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Grade 7 · Social Studies · Unit 3 of 6

Laws & Government

Codes, citizens and emperors

What your child practises

Hammurabi's code (with a reading passage), Athenian democracy, the Roman Republic and Empire, the Mandate of Heaven, and Egypt's social pyramid.

BC Curriculum learning standard: Systems of law and government: Code of Hammurabi, Athenian democracy, the Roman Republic and Empire; social structures

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    In Rome, wealthy landowning families were patricians. What were ordinary citizens called?

    • consuls
    • plebeians
    • pharaohs
    • scribes
    Show answer

    plebeians

    Hint: Plebeians were farmers, workers and traders. Over time they won more rights, such as electing tribunes.

  2. Question 2

    Athenian democracy or the Roman Republic? Sort each feature.

    Sort into: 🦉 Athenian democracy · 🦅 Roman Republic

    • 📜laws written on the Twelve Tables
    • 🎲council members chosen by lottery
    • 🏛️a Senate of powerful, experienced men
    • 🗣️Pericles as a leading statesman
    • 👥citizen juries of hundreds of people
    • ✌️two consuls elected each year
    • ⏳a dictator chosen only for emergencies
    • 🏺ostracism: voting to send a leader away for 10 years
    Show answer

    🦉 Athenian democracy: council members chosen by lottery, Pericles as a leading statesman, citizen juries of hundreds of people, ostracism: voting to send a leader away for 10 years · 🦅 Roman Republic: laws written on the Twelve Tables, a Senate of powerful, experienced men, two consuls elected each year, a dictator chosen only for emergencies

    Hint: In Athens, citizens voted on laws themselves and were picked by lottery for some jobs. Rome's Republic had elected consuls, a Senate, tribunes and the written Twelve Tables.

  3. Question 3

    Chinese dynasties claimed the 'Mandate of Heaven.' What did this mean?

    • Heaven gave a just ruler the right to rule, and could take it away from an unjust one
    • Rulers were elected by citizens every year
    • The ruler had to live in the mountains
    • Only priests could become rulers
    Show answer

    Heaven gave a just ruler the right to rule, and could take it away from an unjust one

    Hint: Floods, famine or revolt were seen as signs a ruler had lost Heaven's approval.

  4. Question 4

    The word 'democracy' comes from Greek words meaning…

    🗳️
    • rule by the army
    • rule by the people
    • rule by the gods
    • rule by one king
    Show answer

    rule by the people

    Hint: 'Demos' means people and 'kratos' means power or rule.

  5. Question 5

    Why is Hammurabi shown with Shamash at the top of the stele?

    Hammurabi's Code

    Around 1754 BCE, King Hammurabi of Babylon had about 282 laws carved into a tall pillar of black stone, called a stele. It was set up in public, where people could see the laws.

    The laws covered many parts of daily life: trade, wages, borrowing, farming, family life and crime. At the top of the stele, Hammurabi is shown standing before Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice, to show that his laws had the gods' approval.

    Many punishments followed the idea of 'an eye for an eye': the punishment matched the harm done. But the laws did not treat everyone the same. The penalty often depended on whether a person was a noble, a free commoner or enslaved.

    Hammurabi's code was not the first written set of laws, but it is one of the most complete to survive. The original stele is now in a museum in Paris.

    • Because Shamash was a king of Egypt
    • To show a picture of the harvest
    • Because Shamash was Hammurabi's teacher
    • To show that his laws had the gods' approval
    Show answer

    To show that his laws had the gods' approval

    Hint: Paragraph 2 explains the picture at the top.

  6. Question 6

    After uniting China in 221 BCE, what did Qin Shi Huang standardize?

    • the date of the Olympic Games
    • the language of Rome
    • writing, money, and weights and measures
    • the shape of the pyramids
    Show answer

    writing, money, and weights and measures

    Hint: Making these the same everywhere helped him control and tax his huge new empire.

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