World History Practice Test: Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment
- Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment
- 10 questions
- 12 minutes
Ten questions on the new science of the 1500s and 1600s and the political ideas of the 1700s. Tip: match each thinker with one key idea, since that is what most questions test.
Tap an option to mark your answer. You can change your mind, or tap the same option again to leave the question blank. The correct answers and explanations appear when you finish the test.Tap an option to answer; tap it again to leave the question blank.
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Question 1
What did Nicolaus Copernicus propose in his book published in 1543?
Correct answer: B
Copernicus challenged the Earth-centered model of Ptolemy. His heliocentric idea was later supported by Galileo's and Kepler's work.
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Question 2
Using a telescope in 1610, Galileo saw moons circling which planet, evidence that not everything orbits Earth?
Correct answer: C
Galileo discovered four large moons of Jupiter. He also saw the phases of Venus, but Venus has no moons.
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Question 3
What did Johannes Kepler show about the orbits of the planets?
Correct answer: A
Kepler used Tycho Brahe's careful observations to find that orbits are elliptical. This fixed problems in Copernicus's circular orbits.
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Question 4
Isaac Newton's Principia (1687) explained the motion of planets and falling objects with one idea. What was it?
Correct answer: D
Newton showed that the same force of gravity pulls an apple to the ground and keeps the Moon in orbit. Natural selection came from Darwin in the 1800s.
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Question 5
John Locke argued that people have natural rights. Which rights did he name?
Correct answer: D
Locke also argued that governments get power from the consent of the people and may be replaced if they violate these rights.
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Question 6
In The Spirit of the Laws (1748), Montesquieu argued that liberty is safest when government power is
Correct answer: A
Montesquieu's separation of powers influenced the U.S. Constitution. Hobbes, not Montesquieu, argued for a powerful single ruler.
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Question 7
Which philosopher wrote The Social Contract and argued that legitimate government follows the "general will" of the people?
Correct answer: C
Rousseau's 1762 book argued that the people as a whole are sovereign. Diderot is best known for editing the Encyclopédie.
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Question 8
Voltaire is best known for defending which ideas?
Correct answer: B
Voltaire attacked religious persecution and censorship in his essays and satires. The divine right of kings was the idea many Enlightenment writers challenged.
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Question 9
In Leviathan (1651), Thomas Hobbes argued that people should give power to a strong ruler. Why?
Correct answer: C
Hobbes believed that without strong authority people would fight constantly. Rousseau, not Hobbes, viewed people as naturally good.
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Question 10
Which ruler is often called an "enlightened despot" for corresponding with Enlightenment thinkers while keeping absolute power?
Correct answer: A
Catherine wrote to Voltaire and Diderot and backed some reforms, but she did not give up absolute rule. Henry VIII and Philip II lived before the Enlightenment.
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