The Undecided Scholars
Created in 2012 by:
Exam coordinator / DBQ:
Stephen Popiel
Answers 01-20 / Essay #1:
Alicia Greback
Answers 21-40 / Essay #2:
Caylee Conner
Answers 41-60 / Essay #3:
Shawna Chopko
Answers 61-80 / Essay #4:
Greg Barrier
UNITED STATES HISTORY
SECTION I
Time – 55 minutes
80 Questions
Directions: Each of the questions or incomplete statements below is followed by five suggested answers or completions. Select the one that is best in each case and then fill in the corresponding oval on the answer sheet.
21. What was the number one product shipped out of the Chesapeake Bay in the beginning of the 18th century?
a. corn
b. steel
c. tobacco
d. sugar cane
e. beavers fur
22. The public liked popular sovereignty because it
a. stopped the spread of slavery.
b. fit in with the democratic tradition of self-determination.
c. provided a national solution to the problem of slavery.
d. supported the Wilmot Proviso.
e. upheld the principles of white supremacy.
23. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin
a. intended to show the cruelty of slavery.
b. was prompted by passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
c. comprised the recollections of a long-time personal witness to the evils of slavery.
d. received little notice at the time it was published but became widely read during the Civil War.
e. portrayed blacks as militant resisters to slavery.
24. The situation in Kansas in the mid-1850s indicated the impracticality of in the territories.
a. abolitionism
b. free soil
c. popular sovereignty
d. slavery
e. cotton growing
25. The presidential candidate of the new Constitutional Union party in 1860 was
a. Stephen A. Douglas.
b. William Seward.
c. John Bell.
d. Jefferson Davis.
e. James Crittenden.
26. Most of the Five Civilized Tribes in the Indian Territory of present-day Oklahoma
a. supported the Confederacy.
b. supported the Union.
c. remained neutral.
d. gave up their slaves.
e. sought admission as a Confederate state.
27. To achieve its independence, the Confederacy had to
a. invade the Union.
b. win a decisive military victory on its own soil.
c. fight the invading Union army to a draw.
d. attract more talented military commanders.
e. capture Washington, D.C.
28. As the Civil War began, the South seemed to have the advantage of
a. greater ability to wage
offensive warfare.
b. more talented military leaders.
c. superior industrial capabilities.
d. superior transportation facilities.
e. a more united public opinion.
29. The greatest weakness of the South during the Civil War was its
a. military leadership.
b. navy.
c. slave population.
d. economy.
e. political system.
30. The North’s greatest strength in the Civil War was its
a. ethnic unity.
b. military leadership.
c. navy.
d. high morale.
e. economy.
31. Much of the hunger experienced by Confederate soldiers in the Civil War was due to
a. poor agricultural production.
b. the Union’s naval blockade.
c. the South’s rickety transportation system.
d. the fact that slaves abandoned the plantations.
e. profiteering by military suppliers.
32. Northern soldiers eventually became known for their
a. discipline and determination.
b. cowardice in battle.
c. lack of proper training.
d. high-pitched battle yell.
e. love of military pomp and hierarchy.
33. To find effective high-level commanders, the Union
a. took only top graduates of West Point.
b. drew on its reserve officer training program.
c. relied on the advice of foreign experts.
d. did not let politics enter the decision-making process.
e. used trial and error.
34. A supposed asset for the South at the beginning of the Civil War that never
materialized to its real advantage was
a. effective military leadership.
b. intervention from Britain and France.
c. the fighting skill of Southern males.
d. its ability to fight on its own soil.
e. its belief that it was defending its way of life.
35. At the beginning of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln favored
a. postponing military action as long as possible.
b. ending slavery.
c. long-term enlistments for Union soldiers.
d. quick military action to show the folly of secession.
e. seizing control of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
36. The South’s victory at Bull Run in 1861
a. reduced enlistments in the South’s army.
b. reduced the number of Confederate deserters.
c. demonstrated how difficult Confederate independence would be.
d. convinced the South of the need to prepare for a protracted conflict.
e. forced Lincoln to flee Washington.
37. In the Civil War, the South won the battle of
a. Vickburg.
b. Bull Run.
c. Gettysburg.
d. Atlanta.
e. Lookout Mountain.
38. The final Union war strategy included all the following components except
a. guerrilla warfare.
b. a naval blockade.
c. undermining the Confederate economy.
d. seizing control of the Mississippi River.
e. capturing Richmond.
39. The Battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862, is considered pivotal to the outcome of the Civil war because it
a. represented the Union’s deepest thrust into southern territory.
b. forestalled the possibility of European intervention.
c. resulted in the border states joining the Confederacy.
d. marked the fist use of Black troops by the Union army.
e. confirmed George McClellan’s status as the leading Union general.
40. The most prominent abolitionist leader was
a. Sojourner Truth
b. David Walker
c. William Lloyd Garrison
d. Frederick Douglas
e. Abraham Lincoln
61. The primary reason that FDR made concessions to Stalin at the Yalta Conference was that
- he sympathized with the soviet need to dominate Eastern Europe
- he wanted the Soviet Union to enter the war against japan
- he wanted the Soviets to agree to American domination of Central America and the Caribbean
- he was afraid of a postwar confrontation with the Soviets over China
- he was afraid of the possibility of nuclear warfare
62. A crucial early development of the Cold War occurred when
a. Germany was divided into East Germany under Soviet control and a pro- american West Germany
b. American and Soviet forces engaged in armed clashes in Austria
c. the soviets crushed anticommunist rebellions in Poland and Hungary
d. the French and Italian Communist parties attempted revolutions against their governments
e. the launch of vessels into the outer orbit of Earth
63. The Supreme Court cases of Muller and Adkins centered on
a. racial differences.
b. affirmative action.
c. “right to work” laws from several states.
d. the question of whether women merited special legal and social treatment
e. antitrust legislation.
64. The Bonus Expeditionary Force marched on Washington, D.C., in 1932 to demand
a. the removal of American troops from Nicaragua.
b. passage of legislation introducing a lower tariff.
c. immediate full payment of bonus payments promised to World War I veterans.
d. punishment for those who had forced unemployed veterans to leave Washington, D.C.
e. housing and health care assistance for veterans.
65. The Works Progress Administration was a major ______program of the New Deal; the Public Works Administration was a long-range______program; and the Social Security Act was a major ______program.
a. relief; recovery; reform
b. reform; recovery; relief
c. recovery; relief; reform
d. relief; reform; recovery
e. reform; relief; recovery
66. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs
a. were almost no help for the poor.
b. did not end the Depression.
c. created the biggest federal deficits in American history.
d. aided only farmers.
e. aided the poor but not the middle class.
67. As part of his Good Neighbor policy toward Latin America, President Roosevelt
a. abandoned the Monroe Doctrine.
b. withdrew American marines from Haiti.
c. asked Congress to extend the Platt Amendment in Cuba.
d. returned the Guantanamo naval base to Cuban control.
e. proposed to grant Puerto Rico its independence.
68. The Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937 stipulated that when the president proclaimed the existence of a foreign war,
a. Americans would be prohibited from sailing on the ships of the warring nations.
b. America would sell arms and war materials only to the victim of aggression.
c. American bankers would be allowed to make loans to only one of the warring nations.
d. the United States intended to uphold the tradition of freedom of the seas.
e. U.S. diplomats and civilians would be withdrawn from both warring nations.
69. In waging war against Japan, the United States relied mainly on a strategy of
a. heavy bombing from Chinese air bases.
b. invading Japanese strongholds in Southeast Asia.
c. fortifying China by transporting supplies from India over the Himalayan “hump.”
d. “island hopping” across the South Pacific while bypassing Japanese strongholds.
e. turning the Japanese flanks in New Guinea and Alaska.
70. The Potsdam conference
a. determined the fate of Eastern Europe.
b. brought France and China in as part of the “Big Five.
c. concluded that the Soviet Union would enter the war in the Pacific.
d. was Franklin Roosevelt’s last meeting with Churchill and Stalin.
e. issued an ultimatum to Japan to surrender or be destroyed.
71. Conservative Democrats who helped Ronald Reagan to pass his budget and tax-cutting legislation were called
a. blue dogs.
b. sagebrush rebels.
c. scalawags.
d. neoconservatives.
e. boll weevils.
72. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) failed to be ratified by the needed 38 states largely because
a. the Catholic Church opposed it.
b. many Americans realized that its goals had already been achieved without amending the Constitution.
c. an antifeminist backlash led by Phyllis Schlafly stirred sufficient opposition to stop it.
d. many suspected that it would require such things as rigid quotas and unisex bathrooms.
e. Americans believed that equal gender treatment was a matter of changing attitudes, not creating laws.
73. When the Soviet Union denied the United States, Britain, and France access to Berlin in 1948, President Truman responded by
a. asking the United Nations to intervene.
b. denying the Soviets access to West Germany.
c. declaring that an “iron curtain” had descended across Central Europe.
d. organizing a gigantic airlift of supplies to Berlin.
e. sending an armed convoy to Berlin.
74. By mid-1963, President John F. Kennedy’s position on civil rights can best be described as
a. indifferent.
b. passively opposed.
c. supportive but unwilling to stake his political career on the issue.
d. committed to finding a solution to this moral issue.
e. caught between northern and southern Democrats.
75. John F. Kennedy’s strategy of “flexible response”
a. was an updated version of John Foster Dulles’s doctrine of massive retaliation.
b. was used in his battle with the leadership of the steel industry.
c. called for a variety of military options that could be matched to the scope and importance of a crisis.
d. required increased spending on a variety of nuclear weapons systems to be deployed around the world.
e. cut back nuclear weapons in favor of guerilla forces.
76. On the subject of racial justice, President Eisenhower
a. demanded the integration of the armed forces as early as 1948.
b. publicly endorsed the 1954 Supreme Court school-desegregation decision.
c. vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
d. criticized President Truman’s call for establishing a permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission.
e. admired the Christian philosophy of Martin Luther King.
77. John Kennedy joined hands with the civil rights movement when he
a. sent federal marshals to protect the Freedom Riders.
b. ordered the FBI to remove the wiretap from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s phone.
c. secured passage of the Voting Rights Act.
d. journeyed south to support the registration of black voters.
e. ordered the immediate desegregation of schools.
78. With the passage of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution,
a. the United States declared war on Vietnam.
b. Congress handed the president a blank check to use further force in Vietnam.
c. the military was given the authority to use tactical nuclear weapons.
d. Congress maintained its war-declaring power.
e. the goals of American military involvement in Vietnam were clear.
79. The 1954 Supreme Court Case that ruled racially segrated school systems “inherently unequal” was
a. Roe v. Wade
b. Plessy v. Fergeson
c. Sweatt v. Painter
d. Johnson v. Little Rock School District
e. Brown v. Board of Education
80. In the final analysis, Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs
a. did no good at all
b. actually increased the poverty rate
c. proved that poperty could not be papered over with greenbacks
d. won some noteworthy battles in education and health care
e. were heavily over funded
END OF SECTION I
UNITED STATES HISTORY
SECTION II
Part A
(Suggested writing time – 45 minutes)
Percent of Section II score – 45
Directions: The following question requires you to construct a coherent essay that integrates your interpretation of Documents A-H and your knowledge of the period referred to in the question. High scores will be earned only by essays that both cite key pieces of evidence from the documents and draw on outside knowledge of the period.
1. “The Civil War was fought due to the fear of the abolishment of slavery.” Evaluate the validity of this statement by using the documents below.
Document A
Jefferson Davis inaugural address“The declared purpose of the compact of Union from which we have withdrawn was "to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity;" and
when, in the judgment of the sovereign States now composing this Confederacy, it had
been perverted from the purposes for which it was ordained, and had ceased to answer the ends for which it was established, a peaceful appeal to the ballot-box declared that so far as they were concerned, the government created by that compact should cease to exist. In this they merely asserted a right which the Declaration of Independence of 1776 had defined to be inalienable; of the time and occasion for its exercise, they, as sovereigns, were the final judges, each for itself. The impartial and enlightened verdict of mankind will vindicate the rectitude of our conduct, and He who knows the hearts of men will judge of the sincerity