HiSET Practice Exam 1 Social Studies

Why did the American colonists revolt against Great Britain?

A government run by all of the people governed is called a(n) ______.

In a constitutional democracy, the constitution ______ the power of the government.

Who first introduced the idea of natural rights?

According to John Locke, what is the principal role of government?

According to the rule of law, all people are ______ in the eyes of the law.

Which detail about the legislative branch is TRUE?

Which of the following is often called the Upper House?

Which position has a two-year term?

How many amendments have been ratified?

Who is allowed to propose an amendment?

What does a proposed amendment need to become a law?

Which of the following is an example of U.S. public policy?

What is the purpose of a primary election?

Which of the following is a general election?

The following passage is from John Winthrop. Winthrop was a Puritan leader in the Massachusetts Colony and delivered this message to his followers in 1630. Read the passage and answer the question below. 

“…if we shall neglect the observation of these articles…the Lord will surely break out in wrath against us, and be revenged of such a people, and make us know the price of the breach of such a covenant. Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck, and to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together, in this work, as one man…We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. We must delight in each other; make others’ conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace…We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies; when He shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, “may the Lord make it like that of New England.” For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill.

Winthrop ends the passage by saying that they “shall be as a city upon a hill.” What does Winthrop mean by this?

The following passage is from John Winthrop. Winthrop was a Puritan leader in the Massachusetts Colony and delivered this message to his followers in 1630. Read the passage and answer the question below. 

“…if we shall neglect the observation of these articles…the Lord will surely break out in wrath against us, and be revenged of such a people, and make us know the price of the breach of such a covenant. Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck, and to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together, in this work, as one man…We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. We must delight in each other; make others’ conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace…We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies; when He shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, “may the Lord make it like that of New England.” For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill.

Based on what Winthrop says, which of the following statements MOST ACCURATELY describes the Puritans’ beliefs about God?

The following passage is from John Winthrop. Winthrop was a Puritan leader in the Massachusetts Colony and delivered this message to his followers in 1630. Read the passage and answer the question below. 

“…if we shall neglect the observation of these articles…the Lord will surely break out in wrath against us, and be revenged of such a people, and make us know the price of the breach of such a covenant. Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck, and to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together, in this work, as one man…We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. We must delight in each other; make others’ conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace…We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies; when He shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, “may the Lord make it like that of New England.” For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill.

Which of the following is the MOST LIKELY explanation for how Puritan society embraced Winthrop’s ideas?

The following passage is an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence, written in 1776 by Thomas Jefferson. Read the passage and answer the question below. 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

According to Jefferson, what is the basis for why governments are formed?

The following passage is an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence, written in 1776 by Thomas Jefferson. Read the passage and answer the question below. 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

Much of the Declaration of Independence is a long list of the grievances the colonists had toward King George III. Why, based on what you read here, would Jefferson have felt the need to list these?

The following passage is an excerpt from Captain Park Holland’s reminiscences of Shay’s Rebellion, written in 1834. Read the passage and answer the question below. 

“As I have had ocation to mention the Shay Rebellion it may not be impropper for me to indeavour to explain the cause which gave rise to this very unfortunate affair but this will be a difficult Task fully to & clearly to explain for there were more causes than one but the main cause may be said to arrise from a Sudden Flow of hard Money and an uncommon large importation of Forreign Goods…the general opinion was that Money was growing verry plenty & all kinds of good being scarce during the War and now being Varry plenty the Money (espetially that in the Hands of the poorer sort of People) was soon spent and many of them were in debt as much as their credit would admit of and to add to this there was a large Tax out & generally unpaid. These circumstance with some others put together mad Money as extraordinary scarce as it had ben plenty – sometime in the year 1786 the scarcity of Money became quite alarming and those who were the most distressed or otherways most in debt began to hold Town & County convention & corresponded with each so as to be as uniform in their proceedings as possible and the amount of their deliberations seemed to be that it was best to stop the setting of the Courts of Common Pleas for there was a verry unusual number of sutes to be brought before their Court which were now about Setting and when the Court began to assemble at Northampton within & for the County of Hamshere there assembled a large body of People…”

To what does Holland attribute the discontent in Massachusetts?

The following passage is an excerpt from Captain Park Holland’s reminiscences of Shay’s Rebellion, written in 1834. Read the passage and answer the question below. 

“As I have had ocation to mention the Shay Rebellion it may not be impropper for me to indeavour to explain the cause which gave rise to this very unfortunate affair but this will be a difficult Task fully to & clearly to explain for there were more causes than one but the main cause may be said to arrise from a Sudden Flow of hard Money and an uncommon large importation of Forreign Goods…the general opinion was that Money was growing verry plenty & all kinds of good being scarce during the War and now being Varry plenty the Money (espetially that in the Hands of the poorer sort of People) was soon spent and many of them were in debt as much as their credit would admit of and to add to this there was a large Tax out & generally unpaid. These circumstance with some others put together mad Money as extraordinary scarce as it had ben plenty – sometime in the year 1786 the scarcity of Money became quite alarming and those who were the most distressed or otherways most in debt began to hold Town & County convention & corresponded with each so as to be as uniform in their proceedings as possible and the amount of their deliberations seemed to be that it was best to stop the setting of the Courts of Common Pleas for there was a verry unusual number of sutes to be brought before their Court which were now about Setting and when the Court began to assemble at Northampton within & for the County of Hamshere there assembled a large body of People…”

How would the discontent described in this passage have been attributed to the federal government under the Articles of Confederation?

What was Andrew Johnson’s goal for Reconstruction?

The following passage is an excerpt from Uncle Tom’s Cabin  by Harriet Beecher Stowe. In it, Senator John Bird and his wife debate a law. Read the passage and answer the question below.

“You ought to be ashamed, John! Poor, homeless, houseless creatures! It’s a shameful, wicked, abominable law, and I’ll break it, for one, the first time I get a chance; and I hope I shall have a chance, I do! Things have got to a pretty pass, if a woman can’t give a warm supper and a bed to poor, starving creatures, just because they are slaves, and have been abused and oppressed all their lives, poor things!”

“But, Mary, just listen to me. Your feelings are all quite right, dear, and interesting, and I love you for them; but, then, dear, we mustn’t suffer our feelings to run away with our judgment; you must consider it’s not a matter of private feeling,—there are great public interests involved,—there is such a state of public agitation rising, that we must put aside our private feelings.”

“Now, John, I don’t know anything about politics, but I can read my Bible; and there I see that I must feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the desolate; and that Bible I mean to follow.”

“But in cases where your doing so would involve a great public evil—”

“Obeying God never brings on public evils. I know it can’t. It’s always safest, all round, to do as He bids us.

“Now, listen to me, Mary, and I can state to you a very clear argument, to show—”

“O, nonsense, John! —you can talk all night, but you wouldn’t do it. I put it to you, John,—would you now turn away a poor, shivering, hungry creature from your door, because he was a runaway? Would you, now?”

Which political event created the fugitive slave law that the senator and his wife are debating?

The following passage is an excerpt from Uncle Tom’s Cabin  by Harriet Beecher Stowe. In it, Senator John Bird and his wife debate a law. Read the passage and answer the question below.

“You ought to be ashamed, John! Poor, homeless, houseless creatures! It’s a shameful, wicked, abominable law, and I’ll break it, for one, the first time I get a chance; and I hope I shall have a chance, I do! Things have got to a pretty pass, if a woman can’t give a warm supper and a bed to poor, starving creatures, just because they are slaves, and have been abused and oppressed all their lives, poor things!”

“But, Mary, just listen to me. Your feelings are all quite right, dear, and interesting, and I love you for them; but, then, dear, we mustn’t suffer our feelings to run away with our judgment; you must consider it’s not a matter of private feeling,—there are great public interests involved,—there is such a state of public agitation rising, that we must put aside our private feelings.”

“Now, John, I don’t know anything about politics, but I can read my Bible; and there I see that I must feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the desolate; and that Bible I mean to follow.”

“But in cases where your doing so would involve a great public evil—”

“Obeying God never brings on public evils. I know it can’t. It’s always safest, all round, to do as He bids us.

“Now, listen to me, Mary, and I can state to you a very clear argument, to show—”

“O, nonsense, John! —you can talk all night, but you wouldn’t do it. I put it to you, John,—would you now turn away a poor, shivering, hungry creature from your door, because he was a runaway? Would you, now?”

Based on the passage, how did the fugitive slave law affect Northern attitudes toward slavery and the South?

Read the excerpt from the Treaty of Versailles below and answer the following question.

“Germany acknowledges and will respect strictly the independence of Austria, within the frontiers which may be fixed in a Treaty between that State and the Principal Allied and Associated Powers; she agrees that this independence shall be inalienable, except with the consent of the Council of the League of Nations.
…
The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.”
…
By a date which must not be later than March 31, 1920, the German Army must not comprise more than seven divisions of infantry and three divisions of cavalry.
After that date the total number of effectives in the Army of the States constituting Germany must not exceed one hundred thousand men, including officers and establishments of depots. The Army shall be devoted exclusively to the maintenance of order within the territory and to the control of the frontiers.”

Which of the following countries would have been MOST LIKELY to want to change the German army into an exclusively defensive one?

Read the excerpt from the Treaty of Versailles below and answer the following question.

“Germany acknowledges and will respect strictly the independence of Austria, within the frontiers which may be fixed in a Treaty between that State and the Principal Allied and Associated Powers; she agrees that this independence shall be inalienable, except with the consent of the Council of the League of Nations.
…
The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.”
…
By a date which must not be later than March 31, 1920, the German Army must not comprise more than seven divisions of infantry and three divisions of cavalry.
After that date the total number of effectives in the Army of the States constituting Germany must not exceed one hundred thousand men, including officers and establishments of depots. The Army shall be devoted exclusively to the maintenance of order within the territory and to the control of the frontiers.”

What is the MOST LIKELY explanation for why the victorious Entente wanted to prevent a union between Germany and Austria?

Read the excerpt from the Treaty of Versailles below and answer the following question.

“Germany acknowledges and will respect strictly the independence of Austria, within the frontiers which may be fixed in a Treaty between that State and the Principal Allied and Associated Powers; she agrees that this independence shall be inalienable, except with the consent of the Council of the League of Nations.
…
The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.”
…
By a date which must not be later than March 31, 1920, the German Army must not comprise more than seven divisions of infantry and three divisions of cavalry.
After that date the total number of effectives in the Army of the States constituting Germany must not exceed one hundred thousand men, including officers and establishments of depots. The Army shall be devoted exclusively to the maintenance of order within the territory and to the control of the frontiers.”

How did Germans react to the clause establishing German guilt for the war?

The following passage is an excerpt from a speech given by Ronald Reagan in 1983. Read the passage and answer the question below. 

“It took one kind of military force to deter an attack when, we had far more nuclear weapons than any other power; it takes another kind now that the Soviets, for example, have enough accurate and powerful nuclear weapons to destroy virtually all of our missiles on the ground. Now, this is not to say that the Soviet Union is planning to make war on us. Nor do I believe a war is inevitable—quite the contrary. But what must be recognized is that our security is based on being prepared to meet all threats.

…

The calls for cutting back the defense budget come in nice, simple arithmetic. They’re the same kind of talk that led the democracies to neglect their defenses in the 1930s and invited the tragedy of World War II. We must not let that grim chapter of history repeat itself through apathy or neglect.

…

I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace, to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.

Tonight, consistent with our obligations of the ABM treaty and recognizing the need for closer consultation with our allies, I’m taking an important first step. I am directing a comprehensive and intensive effort to define a long-term research and development program to begin to achieve our ultimate goal of eliminating the threat posed by strategic nuclear missiles.”

Why did Reagan oppose cuts to the defense budget?

The following passage is an excerpt from a speech given by Ronald Reagan in 1983. Read the passage and answer the question below. 

“It took one kind of military force to deter an attack when, we had far more nuclear weapons than any other power; it takes another kind now that the Soviets, for example, have enough accurate and powerful nuclear weapons to destroy virtually all of our missiles on the ground. Now, this is not to say that the Soviet Union is planning to make war on us. Nor do I believe a war is inevitable—quite the contrary. But what must be recognized is that our security is based on being prepared to meet all threats.

…

The calls for cutting back the defense budget come in nice, simple arithmetic. They’re the same kind of talk that led the democracies to neglect their defenses in the 1930s and invited the tragedy of World War II. We must not let that grim chapter of history repeat itself through apathy or neglect.

…

I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace, to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.

Tonight, consistent with our obligations of the ABM treaty and recognizing the need for closer consultation with our allies, I’m taking an important first step. I am directing a comprehensive and intensive effort to define a long-term research and development program to begin to achieve our ultimate goal of eliminating the threat posed by strategic nuclear missiles.”

What nuclear policy does Reagan propose to change with this speech?

Trade promotes economic progress because it ______

Which country gains when trading goods?

What do the terms of trade measure?

Which resource is sold by households and bought by firms in a resource market?

With a monopoly, there is/are ______

Law of demand states that ______

What is the name of the country that originated the Roman Empire?

What body of water surrounded the empire ruled by the ancient Greeks?

What happens when the government prints too much money?

What was the start of the United States’ debt?

What was the state of the economy in the 13 colonies after they won the American Revolutionary War?

What is one characteristic of a republic?

Russia lies in which two continents?

A school district in an example of a(n) ______ region.

The French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana, can be described as a(n) _____ region.

The statement that the equator is located at 0°00’00’’ is an example of a(n) ______ location.

If Quito, the capital of Ecuador, is described as a city in the central part of Ecuador, a South American country, what type of location has been presented?

Which region was the first to industrialize in the United States?

Melanoma and other skin cancers can be caused by ______.

In economics, it is assumed that individuals make decisions by ______

Which of the following accounts for the differences among Native American tribes before European arrival?

Why did the Founders include Article V in the Constitution?

The world’s population is ______.

Which of the following statements BEST describes the relationship between the Second Industrial Revolution and agriculture?

Where was the attack that brought the United States into World War II?

If the Federal Reserve conducts an open market purchase of bonds, what will occur?

Price controls are set when ______

Which of the following tactics did civil rights activists employ in the 1950s and 1960s?