The Renaissance: rich city-states, new ideas and new ways of painting

Grade 7 Social Studies Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   Looking back to ancient learning (cards A to D; summaries in our words). Card A, a history summary: in 1345 the poet Petrarch, who lived from 1304 to 1374, found a forgotten collection of letters by Cicero, a writer of ancient Rome, in the city of Verona. Card B: in 1397 a scholar named Manuel Chrysoloras began teaching Greek in Florence. Card C, a textbook summary: humanism, the study of ancient Greek and Roman writings, spread among scholars in the 1400s. The Renaissance, a word meaning "rebirth," was centered on Florence in the 1400s. Card D: Renaissance humanists called the centuries before their own the "Dark Ages." That was their own label. Many historians today avoid it, because those centuries had learning and art too.

2. 1.

   According to card D, who first called the centuries before the Renaissance the "Dark Ages," Ari asks?

   • Historians today, who studied those centuries closely
   • Cicero, who wrote letters in ancient Rome
   • People who lived in those centuries, who named their own age
   • Renaissance humanists, writing of the time before their own
3. 2.

   Why might humanists call the earlier centuries "dark," Bo asks?

   • Because the Romans had asked them to describe the centuries that way
   • To make their own age of ancient learning look new and bright by contrast
   • Because historians had proved that nothing was written in those centuries
   • Because those centuries had no art or learning of any kind
4. 3.

   Card A dates Petrarch's find to 1345 and card B dates Chrysoloras's teaching to 1397. How many years apart, Esme asks?

   • 62 years
   • 2,742 years, the two dates combined
   • 42 years
   • 52 years
5. 4.

   A student says, "Card A proves the Renaissance began with Petrarch's find." Which reply is best, Kira asks?

   • Not proven: card A shows one find, and humanism spread in the 1400s
   • Proven: card C says Petrarch started the Renaissance in Florence
   • Not proven: a discovery of old letters cannot matter to learning
   • Proven: the find in 1345 came first, so everything else followed from it
6. 5.

   Which chain fits cards A to C, Luz asks?

   • Finds and teaching of ancient texts helped humanism spread
   • Cicero's letters made the Renaissance happen with no other help
   • Chrysoloras's lessons in 1397 caused Petrarch's find in 1345
   • The Renaissance in Florence caused Petrarch's find in 1345
7. 6.

   Card C calls the Renaissance a "rebirth." Whose view of the past does that word reflect, Milo asks?

   • A modern historian's view that nothing happened before the 1400s
   • Petrarch's view that Verona was the new Rome
   • The Romans' view that their own age would be reborn
   • The humanists' view that ancient learning had been lost
8. 7.

   How might a humanist and a historian today each describe the centuries before 1345, Noah asks?

   • Both would call them dark, since both study the same centuries and the same books
   • Neither could describe them, since no writings survive from before 1345
   • A humanist might call them dark; a historian would point to their learning
   • The historian would call them dark; the humanist would praise them for their art
9. 8.

   Card A is a modern summary. Which would best check the date 1345, Pia asks?

   • A map of Verona in the 1900s
   • A later textbook that repeats the same date
   • A film that retells his life with actors and invented scenes
   • Petrarch's own letters or notes from that time
10. 9.

    Card B says Greek teaching began in Florence in 1397. What might change for scholars, Ren asks?

    • Scholars would stop reading Latin writings from ancient Rome
    • Scholars in Florence could learn Greek
    • Scholars would no longer need to study Cicero's letters
    • Scholars would move to Verona to teach Latin there
11. 10.

    Suppose a new find shows a scholar teaching Greek in Venice in 1380. How does it affect card B, Zee asks?

    • It would change nothing, since new finds cannot add to old cards
    • It would show the Renaissance began in Venice
    • It would not falsify card B; it would show Greek study elsewhere
    • It would make card B false, since Greek would no longer be new