US History - Complete Regents Multiple Choice - Exam 1

From LearnSocialStudies

Directions: Please select the correct response for each question, and then Submit. These are stimulus-based questions in which a text, cartoon, chart, graph, photo or image, will be presented for the question set. Please note, all of the responses may or may not be contained within the stimulus. Some of the questions are inferences based upon the stimulus.

Base your answers to questions 1 and 2 on the passage below and on your knowledge of social studies.


1 According to this passage from Common Sense, the author is

(1) trying to convince Americans to remain English colonists
(2) suggesting that the colonies join a European confederation against England
(3) proposing that the colonies revise the Articles of Confederation
(4) urging Americans to become independent from their mother country

2 What is the primary argument used in this passage by Thomas Paine to make his point?

(1) There is no economic relationship between the American colonies and England.
(2) England cannot effectively govern the colonies because America is so much larger.
(3) The American colonies are already allied with France and do not need England.
(4) England has denied the colonists any form of self-government.

Base your answers to questions 3 and 4 on the passage below and on your knowledge of social studies.


3 What was the primary reason James Madison wrote this and other Federalist Papers?

(1) to support ratification of the Constitution
(2) to support creation of a national bank
(3) to encourage increasing ties to Europe
(4) to encourage the development of political parties

4 Which constitutional principle does Madison most directly describe in this passage?

(1) reserving the power of judicial review
(2) separation of powers between the branches of government
(3) support for the rule of law
(4) creation of a powerful military

Base your answers to questions 5 and 6 on the passage below and on your knowledge of social studies.


5 According to this passage, what was President Thomas Jefferson’s primary objective in proposing the Embargo Acts?

(1) to raise revenue
(2) to limit the slave trade
(3) to avoid war
(4) to increase trade

6 What was one result of the failure of the Embargo Acts?

(1) Louisiana Purchase
(2) War of 1812
(3) Missouri Compromise
(4) Gibbons v. Ogden decision

Base your answers to questions 7 and 8 on the passage below and on your knowledge of social studies.


7 What is one reason President Abraham Lincoln included these statements in this address?

(1) to reduce the fears of slave-holding states
(2) to reestablish the foreign slave trade
(3) to increase support of northern abolitionists
(4) to encourage the expansion of slavery into the West

8 Which later action by President Lincoln demonstrated a change from his 1861 position?

(1) signing the Pacific Railway Act
(2) appointing William Seward Secretary of State
(3) issuing the Emancipation Proclamation
(4) suspending habeas corpus

Base your answers to questions 9 and 10 on the excerpt below and on your knowledge of social studies.


9 Which geographic feature does Frederick Jackson Turner suggest as primary in the creation of the American character?

(1) an irregular coastline
(2) the Great Lakes
(3) unsettled wilderness
(4) the Mohawk Valley

10 Which federal action is most consistent with the ideas expressed by Frederick Jackson Turner in this excerpt?

(1) passage of the Federal Reserve Act
(2) establishment of the Freedmen’s Bureau
(3) decision in Plessy v. Ferguson
(4) passage of the Homestead Act

Base your answers to questions 11 and 12 on the passage below and on your knowledge of social studies.


11 The authors of the passage would have been most critical of the activities of which two individuals?

(1) Jacob Riis and Ida Tarbell
(2) John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie
(3) William Jennings Bryan and Eugene V. Debs
(4) Margaret Sanger and Jane Addams

12 During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, how did Congress attempt to address these practices?

(1) They authorized a federal takeover of large industries.
(2) They declared that all trade was interstate commerce.
(3) They implemented a minimum wage.
(4) They passed antitrust legislation.

Base your answers to questions 13 and 14 on the newspaper headlines below and on your knowledge of social studies.


13 A historian would most likely use this document to investigate events leading up to the

(1) annexation of Alaska
(2) war with Spain
(3) Open Door policy
(4) invasion of Mexico

14 How did United States foreign policy change in the years immediately following this event?

(1) The United States entered a period of overseas expansion.
(2) The United States pursued a policy of containment.
(3) The United States became more isolated.
(4) The United States rejected the goal of Manifest Destiny.

Base your answers to questions 15 and 16 on the map below and on your knowledge of social studies.


15 What was a main reason for the movement of people as shown on this map?

(1) Foreign food imports replaced domestic production of crops.
(2) Northern states banned all forms of racial discrimination.
(3) Abolitionists promised a means of escape from slavery.
(4) Industrialization provided more employment opportunities.

16 What was one result of the migration shown on the map?

(1) The South became the new destination for most European immigrants.
(2) The Democratic Party declined in the northern half of the country.
(3) American culture was enriched by new forms of music and literature.
(4) Segregated communities throughout the nation came to an end.

Base your answers to questions 17 and 18 on the passage below and on your knowledge of social studies.


17 According to the passage, what is one argument in support of free speech during wartime?

(1) Citizens must maintain their right to control the government even in times of war.
(2) Citizens must support the decisions of elected officials.
(3) Military leaders are bound by constitutional oath to defend the rights of the people.
(4) Congress has the authority to pass laws limiting first amendment rights.

18 Which Supreme Court decision addresses the issue raised by Senator La Follette in this speech?

(1) Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific R.R. v. Illinois
(2) Plessy v. Ferguson
(3) Northern Securities Co. v. United States
(4) Schenck v. United States

Base your answer to question 19 on the cartoon below and on your knowledge of social studies.s.


19 Why were President Herbert Hoover and the Republican Party unable to solve the problem addressed in this cartoon?

(1) They believed in limited federal government intervention in economic activity.
(2) They knew the problem existed only in rural areas of the United States.
(3) They thought that foreign influences were the primary cause of the bank crisis.
(4) They believed the federal government must first pay back those who lost money due to stock speculation.

Base your answer to question 20 on the cartoon below and on your knowledge of social studies.


20 What was the reason for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s reaction to the Supreme Court as shown in this cartoon?

(1) Congress had failed to pass any New Deal legislation.
(2) Several New Deal programs had been invalidated.
(3) The House of Representatives had voted to impeach President Roosevelt.
(4) Several Supreme Court Justices had been removed from office.

Base your answers to questions 21 and 22 on the poster below and on your knowledge of social studies.


21 Which situation led the Western Defense Command and Fourth Army Wartime Civil Control Administration to issue this order?

(1) the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
(2) the lack of adequate housing on the West Coast
(3) widespread acts of espionage by Japanese Americans
(4) efforts to deport Japanese Americans

22 What Supreme Court case upheld the constitutionality of this order?

(1) Mapp v. Ohio
(2) Korematsu v. United States
(3) Gideon v. Wainwright
(4) Miranda v. Arizona

Base your answers to questions 23 and 24 on the cartoon below and on your knowledge of social studies.


23 What was a primary purpose of the Marshall Plan?

(1) to develop better relations with the Soviet Union
(2) to expand United States territory
(3) to support revolutions in the Middle East
(4) to contain the spread of communism

24 The Soviet response to the Marshall Plan contributed to

(1) a decline in United States-European trade
(2) increased aid to African nations
(3) the Cold War
(4) the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization -(NATO)

Base your answers to questions 25 and 26 on the excerpt below and on your knowledge of social studies.


25 The purpose of this law was to

(1) limit the power of the president from involving the United States in extended wars
(2) expand the power of the president as commander in chief
(3) allow the president to declare war on foreign countries
(4) prevent the president from signing a treaty without the consent of Congress

26 What event most directly led to the passage of this act?

(1) President Nixon’s visit to China
(2) President Kennedy’s response to the Cuban missile crisis
(3) involvement in the Vietnam War
(4) imposition of the Arab oil embargo

Base your answers to questions 27 and 28 on the photograph below and on your knowledge of social studies.


27 Which presidential role is being demonstrated in the photograph?

(1) commander in chief of the armed forces
(2) granting reprieves and pardons for federal offenses
(3) treaty-making powers with foreign nations
(4) chief executive approving congressional bills

28 What was one way the Voting Rights Act expanded the civil rights of African Americans?

(1) It stopped the practice of sharecropping.
(2) It ended discrimination in public facilities.
(3) It outlawed the use of literacy tests.
(4) It forced the integration of public schools.


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