Section II
Time: 90 minutesPART A: DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION (DBQ)
Recommended reading time for Part A—15 minutes
Recommended writing time for Part A—40 minutesDirections: The question is based on the documents below. The documents have been edited and
adapted for this exam.
• Read the question below carefully.
• Then read all the documents.
• Begin by grouping the documents into categories that reflect the documents’ points of view, theme,
or intended audience.
• Create a thesis that addresses the entire question.
• Analyze the documents that support the thesis. You must use all (or all but one of) the documents.
• Give careful attention to the purpose, point of view, source, and historical context of each
document.
• Do NOT list the documents or analyze them one at a time in your essay; they should be
incorporated into your argument.
• Bring in historical examples that support your argument.
• Create a persuasive essay that upholds your thesis, connects your argument to historical context,
and draws conclusions.
Using the following documents, and your knowledge of world history, discuss in what ways the
modern (twentieth-century) Olympic games have become a platform for international political
disputes and how this contradicts their original purpose.
Document 1Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica , 11th edition, 1910–1911, s.v. “Olympia”The regular catalogue of Olympic victors begins in 776 B.C. . . . It was at Elis, in the gymnasium,
that candidates from all parts of Greece were tested, before they were admitted to the athletic
competitions at Olympia. To have passed through the training (usually of ten months) at Elis was
regarded as the most valuable preparation. . . . The list of contests was enlarged to invest the
celebration with a Panhellenic character. Exercises of a Spartan type—testing endurance and
strength with an especial view to war—had almost exclusively formed the earlier programme. . . .
As early as the 25th Olympiad the four-horse chariot race was added. Horse races were added later.
Besides the foot race . . . there were now “long” foot races. Wrestling and boxing were combined.
Leaping, quoit-throwing, javeline-throwing, running and wrestling were also added. Hellenes
from all cities were to have peaceable access to the Olympian festival. . . . An expression of the
Greek ideas that the body of man has a glory as well as his intellect and spirit, that body and mind
should alike be disciplined.