water kept diseases away.

D. The people needed water for their crops.

B. Animal herds moved, and the people followed.

C. The Western Hemisphere had better land for crops.

D. Glaciers covered their land and forced them to move.

B. Plows

D. Axes
Answer: A

B. Their supply routes were closed in winter.

C. It was too much work to grow crops in the Arctic.

D. Very little vegetation existed in their area.

B. Cotton

C. Straw

D. Flax
Answer: B

B. Crop rotation

C. Irrigation

D. Slash and burn

B. Horses

C. Camels

D. Llamas

3. How did the invention of agriculture impact the lives of early people living in the Americas?

B. They moved around more.

C. They had a reliable food source.

D. The started eating more meat.

B. The water kept diseases away.

C. The people needed water for their crops.

D. The people only used fish for food.