advanced placement world history summer assignment · 2016-01-01 · jared diamond won a pulitzer...
TRANSCRIPT
PART ONE: Sign up for Haiku.
MyHaikuClass is a safe, online collaborative classroom social platform. We will use MyHaikuClass to
communicate as a class, submit assignments, and manage course documents. Use the following link: https://www.myhaikuclass.com/prindiville/apworldhistory/signup and enter the code: FBLLX.
PART TWO: Encountering one of the most important books of our time.
The goal of AP World History is to investigate the big ideas, concepts, and trends of history. Instead of
focusing on minor events and occurrences, we will focus on the overarching themes that have shaped history
and our world today.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies is perhaps the most important historical work written in the
last two decades. Jared Diamond won a Pulitzer Prize for the book. The book considers the growth of human
civilization across regions and academic disciplines, explaining, for example, why disease impacted the
development of complex societies in both the Americas and China.
The book will help you begin to think about history in the global, world perspective necessary for the course.
The book is available on Amazon for around $10 and also from local libraries for free. You do not need to buy
a copy; we will reference the book later in the year, but you won’t need access to it. The ISBN number is: 978-
0393317558.
St. Patrick Catholic High School
Advanced Placement World History
Summer Assignment
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
Directions: Read only the chapters listed below. If you feel so moved, you are free to read more. I have selected
the chapters that will help you gain the most from the book, with the least summer reading. As you read,
answer each of the following questions in a typed document. Your answers should be long enough to fully
answer the question. For some questions, a one-sentence response is appropriate, for others, a more detailed, 3-
4 sentence response would be necessary. For the final question, one or two paragraphs is appropriate.
When you finish the assignment, submit it online through our Haiku class in the assignments box on the right
side of the homepage, or under the Assess tab. You should upload your typed document as a Word file to the
Haiku assignment’s Dropbox; do not type your answers into the Haiku assignment page.
Grade Value: The summer assignment will be included as a quiz/project grade in the first quarter grade for AP
World History. Failure to submit the assignment by the deadline merits removal from the course.
Due: The assignment is due on Haiku by 11:59pm on August 3. The assignment will close at midnight and not
re-open. I will not accept the assignment in paper. If you have difficulties, you must email me prior to the
deadline. I recommend you start working on the assignment with ample time.
Prologue: Yali’s Question
1. What is Yali’s Question?
2. What are three considerations Diamond discusses as he ponders Yali’s question?
Part One: From Eden to Cajamarca
Chapter One: Up to the Starting Line
3. What was the “Great Leap Forward”? Which peoples did it impact, and what probably
catalyzed this change?
Chapter Two: A Natural Experiment of History
4. What message is Diamond trying to convey with his focus on the conflict of the Maori and
Moriori people?
5. What were the six environmental factors that contribute to the differences among Polynesian
societies? Of the six, which do you think plays the greatest role in differentiation and why?
Part Two: The Rise and Spread of Food Production
Chapter Four: Farmer Power
6. According to Figure 4.1 what is a prerequisite to the development of technology?
7. In one paragraph or less please summarize how domestication of livestock and farming
changed societies.
Chapter Six: To Farm or Not to Farm
8. What five factors contributed to the transition from hunter-gathering societies to farming?
Chapter Eight: Apples or Indians
9. Identify at least four of the Fertile Crescent’s advantages in terms of food production.
10. Identify New Guinea’s 3 severe limitations.
11. When comparing Eastern United States, New Guinea, and the Fertile Crescent, what caused
such a great difference in production?
12. What happened when more productive crops arrived from elsewhere (p. 153)
13. What two conclusions does Diamond want to exaggerate?
Part 3: From Food to Guns, Germs, and Steel
Chapter 11: Lethal Gift of Livestock
14. What are two historically famous epidemics?
15. What are the four common characteristics shared by lethal epidemics?
16. Why did the rise of agriculture launch the evolution of infectious diseases? (In complete
sentences) (page 205)
17. List four diseases that are contracted from an animal.
Part Four: Around the World in Five Chapters
Chapter 16: How China Became Chinese
18. What is Sinification? (look it up online if necessary)
19. How do the Chinese achieve and maintain Sinification?
20. What are some characteristics or accomplishments of the Chinese civilization?
Chapter 18: Hemispheres Colliding
21. Using pages 354-357, make a chart that compares and contrasts Eurasian and Native American
society prior to 1492.
22. Describe the five areas of technology that were contributing factors to Europe’s conquest of the
Americas.
23. Referencing Table 18.1; Which is the earliest developing society? Second earliest? Third?
Which societies never developed writing systems? Which never developed iron tools?
24. What has the Native American population reduced by (%) since 1492?
Chapter 19: How Africa Became Black
25. List the five major human groups in Africa around 1000 CE (AD).
26. How many different language groups exist in the African continent?
27. Describe the characteristics and growth of the Bantus.
28. What does Diamond project actually happened to the vanished Khoisan populations?
Epilogue: The Future of Human History as a Science
29. In paragraph form, explain Diamond’s argument for why Europe rose to be a global leader
instead of China or the Fertile Crescent.