Quiz · The Silk Roads: More Than a Trade Route

Question 1What is the speaker's main point about the Silk Roads?

They were a single highway running from China to Rome. They were a shifting network linking very different civilizations. They existed mainly to export silk out of ancient China. They were first opened by traders of the Han dynasty.

Question 2According to the speaker, how did most goods actually travel along the Silk Roads?

Traders carried them personally from China all the way to Rome. They were shipped mostly by sea around the southern coasts. Merchants sold them in oasis towns where others carried them onward. Caravans delivered them directly to officials of the Han dynasty.

Question 3What example does the speaker give of technology spreading along the routes?

Papermaking reached the Islamic world long before it reached Europe. Glassmaking travelled directly from Rome into ancient China. Gunpowder spread westward earlier than any religious ideas. Silk weaving was first invented in the oasis trading towns.

Question 4According to the speaker, why do historians now avoid calling the Silk Roads a single road?

Because the routes were closed after the fall of Rome. Because modern maps cannot trace the old paths. Because silk was never traded along them at all. Because goods moved along a shifting network of paths.

Question 5Besides silk, which commodities does the speaker say travelled along the routes?

Tea, porcelain, and gunpowder. Wheat, iron tools, and paper money. Horses, glass, and spices. Cotton, silver coins, and olive oil.

Question 6What can be inferred about traders on the Silk Roads from the talk?

They usually travelled the whole route from China to Rome. They handed goods to other merchants at oasis towns along the way. They refused to trade with societies holding different beliefs. They were employed directly by the Han dynasty government.

Question 7Why does the speaker mention disease when describing the routes?

To show the routes carried more than goods and ideas between societies. To explain why many oasis towns were abandoned by traders. To argue the routes were closed during major outbreaks. To prove the Han dynasty restricted foreign travel.

Question 8According to the speaker, who did early scholars credit with opening the routes?

The rulers of ancient Rome. Merchants from the oasis towns. The Islamic caliphs. The Han dynasty.

Question 9What is the speaker's attitude toward the old textbook picture of the Silk Roads?

He fully accepts the textbook description. He thinks textbooks ignored silk entirely. He believes the routes were actually seas. He regards that picture as misleading.

Question 10What does the speaker say moved along the routes besides goods?

Only military orders between imperial armies. Nothing except silk and spices ever travelled them. Disease and technology also spread along them. Written laws of the Han dynasty exclusively.