Mid-Quarter+Exam+Sample+Responses

Identify Sample D Block
1. The Renaissance had been the rediscovery or rebirth of classical ideas in many different ways of paintings, sculptures, architecture, which had a great influence on the culture succeeding and had spread their views through trade and the printing press during the 14th to 17th centuries.

2. The Scientific Revolution was the step towards understanding more about the universe and improvement in the main sciences such as biology, chemistry, physics through their understanding of thinking that the experiences ahd been the most important during the 17th century.

3. Age of Reformation, which occurred during the 16th century had been when people began to question the rights of which powers the church should have when regarding to salvation, and many people such as Martin Luther and John Calvin had believed that the church had been corrupt mainly from indulgences and relics and had tried to devise a new way of understanding God.

4. The Enlightenment Age in the 17th century was where people had started depending on reason and their own sense instead of the past where God had been the single point they believed to be everything and also, people discovered what certain rights and equality should be made for human society, and one of the way had been devising a social contract.

5. The Age of Discovery was in the 15th-17th century where European nations reached out in colonizing in other areas of the world from the technological advancements, and also from the trade they had thrived in gaining territories and becoming economically strong.

Sample 1 B Block
The most important factor in helping Europe to be the forefront of civilization during the 17th and 18th century was the Age of Exploration (Discovery) due to many factors such as opening more trade routes with other countries, discovering unknown lands, and gaining knowledge about other countries. The Age of Exploration had cause and affect—both pros and cons. The Age of Exploration started from Europe—Spain and Portugal with the most power. It helped Europe gain more authority, but brought changes in culture, politics, and economy as well.

Cause of the Age of Exploration was to look for golds from the west, and to look for more lands in order to gain more power as a country. Christopher Columbus at this time discovered America and Henry the Navigator built an naval school for navigators and astronomers. With many people helping to lead the Age of Exploration to success, it helped Europe to be the forefront of civilization during the 17th and 18th century. As an outcome (consequences) of the Age of Exploration for culture was the European countries gained more knowledge about other countries. As for politics, they gained more lands and got more authority for the country. As for economy, they opened trading systems, so they got more money, over produced, and the price of products got cheaper, but they started using slaves as trading material, which in my opinion is a failure as human being, but in a way success for the economy.

The most important factor in helping Europe to be at the forefront of civilizations during the 17th and 18th century was the Age of Exploration. The Age of Exploration (discovery) helped European countries (especially Spain and Portugal) to be more powerful, by expanding trading, and discovering more lands. As much as the Age of Exploration was the most important factor in putting Europe to be the forefront of civilizations by opening new ways of life (new ways to gain more money), the Age of Exploration did influence badly. So was the European success a success for us today?

Sample 2 D Block
Those who have not studied the Scientific Revolution may think that it was a time when only scientific discoveries were being made. Yet this is a misleading statement. During the Scientific Revolution, in addition to making groundbreaking scientific discoveries, people also began to change their thoughts and the way they looked at the world. The Scientific Revolution aided the dominance of Europe in the 1600s-1700s by strengthening 2 major factors of analysis that determine the power of a nation: philosophy and science.

Philolosophy started to change during the Scientific Revolution as it bcame influenced by Empiricism. Empiricism is the belief that knowledge should be derived from experience and therefore not by acceptance. The ideas of Empiricism can be seen in Aristotelianism which was fundamentally based on empirical thought and which grew in popularity during the Scientific Revolution. It was also show when Francis Bacon designed experiments—scientific inquiries primarily based on experience. Empiricism influenced European thought along with Humanism—the belief that human intellect and creativity were trustworthy. These set the basis for a system of systematic doubt—where people started to question the old knowledge that was enforced onto them by the church and started to doubt whether it was true or false. This showed that education was starting to separate from the church doctrine which had been stifling scientific progress.

As people started doubting and questioning the old knowledge, they turned to reason and mathematics to find their own knowledge. This was the next part of philosophical change—people started to believe that the answer could be found through reason and logical thinking—as opposed to acceptance of church beliefs. Galileo Galilei was a scientist during the Scientific Revolution who demonstrated this viewpoint. His predecessors (Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler) had presented their models of the motion of the universe as mathematical models—not physical models. However, Galileo argued that the mathematical model and the physical model were coterminous. He believed that the universe functioned rationally and according to mathematical principals. Therefore, he argued that physical models of the universe must also fit the mathematical description. This meant that in Europe the method of thought for obtaining knowledge was evolving, and that people could now create their own answers using logic and reason instead of relying on the church’s interpretation.

Due to the change in philosophy, progress in science began to blossom, and groundbreaking new discoveries were being made. For instance, Kepler (an astronomer in the Scientific Revolution) was able to use the research and ideas of Copernicus and Brahe to create the first extremely accurate model of the universe—with the sun at the center and elliptical orbits. Isaac Newton was later agble to explain this model—using concepts such as inertia and gravity. Education also was largely influenced by the introduction of Arabic numerals, which allowed calculations to be done far more rapidly than the previous system (Roman numerals). It triggered the birth of mathematical astronomy.

In conclusion, the Sci. Rev. influenced European dominance by changing philosophy to allow science to develop. The development of science allowed Europe to discover previously unknown facts. Furthermore, it set the basis for further eras that would strengthen Europe. Astronomical progress allowed inventions like the caravel in the Age of Exploration.