GED Social Studies Civilizations, Environment, and Society Summary

Rivers provided water for drinking and crops, rich soil from floods, and a way to travel and trade. Ancient Egypt grew along the Nile, and Mesopotamia grew between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Wrong choices

• Mountain tops: Mountain tops are hard to farm and travel to.
• Deserts far from water: Deserts far from water could not support large farming communities.
• Frozen polar regions: Polar regions are too cold for farming.

A renewable resource is replaced by nature in a short time, such as wind, sunlight, and flowing water. Fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas are nonrenewable because they take millions of years to form.

Wrong choices

• Coal: Coal takes millions of years to form, so it is nonrenewable.
• Oil: Oil is a fossil fuel, so it is nonrenewable.
• Natural gas: Natural gas is a fossil fuel, so it is nonrenewable.

Sustainability means using resources in a way that can continue over time. Examples include replanting trees after logging, conserving water, and using renewable energy.

Wrong choices

• Never using any natural resources: Sustainability allows using resources, as long as they are used wisely.
• Buying only goods made in other countries: Where goods are made is not what sustainability means.
• Using as many resources as possible right now: Using up resources quickly leaves less for the future, which is the opposite of sustainability.

Cutting down forests is a human change to the environment called deforestation. Without trees, animals lose habitat and tree roots no longer hold the soil, so rain washes it away (erosion). Fewer trees also take in less carbon dioxide.

Wrong choices

• The area's rainfall becomes easier to predict: Removing forest does not make rainfall easier to predict.
• The number of plant and animal species increases: Losing forest usually reduces the number of species, because many lose their habitat.
• The air takes in more carbon dioxide: Trees take in carbon dioxide. Cutting them down means less carbon dioxide is taken from the air, not more.

Around 2,500 years ago, Athens let its citizens meet and vote directly on laws. This was an early direct democracy. However, only free adult men were citizens; women and enslaved people could not take part.

Wrong choices

• Communism: Communism is a modern idea from the 1800s.
• Monarchy: Athens became known for having citizens govern, not a king.
• Federalism: Federalism, dividing power between national and state governments, is a feature of the much later U.S. Constitution.

In a republic, citizens elect representatives to govern. The Roman Republic was one model that the framers of the U.S. Constitution studied. The United States is a republic: voters elect members of Congress and the President.

Wrong choices

• A hereditary monarch: Rome's republic replaced rule by kings. A hereditary monarch is the opposite of a republic.
• A single ruler with total control: A single ruler with total control is not a republic.
• A direct democracy where every citizen votes on every law: In a republic, elected officials make most decisions, not every citizen voting on every law.

The passage describes both benefits (flood control, water supply, electricity) and changes to nature (a new lake, less water and soil flowing downstream). Many GED questions ask you to see that human changes to the environment usually have both benefits and costs.

Wrong choices

• The dam only harmed the environment and helped no one: The passage lists clear benefits, such as flood control, water, and electricity.
• The dam was a natural event that people could not control: People planned and built the dam. It was not natural.
• The dam had no effect on the environment: The passage says the dam created a lake and changed river flow, so it did affect the environment.

A human change to the environment is something people do, such as building roads, draining wetlands, or damming rivers. A volcanic eruption changes the land too, but it is a natural event, not a human action.

Wrong choices

• Draining a wetland to make farmland: Draining a wetland for farms is a human change to the land.
• Building a dam across a river: A dam changes the flow of a river and creates a lake, so it is a human change.
• Building a highway through a forest: Building a highway clears land and splits up habitat, so it is a human change.