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Study Guide

Field 084: Social Studies (Secondary)
Sample Multiple-Choice Questions

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Subarea 1—HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

Objective 001
Understand historical concepts and terms.

1. A social studies teacher who is trying to help students improve their ability to summarize information from reading selections should focus instruction on which of the following reading skills?

  1. distinguishing between main ideas and supporting details
  2. analyzing relationships between similar ideas or ideas in opposition
  3. identifying cause-and-effect relationships
  4. determining the chronological sequence of events and developments
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.
Objective 002
Understand historical sources of information and perspectives.

2. Which of the following forms of interpretive bias is most common in the works of U.S. progressive historians such as Charles A. Beard?

  1. an unwillingness to acknowledge the existence of social conflict
  2. an excessive emphasis on the importance of ideas
  3. an unwillingness to examine the motives of major political figures
  4. an excessive emphasis on the importance of economic factors
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Subarea 2—WORLD HISTORY

Objective 003
Understand major events and developments in world history during Era 1, the beginnings of human society to 4000 BCE; Era 2, early civilizations and cultures and the emergence of pastoral peoples, 4000 to 1000 BCE; Era 3, classical traditions, world religions, and major empires, 1000 BCE to 300 CE; and Era 4, expanding and intensified hemispheric interactions, 300 to 1500 CE.

3. The expansion of Islam between the eighth and twelfth centuries most influenced economic development in the Middle East and Europe through the:

  1. formation of state agencies that established production standards and set prices for various goods.
  2. introduction of crop rotation practices.
  3. invention of assembly techniques that increased the productive capacity of contemporary workshops.
  4. creation of cities that functioned as centers of commerce and banking.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.
Objective 004
Understand major events and developments in world history during Era 5, the emergence of the first global age, fifteenth to eighteenth centuries CE; and Era 6, an age of global revolutions, eighteenth century to 1914 CE.

4. The economy of fifteenth-century Inca society can best be described as a:

  1. mixed economy that protected the rights of small producers.
  2. command economy in which government planned and directed most economic operations.
  3. traditional economy organized by family and kinship networks.
  4. free market economy in which consumers obtained goods from competing producers.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.
Objective 006
Understand major events and developments in world history during Era 8, the Cold War and its aftermath, twentieth century since 1945 CE.

5. Immediately after World War II, the most serious differences between the United States and Soviet Union centered on the:

  1. regulation of commerce in international markets.
  2. structure, functions, and membership of the United Nations.
  3. new governments being established in Eastern Europe.
  4. pace of decolonization in Asia and Africa.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Subarea 3—U.S. HISTORY

Objective 007
Understand major events and developments in U.S. history during Era 1, beginnings to 1620 CE; Era 2, colonization and settlement, 1585 to 1763 CE; and Era 3, revolution and the new nation, 1754 to 1800 CE.

6. Conflict between American Indians and English settlers in seventeenth-century North America most often resulted from the differing perspectives on:

  1. land use and property ownership.
  2. legal procedures.
  3. religious beliefs and practices.
  4. economic competition.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.
Objective 008
Understand major events and developments in U.S. history during Era 4, expansion and reform, 1792 to 1861 CE; and Era 5, the Civil War and Reconstruction, 1850 to 1877 CE.

7. Which of the following developments most influenced the creation of a distinctive African American slave culture in the antebellum United States?

  1. an increase in the proportion of native-born slaves in the slave population
  2. an increase in the ratio of slaves to whites in the Southern population
  3. the movement of increasing numbers of slaves from the Eastern seaboard to the Deep South
  4. the employment of increasing numbers of slaves as house servants and skilled workers
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.
Objective 009
Understand major events and developments in U.S. history during Era 6, the development of an industrial, urban, and global United States, 1870 to 1930 CE.

8. Which of the following responses best describes a concern shared by nearly all progressive reformers?

  1. eliminating economic disparities between rich and poor
  2. curbing abuses of corporate power
  3. eliminating racial discrimination
  4. establishing collective bargaining rights for workers
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.
Objective 010
Understand major events and developments in U.S. history during Era 7, the Great Depression and World War II, 1920 to 1945 CE; Era 8, the post–World War II United States, 1945 to 1989 CE; and Era 9, America in a new global age, 1990 CE to the present.

9. President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs can best be seen as part of an effort to:

  1. obtain the political support of followers of John F. Kennedy.
  2. create divisions between moderates and conservatives in the Republican Party.
  3. fulfill the New Deal reform agenda of the 1930s.
  4. challenge the corporate policies of the Eisenhower administration.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Subarea 4—GEOGRAPHY

Objective 011
Understand geographic terms, concepts, and resources.

10. Which of the following activities is the best application of the essential geographic element of places and regions?

  1. assessing the effect of using natural wetlands for recreational purposes
  2. analyzing the symbolic meaning of Jerusalem for Muslims, Christians, and Jews
  3. tracing the diffusion of contagious diseases
  4. examining the relationship between population density and land use in Michigan
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.
Objective 012
Understand physical systems.

11. Which of the following responses best matches a climate region with two distinguishing characteristics of that region?

  1. humid subtropical: mild summers and moderate temperatures throughout the year
  2. tropical monsoon: constant high temperatures and distinct wet and dry seasons of equal length
  3. subarctic: heavy precipitation and occasional winter cold waves
  4. tundra: strong winds and below-freezing temperatures at least nine months of the year
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.
Objective 013
Understand the interaction between human societies and the environment.

12. For a lesson on the impact of tornadoes, a social studies teacher has students gather information from the National Climatic Data Center's "Storm Events Database" on the Internet. The teacher can most effectively assist students' efforts to compile this information by:

  1. printing out the database and providing a copy of the document to each student.
  2. helping students develop a set of parameters to focus their searches.
  3. bookmarking the database in a "favorites" file on the classroom computer for easy access.
  4. reviewing the information students copy down as they conduct their searches.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.
Objective 014
Understand human systems.

13. Which of the following factors most influenced the growth and structure of major cities throughout the world during the twentieth century?

  1. innovations in residential architecture
  2. changes in commercial practices
  3. changes in transportation systems
  4. developments in leisure and recreation
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Subarea 5—POLITICAL SCIENCE

Objective 015
Understand political science concepts, terms, and perspectives.

14. The best way to distinguish between authoritarianism and totalitarian forms of government is by examining which of the following features of their political systems?

  1. the distribution of power among members of the ruling party
  2. relations between the executive and judicial branches of government
  3. the role of the military in the operations of the state
  4. government control over nongovernmental sectors of society
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.
Objective 016
Understand the foundations of U.S. government, the U.S. political process, and the rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship.

15. Elizabeth Cady Stanton based the Seneca Falls Declaration of 1848 on the U.S. Declaration of Independence mainly to:

  1. protest a perceived decline in women's civic status since the Revolutionary era.
  2. criticize the patriarchal world view of Revolutionary leaders.
  3. remind people of women's contributions to the struggle for American independence.
  4. establish a link between women's aims and ideals of the Revolutionary era.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.
Objective 017
Understand the structure, organization, and operation of different levels of government in the United States and the role of the United States in the international community.

16. Which of the following steps normally occurs first in the federal legislative process?

  1. Members of Congress debate a bill on the floor of the House and Senate.
  2. Congressional leaders assign a bill to standing committees in the House and Senate.
  3. The House and Senate hold public hearings on a bill.
  4. A House-Senate conference is formed to reconcile different versions of a bill.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.

Subarea 6—ECONOMICS

Objective 018
Understand economic concepts and the market economy.

17. The main determinant of the elasticity of demand for a product is the:

  1. availability of substitutes for the product.
  2. cost of inputs needed to produce the product.
  3. scope of the market for the product.
  4. number of firms that produce the product.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.
Objective 020
Understand the national economy and the international economy.

18. Which of the following developments is the most likely consequence of a decrease in the foreign exchange value of the U.S. dollar?

  1. U.S. consumers will increase their purchases of foreign imports.
  2. Fewer foreign tourists will visit the United States.
  3. U.S. manufacturers will increase their sale of goods in foreign markets.
  4. Overseas operating costs for U.S. firms will decline.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Subarea 7—INQUIRY, INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES, AND PUBLIC DISCOURSE

Objective 021
Understand social science research methods and the analysis and interpretation of social studies information.

19. Use the population pyramids below to answer the question that follows.

There are 2 population pyramids, one for Country A and one for Country B. The horizontal axis for each is labeled "Percent of Population." The vertical axis for both is labeled "Age." The horizontal axis for Country A has values marked from 0 to 8 in increments of 2, extending to the left for male and to the right for female. The horizontal axis for Country B has values marked from 0 to 4 in increments of 2, extending to the left for male and to the right for female. The vertical axis has values marked from 0 to 80+ in increments of 5, beginning with 0 to 4, 5 to 9, 10 to 14, through 75 to 79 and ending at 80+. The Country A pyramid is widest at the base, with values of approximately 8 for both male and female of age 0 to 4, and tapers to a point, with values of approximately .5 for both male and female of age 80+. The pyramid of Country B is narrow at the base, with values of approximately 2.5 for both male and female of age 0 to 4, widens to values of approximately 4 for both male and female of age 15 to 19, fluctuates slightly through the age of 40 to 44, then tapers gradually, with fluctuations, to values of approximately 1 for males and 2 for females of age 80+.

The information contained in the population pyramids best supports which of the following conclusions?

  1. During the next decade, providing adequate educational facilities will necessitate greater expenditures in Country A than in Country B.
  2. During the next decade, providing adequate physical infrastructure for economic development will require greater expenditures in Country A than in Country B.
  3. To maintain existing housing standards, Country B will have to build more homes during the next decade than will Country A.
  4. To prevent an increase in unemployment, Country B will have to create more jobs during the next decade than will Country A.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.
Objective 022
Understand interdisciplinary perspectives.

20. A high school social studies teacher is preparing a syllabus for an upper-level course entitled "Social Science Research: Sources, Procedures, and Techniques." Which of the following research tasks is best designed to promote understanding of interactions among social science disciplines?

  1. analyzing the effect of supply and demand on the workings of a market economy
  2. analyzing differences between the political systems of France and Russia
  3. analyzing ways in which scarcity and marginal analysis affect individual economic decisions
  4. analyzing factors influencing decisions regarding land use and development
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.