In November 1620, before leaving their ship, 41 male passengers on the Mayflower signed this agreement. They had landed near Cape Cod, outside the area their charter covered, so they wrote their own plan for governing the new Plymouth Colony.
(1) In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James … Having undertaken for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia,
(2) do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation …
(3) and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
Read the excerpt from the Mayflower Compact.
What was the main purpose of this agreement?
Hint
Look at paragraphs 2 and 3. What do the signers agree to create, and what do they promise?
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: In paragraph 2 the signers "Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic," and in paragraph 3 they agree to "enact, constitute and frame such just and equal Laws" for "the general good of the Colony," promising "all due submission and obedience."
Reasoning: A civil body politic is an organized political community. The signers are agreeing to form a government, make laws together and obey those laws. This is an early example of self-government based on the consent of the governed in the English colonies.
Answer: to form a government that would make fair laws the colonists agreed to obey.
Tip: For "main purpose" questions about a document, find the action verbs the authors commit to (here: combine, enact, frame, promise). They tell you what the document is meant to do.
Question 2 of 36
The Mayflower Compact (1620)
In November 1620, before leaving their ship, 41 male passengers on the Mayflower signed this agreement. They had landed near Cape Cod, outside the area their charter covered, so they wrote their own plan for governing the new Plymouth Colony.
(1) In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James … Having undertaken for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia,
(2) do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation …
(3) and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
Which later American idea is most clearly foreshadowed by the Mayflower Compact?
Hint
The signers create laws themselves and then promise to obey them. Which principle is that?
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: The signers "mutually" agree to form a "Civil Body Politic" (paragraph 2) and promise "all due submission and obedience" to laws they will make together "for the general good of the Colony" (paragraph 3).
Reasoning: The power of these laws comes from the agreement of the people who signed. That is the core of government by the consent of the governed, the idea later stated in the Declaration of Independence (1776): governments derive "their just powers from the consent of the governed." The other choices describe ideas that the compact does not discuss.
Answer: government based on the consent of the people.
Tip: "Foreshadowed" questions ask you to link an early document to a later principle. Name the principle in the early text first, then find the later idea that matches it.
Question 3 of 36
Drag and dropThe Columbian Exchange
(1) When Christopher Columbus reached the Caribbean in 1492, he connected two halves of the world that had been separated for thousands of years. Over the next century, plants, animals, people and germs moved in both directions across the Atlantic Ocean. Historians call this movement the Columbian Exchange.
(2) From the Americas, Europeans carried home crops that Native farmers had developed: maize (corn), potatoes, tomatoes, cacao (chocolate) and tobacco. The potato grew well in cool, wet soil and became a basic food for millions of people in Ireland and northern Europe.
(3) From Europe, Africa and Asia came wheat, sugar cane, horses, cattle and pigs. Horses changed life on the Great Plains. Within about two centuries, many Plains nations, such as the Comanche and the Lakota, had become skilled riders who hunted buffalo on horseback.
(4) The most deadly part of the exchange was invisible. Europeans carried diseases such as smallpox, measles and influenza. Native Americans had never been exposed to these germs, so they had no immunity. Epidemics killed a large share of the Native population, often before Europeans even arrived in an area. In many regions, half or more of the people died within a few generations.
(5) The loss of so many Native workers helped push Spanish and Portuguese colonists toward a different labor source: enslaved Africans, who were forced to grow sugar and other crops on plantations.
Use the passage "The Columbian Exchange." Drag each item to show the direction it traveled.
From the Americas to Europe, Africa and Asia
From Europe, Africa and Asia to the Americas
Tap a tile, then tap a box to place it.
Hint
Paragraph 2 lists what traveled from the Americas; paragraphs 3 and 4 list what traveled to the Americas.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 2: from the Americas came "maize (corn), potatoes, tomatoes, cacao (chocolate) and tobacco." Paragraph 3: from Europe, Africa and Asia came "wheat, sugar cane, horses, cattle and pigs." Paragraph 4 adds that Europeans carried diseases such as "smallpox."
Sorting:
Americas → Old World: potatoes, maize (corn), tobacco.
Old World → Americas: horses, wheat, smallpox.
A common trap is placing horses in the first column because Plains nations became famous riders. But paragraph 3 says horses were brought to the Americas and later changed Plains life.
Tip: For classification items, tie each tile to a specific sentence in the text before you drag it.
Question 4 of 36
The Homestead Act (1862)
During the Civil War, with most Southern members gone from Congress, lawmakers passed the Homestead Act. President Abraham Lincoln signed it on May 20, 1862. The law offered "public land"—land owned by the federal government, much of it on the Great Plains and in the West—to settlers. (A quarter section was 160 acres. A "patent" is the official document that gives ownership of land.)
(1) That any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or who shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such, as required by the naturalization laws of the United States, and who has never borne arms against the United States Government or given aid and comfort to its enemies, shall, from and after the first January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, be entitled to enter one quarter section or a less quantity of unappropriated public lands …
(2) … no certificate shall be given or patent issued therefor until the expiration of five years from the date of such entry …
Read the excerpt from the Homestead Act (1862).
What was the main purpose of this law?
Hint
Look at what a qualifying person becomes "entitled to" in paragraph 1, and what happens after five years in paragraph 2.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 1 says a qualifying person is "entitled to enter one quarter section or a less quantity of unappropriated public lands." Paragraph 2 says that a "patent" (the ownership document) is issued after "the expiration of five years from the date of such entry."
Reasoning: Put the two paragraphs together. A person who qualified could claim up to 160 acres of land owned by the government, and after five years on that claim the land became theirs. The law was a way to move ordinary settlers onto public land and turn them into landowners. Over the next decades, about 270 million acres—roughly 10 percent of all U.S. land—passed to homesteaders.
Answer: to give ordinary settlers a way to gain ownership of public land.
Check: Every wrong choice adds something the excerpt never mentions (railroads, Native land, instant citizenship).
Tip: For a law, the main purpose is usually in the part that says who is entitled to what. Restate that line in plain English before you read the choices.
Question 5 of 36
Drag and dropThree Colonial Empires in North America
(1) In the 1500s and 1600s, three European powers claimed large parts of North America. Each had different goals, and each treated the land and its people differently.
(2) Spain arrived first. Conquistadors such as Hernán Cortés, who defeated the Aztec Empire in 1521, were searching for gold and silver. Spanish priests built missions to convert Native people to Catholicism, from St. Augustine in Florida (founded in 1565) to, much later, California. Spain ruled large Native populations and forced many Native people to work in mines and on estates.
(3) France built its empire on the fur trade. Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec in 1608, and French traders and priests traveled along the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. Few French families came to farm. Because French traders depended on Native hunters and trappers to supply beaver furs, they often lived among Native nations, learned their languages and became their military allies.
(4) England sent far more settlers. After Jamestown (1607) and Plymouth (1620), tens of thousands of English families arrived to farm. By 1700, the English colonies held about 250,000 colonists, while New France had only about 15,000. English farmers wanted land for themselves, not trading partners, so wars over land with Native nations were frequent.
Use the passage "Three Colonial Empires in North America." Drag each description to the empire it matches.
Spain
France
England
Tap a tile, then tap a box to place it.
Hint
Each empire has its own paragraph. Find the key word in each tile (gold, furs, farm families) and match it to a paragraph.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence:
Paragraph 2 (Spain): conquistadors were "searching for gold and silver," and priests "built missions to convert Native people to Catholicism."
Paragraph 3 (France): "Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec in 1608," and traders "depended on Native hunters and trappers to supply beaver furs."
Paragraph 4 (England): "After Jamestown (1607) and Plymouth (1620), tens of thousands of English families arrived to farm."
Answer: Spain: searched for gold and silver; built missions to convert Native people. France: founded Quebec; depended on Native trappers for furs. England: founded Jamestown; sent tens of thousands of farm families.
Check: Quebec (1608) and Jamestown (1607) are one year apart, so the date alone will not help; the paragraph each one appears in will.
Tip: On a classification item, sort by the passage's structure. When a text gives each group its own paragraph, every tile belongs to exactly one paragraph.
Question 6 of 36
The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
Thousands of Chinese immigrants came to California beginning with the Gold Rush of 1849, and many later helped build the Central Pacific Railroad. During a hard economic depression in the 1870s, some white workers and politicians blamed Chinese laborers for low wages and lost jobs. In 1882, Congress passed the following law, and President Chester A. Arthur signed it on May 6.
(1) Whereas in the opinion of the Government of the United States the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities within the territory thereof: Therefore,
(2) Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the expiration of ninety days next after the passage of this act, and until the expiration of ten years next after the passage of this act, the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States be, and the same is hereby, suspended …
(3) Section 14: That hereafter no State court or court of the United States shall admit Chinese to citizenship …
The ban was extended in 1892 and made permanent in 1902. Congress repealed it in 1943, when China was a U.S. ally in World War II.
Read the excerpt from the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882).
According to paragraph 1, what reason did the government give for stopping Chinese laborers from coming to the United States?
Hint
Paragraph 1 begins with "Whereas," a word that introduces the reason for a law.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 1: "Whereas in the opinion of the Government of the United States the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities within the territory thereof."
Reasoning: In laws, a whereas clause gives the reason for what follows. Here the stated reason is the government's opinion that Chinese laborers threaten "good order" (peace and stability) in some places. Paragraph 2 then gives the action: their coming is "suspended." The introduction tells you the background—blame for low wages during the 1870s depression—but the question asks only what reason the law gives.
Answer: The government believed their arrival endangered good order in certain places.
Check: Search the excerpt for each wrong choice's key idea (broken laws, China's request, railroad jobs). None appears.
Tip: "According to the passage" means the answer is stated. Find the matching words before you choose.
Question 7 of 36
The Columbian Exchange
(1) When Christopher Columbus reached the Caribbean in 1492, he connected two halves of the world that had been separated for thousands of years. Over the next century, plants, animals, people and germs moved in both directions across the Atlantic Ocean. Historians call this movement the Columbian Exchange.
(2) From the Americas, Europeans carried home crops that Native farmers had developed: maize (corn), potatoes, tomatoes, cacao (chocolate) and tobacco. The potato grew well in cool, wet soil and became a basic food for millions of people in Ireland and northern Europe.
(3) From Europe, Africa and Asia came wheat, sugar cane, horses, cattle and pigs. Horses changed life on the Great Plains. Within about two centuries, many Plains nations, such as the Comanche and the Lakota, had become skilled riders who hunted buffalo on horseback.
(4) The most deadly part of the exchange was invisible. Europeans carried diseases such as smallpox, measles and influenza. Native Americans had never been exposed to these germs, so they had no immunity. Epidemics killed a large share of the Native population, often before Europeans even arrived in an area. In many regions, half or more of the people died within a few generations.
(5) The loss of so many Native workers helped push Spanish and Portuguese colonists toward a different labor source: enslaved Africans, who were forced to grow sugar and other crops on plantations.
According to the passage, which sequence of events is correct?
Hint
Follow the chain from paragraph 4 to paragraph 5. What happened first, and what did it lead to?
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 4: Native Americans "had no immunity," and "epidemics killed a large share of the Native population." Paragraph 5: "The loss of so many Native workers helped push Spanish and Portuguese colonists toward a different labor source: enslaved Africans."
Reasoning: The chain is: European diseases arrive → Native people have no immunity → huge population losses → colonists lose a labor force → colonists turn to enslaved African labor. Only one choice keeps that order. Choice C reverses cause and effect, and choices A and D introduce causes the passage never states.
Answer: Diseases killed many Native people, and colonists then increased their use of enslaved African labor.
Tip: On cause-and-effect questions, look for signal words such as helped push, led to, so and because, and check that the answer keeps the events in the same order as the text.
Question 8 of 36
Olaudah Equiano Describes the Middle Passage (1789)
Olaudah Equiano was kidnapped in West Africa as a child, around 1756, and carried across the Atlantic on a slave ship. He later bought his freedom and, in 1789, published the story of his life in London. The book became an important text for the movement to end the slave trade.
(1) The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died, thus falling victims to the improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchasers.
(2) This wretched situation was again aggravated by the galling of the chains, now become insupportable … The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable.
Which conclusion about the Middle Passage is best supported by Equiano's account?
Hint
Equiano describes the space, the air, the chains and the sickness. What do these details add up to?
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 1: the ship "was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself," the air "became unfit for respiration," and sickness spread "of which many died." Paragraph 2 mentions "the galling of the chains" and calls the scene one of "horror almost inconceivable."
Reasoning: Every detail points to deadly overcrowding and disease. The only choice that matches is that conditions were so crowded and unhealthy that many captives died. Historians estimate that about 12.5 million Africans were forced onto slave ships and roughly 1.8 million of them died during the crossing.
Answer: Overcrowding and disease on slave ships caused many deaths.
Tip: A supported conclusion must be backed by several details in the source. Eliminate choices that contradict the text or claim more than it shows.
Question 9 of 36
Olaudah Equiano Describes the Middle Passage (1789)
Olaudah Equiano was kidnapped in West Africa as a child, around 1756, and carried across the Atlantic on a slave ship. He later bought his freedom and, in 1789, published the story of his life in London. The book became an important text for the movement to end the slave trade.
(1) The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died, thus falling victims to the improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchasers.
(2) This wretched situation was again aggravated by the galling of the chains, now become insupportable … The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable.
Equiano says the captives who died were "victims to the improvident avarice … of their purchasers." Avarice means greed. What is the most likely purpose of this phrase?
Hint
Who are "their purchasers," and what is Equiano saying about them? Remember when and why the book was published.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 1 says the dying captives fell "victims to the improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchasers." The introduction says the book "became an important text for the movement to end the slave trade."
Reasoning:Improvident means careless about the future; avarice means greed. Equiano is blaming the slave traders: their greed led them to pack so many people aboard that many died—which even hurt the traders' own interests. By naming who was responsible, he builds a moral case against the trade. This fits a book written to persuade British readers to end the slave trade.
Answer: to blame the slave traders' greed for the deaths and argue against the slave trade.
Tip: For purpose questions about a primary source, connect a key phrase to the author's background and audience. Ask: Who is the author criticizing or praising, and why?
Question 10 of 36
John L. O'Sullivan on "Manifest Destiny" (1845)
In 1845, the United States was debating whether to annex Texas. Newspaper editor John L. O'Sullivan wrote that foreign nations were trying to block American growth. In doing so, he gave a name to an idea many Americans already held.
(1) … other nations have undertaken to intrude themselves into it … for the avowed object of thwarting our policy and hampering our power, limiting our greatness and checking the fulfilment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.
Based on the excerpt, which statement best expresses O'Sullivan's idea of "manifest destiny"?
Hint
Look at what O'Sullivan says the United States is destined to do, and who "allotted" the continent.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: O'Sullivan writes of "our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions."
Reasoning:Manifest means obvious; destiny means a fate that is meant to happen. Providence means God. So O'Sullivan claims it is obvious that God gave the North American continent to the United States so its fast-growing population could spread across it. This belief was used to justify the annexation of Texas (1845), the Oregon Treaty (1846) and the Mexican Cession (1848).
Answer: The United States had a God-given right to expand across North America.
Tip: When a source uses an older or unusual word (Providence, overspread), break the phrase into parts and restate it in plain English before looking at the choices.
Question 11 of 36
Drag and drop
Drag the events of U.S. westward expansion into chronological order, from earliest (1) to latest (4).
1 (earliest)
2
3
4 (latest)
Tap a tile, then tap a box to place it.
Hint
Think about the size of the United States: it bought the Mississippi valley before it reached the Pacific.
Step-by-step solution
Correct order:
Louisiana Purchase (1803) — the United States bought about 828,000 square miles from France, doubling the nation's size.
Indian Removal Act (1830) — Congress allowed the forced relocation of Southeastern nations west of the Mississippi, leading to the Trail of Tears (1838–1839).
Mexican Cession (1848) — after the U.S.–Mexican War, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo gave the United States California and much of the Southwest.
Homestead Act (1862) — offered 160 acres of public land to settlers who lived on and farmed it for five years.
Reasoning: Louisiana had to be acquired before Native nations could be pushed "west of the Mississippi" into it, and the Homestead Act gave away land that the country already owned, including land gained in 1848.
Tip: Anchor a timeline with one or two dates you know for sure (1803, 1862), then place the others by cause and effect.
Question 12 of 36
President Andrew Jackson on Indian Removal (1830)
In May 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which let the president trade land west of the Mississippi River for Native lands in the East. In December 1830, President Andrew Jackson defended the policy in his annual message to Congress. (His words reflect the prejudices of his time.) Over the next decade, tens of thousands of Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole people were forced west; thousands died on the journeys known as the Trail of Tears.
(1) It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of the Government, steadily pursued for nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching to a happy consummation. …
(2) It will place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters. … It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude institutions …
Which reason does Jackson give to justify Indian removal?
Hint
Find the sentence that begins "It will separate …" and read what Jackson says removal will do.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 2: removal "will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way."
Reasoning: Jackson presents removal as good for Native peoples: it will keep them away from white settlers and state governments. He also calls the policy "benevolent" (paragraph 1). Historians note the gap between this claim and the result: thousands died on the forced marches, and in 1832 the Supreme Court ruled in Worcester v. Georgia that Georgia's laws did not apply to the Cherokee Nation. But the question asks for Jackson's stated reason, not whether it was true.
Answer: Removal would separate Native nations from white settlers and state governments.
Tip: "According to the author" or "which reason does he give" questions ask what the source says, not what you know happened. Answer from the text, then use your knowledge to judge it.
Question 13 of 36
Three Colonial Empires in North America
(1) In the 1500s and 1600s, three European powers claimed large parts of North America. Each had different goals, and each treated the land and its people differently.
(2) Spain arrived first. Conquistadors such as Hernán Cortés, who defeated the Aztec Empire in 1521, were searching for gold and silver. Spanish priests built missions to convert Native people to Catholicism, from St. Augustine in Florida (founded in 1565) to, much later, California. Spain ruled large Native populations and forced many Native people to work in mines and on estates.
(3) France built its empire on the fur trade. Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec in 1608, and French traders and priests traveled along the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. Few French families came to farm. Because French traders depended on Native hunters and trappers to supply beaver furs, they often lived among Native nations, learned their languages and became their military allies.
(4) England sent far more settlers. After Jamestown (1607) and Plymouth (1620), tens of thousands of English families arrived to farm. By 1700, the English colonies held about 250,000 colonists, while New France had only about 15,000. English farmers wanted land for themselves, not trading partners, so wars over land with Native nations were frequent.
Based on the passage "Three Colonial Empires in North America," why were French traders more likely than English colonists to become allies of Native nations?
Hint
Compare what the French wanted from Native people (paragraph 3) with what English farmers wanted (paragraph 4).
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 3: "Few French families came to farm. Because French traders depended on Native hunters and trappers to supply beaver furs, they often lived among Native nations." Paragraph 4: "English farmers wanted land for themselves, not trading partners, so wars over land with Native nations were frequent."
Reasoning: The French business depended on Native partners, and the small number of French settlers took little farmland. The English wanted the land itself, which put them in direct conflict with the people living on it. The passage never states the comparison in one sentence—you infer it by putting paragraphs 3 and 4 side by side.
Answer: The French needed Native partners for the fur trade and did not seek much land for farms.
Check: The population numbers (about 15,000 in New France vs. about 250,000 in the English colonies) also fit: fewer settlers meant less pressure on Native land.
Tip: "Why more likely" questions ask you to compare. Find what each group wanted; different goals usually explain different relationships.
Question 14 of 36
Fill inSlavery Grows After the 1808 Import Ban
(1) The U.S. Constitution allowed Congress to ban the importing of enslaved people beginning in 1808, and Congress did so: the ban took effect on January 1, 1808. Some Americans at the time hoped that slavery would slowly fade away without new arrivals from Africa.
(2) Instead, the enslaved population grew in every census. After 1808, the growth came mainly from natural increase: under the law, children born to enslaved mothers were enslaved from birth. Smuggling continued, but it brought far fewer people than births did.
(3) Cotton drove much of the demand for enslaved labor. Eli Whitney's cotton gin (1793) made it fast and cheap to separate the seeds from short-staple cotton, a kind that grew well across the Deep South. As cotton planting spread into Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, about one million enslaved people were forcibly moved there from the Upper South between 1790 and 1860, many of them sold away from their families. By 1860, cotton was the nation's most valuable export.
Use the graph in "Slavery Grows After the 1808 Import Ban."
Using the values shown on the graph, by how many million people did the enslaved population grow from 1810 to 1860?
million
Type your answer in the box. Fractions like 3/4 are fine.
Hint
Read the labels on the 1810 and 1860 bars, then subtract.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence from the graph: 1810 = 1.2 million; 1860 = 4.0 million.
Step by step:
"Grow by how many" asks for a difference, so subtract the earlier value from the later value.
4.0 - 1.2 = 2.8
Answer: 2.8 million.
Check:1.2 + 2.8 = 4.0 ✓. The exact census counts give the same result when rounded: 3,953,760 − 1,191,362 = 2,762,398, or about 2.8 million.
Why it matters: 1810 is the first census after the 1808 import ban. Paragraph 2 explains that the population still grew by millions because, under the law, children born to enslaved mothers were enslaved from birth.
Tip: Make sure you use the years in the question. A common slip is to start from 1790 (the first bar) instead of 1810.
Question 15 of 36
The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
Thousands of Chinese immigrants came to California beginning with the Gold Rush of 1849, and many later helped build the Central Pacific Railroad. During a hard economic depression in the 1870s, some white workers and politicians blamed Chinese laborers for low wages and lost jobs. In 1882, Congress passed the following law, and President Chester A. Arthur signed it on May 6.
(1) Whereas in the opinion of the Government of the United States the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities within the territory thereof: Therefore,
(2) Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the expiration of ninety days next after the passage of this act, and until the expiration of ten years next after the passage of this act, the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States be, and the same is hereby, suspended …
(3) Section 14: That hereafter no State court or court of the United States shall admit Chinese to citizenship …
The ban was extended in 1892 and made permanent in 1902. Congress repealed it in 1943, when China was a U.S. ally in World War II.
In paragraph 2 of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the coming of Chinese laborers "be, and the same is hereby, suspended."
As it is used here, suspendedmost nearly means
Hint
Look at the time limits written just before the word: "from and after …" and "until the expiration of ten years."
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 2 sets a start and an end: "from and after the expiration of ninety days next after the passage of this act, and until the expiration of ten years next after the passage of this act, the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States be, and the same is hereby, suspended."
Reasoning:Suspend has several meanings: to hang something up, to remove someone from school or a job for a while, or to stop something for a period of time. The phrase "until the expiration of ten years" shows the third meaning—the law stopped Chinese laborers from coming for a set period. (The closing note explains that later laws extended the ban and made it permanent, but the 1882 wording itself was temporary.)
Answer: stopped for a set period of time.
Check: Put the answer back into the sentence: "the coming of Chinese laborers … is hereby stopped for a set period of time." It fits the ten-year limit.
Tip: For a multiple-meaning word, use the words around it—here the dates—to pick the meaning that fits.
Question 16 of 36
Promises and Practice After the U.S.–Mexican War
Source 1.The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848, ended the U.S.–Mexican War. Mexico gave up more than 500,000 square miles of land, including present-day California, Nevada and Utah and most of Arizona and New Mexico. Tens of thousands of Mexican citizens lived there. Article VIII of the treaty described their rights.
(1) Mexicans now established in territories previously belonging to Mexico, and which remain for the future within the limits of the United States, as defined by the present treaty, shall be free to continue where they now reside, or to remove at any time to the Mexican Republic, retaining the property which they possess in the said territories, or disposing thereof, and removing the proceeds wherever they please, without their being subjected, on this account, to any contribution, tax, or charge whatever.
(2) Those who shall prefer to remain in the said territories may either retain the title and rights of Mexican citizens, or acquire those of citizens of the United States. …
Source 2.A summary written for this app.
(3) In California, many large ranches belonged to Californios—Mexican Californians whose families had received land grants from Spain or Mexico. The Gold Rush of 1849 brought a flood of newcomers, and some of them settled on Californio land without permission.
(4) Congress passed the California Land Act of 1851. It required every holder of a Spanish or Mexican land grant to prove the claim before a federal commission. Old grants often described boundaries by landmarks such as a creek or a large oak tree, and the records were in Spanish. Cases could drag on in the courts for years, often more than a decade. Many Californio families had to sell land to pay their lawyers, or lost it to squatters while they waited. Most claims were eventually confirmed, but by then much of the land had already changed hands.
In Source 1 (paragraph 1), Mexicans living in the ceded territories "shall be free to continue where they now reside, or to remove at any time to the Mexican Republic."
As it is used here, removemost nearly means
Hint
The sentence offers two choices: stay where they live, or do something else "to the Mexican Republic."
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Source 1, paragraph 1: Mexicans "shall be free to continue where they now reside, or to remove at any time to the Mexican Republic, retaining the property which they possess."
Reasoning: The sentence sets up a choice. Option 1: "continue where they now reside" (stay). Option 2: "remove … to the Mexican Republic." The opposite of staying is leaving, and "to the Mexican Republic" names a destination, so remove means to move away (to relocate). Today we usually say remove for taking something off or getting rid of it, but in older legal writing it often meant to move one's home.
Answer: move away.
Check: "free to continue where they now reside, or to move away at any time to the Mexican Republic" ✓. Paragraph 2 continues the idea: "Those who shall prefer to remain" are the ones who did not move.
Tip: When a sentence gives two options joined by or, the unknown word often means the opposite of the known option.
Question 17 of 36
Drag and dropA Letter Home from Wisconsin (1853)
This letter is fictional. It was written for this app, based on the kinds of letters German immigrants sent home in the 1850s. "Johanna Becker" is not a real person.
(1) Dear Sister, You asked whether you and Karl should follow us. Let me tell you plainly what we have found.
(2) You remember why we left Hesse. Two potato harvests failed in a row, the landlord raised our rent every year, and after the uprising of 1848 the soldiers were everywhere. Papa said there was no future for the boys there.
(3) Here the government land office sold us 80 acres at $1.25 an acre. Cousin Friedrich, who came two years before us, met us in Milwaukee and found Heinrich work on the docks until our first crop was in. In our town there are two German churches, and no one asks which one we attend.
(4) I will not pretend it is easy. The winter was colder than any in Hesse, and our baby was sick for a month. Wisconsin is surely the finest place on God's earth, but you must bring warm blankets and every coin you can save.
(5) Come in the spring, when the ships are less crowded. Your loving sister, Johanna
Read "A Letter Home from Wisconsin (1853)." Drag each detail from Johanna's letter to show whether it was a push factor or a pull factor for her family.
Push factor (a reason to leave Germany)
Pull factor (a reason to come to Wisconsin)
Tap a tile, then tap a box to place it.
Hint
A push factor is a problem at home. A pull factor is an attraction in the new place. Ask: is this detail about Hesse or about Wisconsin?
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 2 lists the reasons the family left Hesse: "Two potato harvests failed in a row, the landlord raised our rent every year, and after the uprising of 1848 the soldiers were everywhere." Paragraph 3 lists what they found in Wisconsin: "the government land office sold us 80 acres at $1.25 an acre," Cousin Friedrich "found Heinrich work on the docks," and "no one asks which one [church] we attend."
Answer: Push: failed potato harvests; rising rent; soldiers after the 1848 uprising. Pull: cheap government land; a relative who helped find work; freedom to choose a church.
Check: All three push factors come from paragraph 2 (life in Hesse) and all three pull factors from paragraph 3 (life in Wisconsin).
Tip: Most immigration questions on the GED can be sorted with push and pull. Famine, poverty, war and persecution push; land, jobs, family networks and freedom pull.
Question 18 of 36
A Letter Home from Wisconsin (1853)
This letter is fictional. It was written for this app, based on the kinds of letters German immigrants sent home in the 1850s. "Johanna Becker" is not a real person.
(1) Dear Sister, You asked whether you and Karl should follow us. Let me tell you plainly what we have found.
(2) You remember why we left Hesse. Two potato harvests failed in a row, the landlord raised our rent every year, and after the uprising of 1848 the soldiers were everywhere. Papa said there was no future for the boys there.
(3) Here the government land office sold us 80 acres at $1.25 an acre. Cousin Friedrich, who came two years before us, met us in Milwaukee and found Heinrich work on the docks until our first crop was in. In our town there are two German churches, and no one asks which one we attend.
(4) I will not pretend it is easy. The winter was colder than any in Hesse, and our baby was sick for a month. Wisconsin is surely the finest place on God's earth, but you must bring warm blankets and every coin you can save.
(5) Come in the spring, when the ships are less crowded. Your loving sister, Johanna
Which sentence from "A Letter Home from Wisconsin (1853)" expresses an opinion rather than a fact?
Hint
A fact can be checked with records. An opinion is a judgment that people could disagree with. Look for judgment words.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 4: "Wisconsin is surely the finest place on God's earth."
Reasoning: Test each choice by asking, "Could this be checked with a record or a count?"
The price of land (80 acres at $1.25 an acre) could be checked in the land office's sale records.
Two failed potato harvests could be checked with harvest records.
The number of German churches in a town could be counted.
Calling Wisconsin "the finest place on God's earth" is a personal judgment; another settler might call it too cold—Johanna herself says the winter was harsh. The words finest and surely signal opinion.
Answer: "Wisconsin is surely the finest place on God's earth."
Check: The $1.25 price was the real minimum price of federal land at the time, so that sentence is a checkable fact.
Tip: Superlatives (finest, best, worst) and certainty words (surely, obviously) often mark opinions, even in a letter that is mostly factual.
Question 19 of 36
The Homestead Act (1862)
During the Civil War, with most Southern members gone from Congress, lawmakers passed the Homestead Act. President Abraham Lincoln signed it on May 20, 1862. The law offered "public land"—land owned by the federal government, much of it on the Great Plains and in the West—to settlers. (A quarter section was 160 acres. A "patent" is the official document that gives ownership of land.)
(1) That any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or who shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such, as required by the naturalization laws of the United States, and who has never borne arms against the United States Government or given aid and comfort to its enemies, shall, from and after the first January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, be entitled to enter one quarter section or a less quantity of unappropriated public lands …
(2) … no certificate shall be given or patent issued therefor until the expiration of five years from the date of such entry …
Read paragraph 1 of the Homestead Act. The law was signed in 1862, during the Civil War.
Which group was most likely shut out of the Homestead Act by the wording of paragraph 1?
Hint
Find the phrase about "borne arms." In 1862, who was fighting against the U.S. government?
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 1 says a person qualifies only if he or she "has never borne arms against the United States Government or given aid and comfort to its enemies."
Reasoning: To "bear arms" means to carry weapons as a soldier. In 1862, the people bearing arms against the U.S. government were Confederate soldiers. So the wording excluded men who had fought for the Confederacy (and those who helped it). The other groups are actually included by the wording: a "head of a family" qualifies, and so does someone who has "filed his declaration of intention" to become a citizen.
Answer: Men who had fought for the Confederacy.
Check: Go back through the qualifications one by one: head of a family OR 21 or older; citizen OR has filed to become one; never fought against the United States. Only the last one excludes a group named in the choices.
Tip: An inference question about who was left out is answered by reading the conditions in a law closely. Watch for or—it usually lets more people in, not fewer.
Question 20 of 36
Slavery Grows After the 1808 Import Ban
(1) The U.S. Constitution allowed Congress to ban the importing of enslaved people beginning in 1808, and Congress did so: the ban took effect on January 1, 1808. Some Americans at the time hoped that slavery would slowly fade away without new arrivals from Africa.
(2) Instead, the enslaved population grew in every census. After 1808, the growth came mainly from natural increase: under the law, children born to enslaved mothers were enslaved from birth. Smuggling continued, but it brought far fewer people than births did.
(3) Cotton drove much of the demand for enslaved labor. Eli Whitney's cotton gin (1793) made it fast and cheap to separate the seeds from short-staple cotton, a kind that grew well across the Deep South. As cotton planting spread into Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, about one million enslaved people were forcibly moved there from the Upper South between 1790 and 1860, many of them sold away from their families. By 1860, cotton was the nation's most valuable export.
Use the graph and the text in "Slavery Grows After the 1808 Import Ban."
Which conclusion is supported by both the graph and the text?
Hint
Check each choice twice: once against the bars and once against paragraphs 1–3.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Graph: 1.2 million in 1810 and 4.0 million in 1860. Text, paragraph 1: the ban on importing enslaved people "took effect on January 1, 1808." Paragraph 2: "the enslaved population grew in every census."
Reasoning:4.0 \div 1.2 \approx 3.3, so the enslaved population more than tripled after the ban. The text explains how: "natural increase"—children born to enslaved mothers were enslaved from birth. So a conclusion that slavery kept growing despite the import ban is supported by both sources.
The import ban did not shrink the population (every bar is taller than the one before).
The text says smuggling "brought far fewer people than births did," so smuggling was not the main cause.
Neither source compares the North and South.
Answer: Although imports were banned in 1808, the enslaved population more than tripled between 1810 and 1860.
Check:1.2 \times 3 = 3.6, and 4.0 is greater than 3.6 ✓.
Tip: Data shows what happened; text explains why. The right answer to a "both" question uses a number from the graph and an idea from the text.
Question 21 of 36
Hot spotSlavery Grows After the 1808 Import Ban
(1) The U.S. Constitution allowed Congress to ban the importing of enslaved people beginning in 1808, and Congress did so: the ban took effect on January 1, 1808. Some Americans at the time hoped that slavery would slowly fade away without new arrivals from Africa.
(2) Instead, the enslaved population grew in every census. After 1808, the growth came mainly from natural increase: under the law, children born to enslaved mothers were enslaved from birth. Smuggling continued, but it brought far fewer people than births did.
(3) Cotton drove much of the demand for enslaved labor. Eli Whitney's cotton gin (1793) made it fast and cheap to separate the seeds from short-staple cotton, a kind that grew well across the Deep South. As cotton planting spread into Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, about one million enslaved people were forcibly moved there from the Upper South between 1790 and 1860, many of them sold away from their families. By 1860, cotton was the nation's most valuable export.
Use the graph in "Slavery Grows After the 1808 Import Ban."
Click the bar for the first census year in which the enslaved population was at least double its size in 1800.
Click on the figure to mark your answer (or focus it and use the arrow keys).
Hint
Find the 1800 value and multiply by 2. Then move right along the bars until one reaches that number.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence from the graph: 1800 = 0.9 million.
Step by step:
Double the 1800 value: 0.9 \times 2 = 1.8 million.
Check each later bar in order: 1810 = 1.2 (no); 1820 = 1.5 (no); 1830 = 2.0 (yes).
1830 is the first bar at or above 1.8 million.
Answer: the 1830 bar.
Check with exact census counts: 1800 had 893,602 enslaved people; double is 1,787,204. In 1820 the count was 1,538,022 (below), and in 1830 it was 2,009,043 (above) ✓.
Watch out: 1860 is the tallest bar, but the question asks for the first year that meets the condition, not the largest value. 1820 is a near miss: 1.5 is less than 1.8.
Tip: Turn a word condition ("at least double") into a number first, then scan the graph against that number.
Question 22 of 36
President Andrew Jackson on Indian Removal (1830)
In May 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which let the president trade land west of the Mississippi River for Native lands in the East. In December 1830, President Andrew Jackson defended the policy in his annual message to Congress. (His words reflect the prejudices of his time.) Over the next decade, tens of thousands of Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole people were forced west; thousands died on the journeys known as the Trail of Tears.
(1) It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of the Government, steadily pursued for nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching to a happy consummation. …
(2) It will place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters. … It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude institutions …
Read Jackson's 1830 message and this line from John L. O'Sullivan (1845):
"… our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions."
Which statement describes a view that both Jackson and O'Sullivan share?
Hint
Look past their topics (removal vs. annexation). What do both men assume about American settlers and the land?
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Jackson says removal "will place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters" (paragraph 2). O'Sullivan says the continent was "allotted by Providence" for "our yearly multiplying millions."
Reasoning: Both writers assume that land in North America should go to a growing population of American settlers, and both present this as natural or good. Neither considers the land rights of the people already living there. Check the distractors: O'Sullivan says nothing about the states versus the federal government (A); neither writer warns that expansion is a mistake (C); and only Jackson addresses Native peoples directly, while O'Sullivan's target is foreign nations (D).
Answer: American settlers had a right to land in North America that should take priority over other claims.
Tip: On two-source questions, a "both" answer must be supported by each source. Test every choice against source 1, then against source 2; cross out any choice that only one source supports.
Question 23 of 36
Hot spotWaves of Immigration, 1840s–1930s
(1) The first large wave of immigration came in the 1840s and 1850s. Many newcomers were Irish families escaping the Potato Famine (1845–1849) and Germans fleeing poor harvests and political unrest.
(2) A second, larger wave began in the 1880s. Most of these "new immigrants" came from southern and eastern Europe, especially Italy, Austria-Hungary and Russia. Many were processed at Ellis Island in New York Harbor, which opened in 1892. They found work in the factories, mines and growing cities of the industrial North.
(3) Not every group was welcome. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 stated that "the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities" and banned their immigration. World War I (1914–1918) made Atlantic crossings dangerous. Then the Immigration Act of 1924 set strict yearly quotas for each nationality, favoring northern and western Europeans.
(4) In the 1930s, the Great Depression left millions of Americans without jobs, and few immigrants came.
Use the bar graph in "Waves of Immigration, 1840s–1930s."
Click the bar for the decade that shows the largest drop in immigration compared with the decade just before it.
Click on the figure to mark your answer (or focus it and use the arrow keys).
Hint
Do not look for the shortest bar. Subtract each bar from the bar to its left, and look only at the decreases.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence from the graph: Find every decrease from one decade to the next:
Change
Calculation
Drop
1850s → 1860s
2.8 − 2.1
0.7 million
1880s → 1890s
5.2 − 3.7
1.5 million
1900s → 1910s
8.2 − 6.3
1.9 million
1910s → 1920s
6.3 − 4.3
2.0 million
1920s → 1930s
4.3 − 0.7
3.6 million
Reasoning: The largest drop is into the 1930s. The text explains why: the Immigration Act of 1924 set strict quotas (paragraph 3), and in the 1930s "the Great Depression left millions of Americans without jobs, and few immigrants came" (paragraph 4). The 1910s are a tempting wrong answer because of World War I, but that drop (1.9 million) was smaller.
Answer: the 1930s bar.
Tip: "Largest drop" is about change, not about the lowest value. When a question compares decades, write the differences down instead of judging by eye.
Question 24 of 36
Select allSlavery Grows After the 1808 Import Ban
(1) The U.S. Constitution allowed Congress to ban the importing of enslaved people beginning in 1808, and Congress did so: the ban took effect on January 1, 1808. Some Americans at the time hoped that slavery would slowly fade away without new arrivals from Africa.
(2) Instead, the enslaved population grew in every census. After 1808, the growth came mainly from natural increase: under the law, children born to enslaved mothers were enslaved from birth. Smuggling continued, but it brought far fewer people than births did.
(3) Cotton drove much of the demand for enslaved labor. Eli Whitney's cotton gin (1793) made it fast and cheap to separate the seeds from short-staple cotton, a kind that grew well across the Deep South. As cotton planting spread into Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, about one million enslaved people were forcibly moved there from the Upper South between 1790 and 1860, many of them sold away from their families. By 1860, cotton was the nation's most valuable export.
Use the graph and the text in "Slavery Grows After the 1808 Import Ban."
Select all of the statements that are supported by the information in the passage.
Select all that apply.
Hint
For each statement, find a number on the graph or a sentence in the text that backs it up. If you cannot point to one, do not select it.
Step-by-step solution
Check each statement:
A. Supported. Graph: 0.7 million in 1790 and 1.5 million in 1820. 0.7 \times 2 = 1.4, and 1.5 is more than 1.4, so the population more than doubled.
B. Not supported. The text says the population "grew in every census," and every bar after 1808 is taller than the one before.
C. Supported. Paragraph 2: "After 1808, the growth came mainly from natural increase."
D. Not supported. The passage gives no regional breakdown; it says enslaved people were moved to the Deep South—Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.
E. Supported. Paragraph 3: "Cotton drove much of the demand for enslaved labor," and cotton planting spread across the Deep South while the graph keeps rising.
Answer: A, C and E.
Check: Each correct statement can be matched to either a graph value or a quoted sentence; B and D cannot.
Tip: In "select all" items, judge each statement on its own. There is no fixed number of right answers.
Question 25 of 36
Drop-downSlavery Grows After the 1808 Import Ban
(1) The U.S. Constitution allowed Congress to ban the importing of enslaved people beginning in 1808, and Congress did so: the ban took effect on January 1, 1808. Some Americans at the time hoped that slavery would slowly fade away without new arrivals from Africa.
(2) Instead, the enslaved population grew in every census. After 1808, the growth came mainly from natural increase: under the law, children born to enslaved mothers were enslaved from birth. Smuggling continued, but it brought far fewer people than births did.
(3) Cotton drove much of the demand for enslaved labor. Eli Whitney's cotton gin (1793) made it fast and cheap to separate the seeds from short-staple cotton, a kind that grew well across the Deep South. As cotton planting spread into Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, about one million enslaved people were forcibly moved there from the Upper South between 1790 and 1860, many of them sold away from their families. By 1860, cotton was the nation's most valuable export.
Use "Slavery Grows After the 1808 Import Ban." Choose the option that correctly completes each part of the cause-and-effect chain.
The cotton gin made growing short-staple cotton . As a result, planters expanded cotton farming into . Even though imports of enslaved people were banned in 1808, the enslaved population kept growing, mainly because of .
Choose an answer from each menu.
Hint
Paragraph 3 explains the cotton gin and where cotton spread. Paragraph 2 explains why the population grew after 1808.
Step-by-step solution
Where the answers come from:
Blank 1: Paragraph 3 says the cotton gin made it "fast and cheap to separate the seeds from short-staple cotton." Cheaper processing made the crop much more profitable.
Blank 2: Paragraph 3: "As cotton planting spread into Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas"—the Deep South.
Blank 3: Paragraph 2: "After 1808, the growth came mainly from natural increase"—children born into slavery.
Reasoning on the traps: "Less profitable" reverses the effect of the invention. New England and the Pacific Northwest were not cotton regions. Legal imports were banned in 1808, and European immigrants were not enslaved.
Answer: much more profitable; the Deep South, such as Alabama and Mississippi; natural increase—children born into slavery.
Check: Read the whole chain aloud: invention → profit → spread of cotton → demand for labor → growth through births despite the ban. Each link leads to the next.
Tip: In a cause-and-effect chain, each blank must follow from the one before it. If one answer breaks the chain, it is wrong.
Question 26 of 36
The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
Thousands of Chinese immigrants came to California beginning with the Gold Rush of 1849, and many later helped build the Central Pacific Railroad. During a hard economic depression in the 1870s, some white workers and politicians blamed Chinese laborers for low wages and lost jobs. In 1882, Congress passed the following law, and President Chester A. Arthur signed it on May 6.
(1) Whereas in the opinion of the Government of the United States the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities within the territory thereof: Therefore,
(2) Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the expiration of ninety days next after the passage of this act, and until the expiration of ten years next after the passage of this act, the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States be, and the same is hereby, suspended …
(3) Section 14: That hereafter no State court or court of the United States shall admit Chinese to citizenship …
The ban was extended in 1892 and made permanent in 1902. Congress repealed it in 1943, when China was a U.S. ally in World War II.
Which statement best evaluates the reason given in paragraph 1 of the Chinese Exclusion Act?
Hint
Look closely at the first words of paragraph 1. Then ask: does the excerpt give any proof?
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 1 begins: "Whereas in the opinion of the Government of the United States the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities."
Reasoning: The law itself labels its reason an opinion. The excerpt offers no numbers, events or other evidence that Chinese laborers actually harmed "good order." The introduction gives a clue about where the opinion came from: during the 1870s depression, "some white workers and politicians blamed Chinese laborers for low wages and lost jobs." Passing a law makes a policy official, but it does not prove the reason behind it. (In 1943 Congress repealed the law.)
Paragraph 2 contains dates and time limits, not statistics.
The law targets "Chinese laborers," not all Chinese immigrants, so the last choice misreads it.
Answer: The law presents its reason as the government's opinion, and the excerpt offers no evidence to support it.
Check: Search the excerpt for any data or examples of disorder. There are none.
Tip: An official source can still state an opinion. Evaluate a claim by asking what evidence is given, not who said it.
Question 27 of 36
Promises and Practice After the U.S.–Mexican War
Source 1.The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848, ended the U.S.–Mexican War. Mexico gave up more than 500,000 square miles of land, including present-day California, Nevada and Utah and most of Arizona and New Mexico. Tens of thousands of Mexican citizens lived there. Article VIII of the treaty described their rights.
(1) Mexicans now established in territories previously belonging to Mexico, and which remain for the future within the limits of the United States, as defined by the present treaty, shall be free to continue where they now reside, or to remove at any time to the Mexican Republic, retaining the property which they possess in the said territories, or disposing thereof, and removing the proceeds wherever they please, without their being subjected, on this account, to any contribution, tax, or charge whatever.
(2) Those who shall prefer to remain in the said territories may either retain the title and rights of Mexican citizens, or acquire those of citizens of the United States. …
Source 2.A summary written for this app.
(3) In California, many large ranches belonged to Californios—Mexican Californians whose families had received land grants from Spain or Mexico. The Gold Rush of 1849 brought a flood of newcomers, and some of them settled on Californio land without permission.
(4) Congress passed the California Land Act of 1851. It required every holder of a Spanish or Mexican land grant to prove the claim before a federal commission. Old grants often described boundaries by landmarks such as a creek or a large oak tree, and the records were in Spanish. Cases could drag on in the courts for years, often more than a decade. Many Californio families had to sell land to pay their lawyers, or lost it to squatters while they waited. Most claims were eventually confirmed, but by then much of the land had already changed hands.
Use both sources in "Promises and Practice After the U.S.–Mexican War."
How does Source 2 relate to Source 1?
Hint
Source 1 makes a promise about property. Source 2 tells what happened to property in California. Do they match?
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Source 1 (paragraph 1) promises that Mexicans who stayed would keep "retaining the property which they possess in the said territories." Source 2 (paragraph 4) explains that the Land Act of 1851 made landholders prove their claims, cases lasted "often more than a decade," and "Many Californio families had to sell land to pay their lawyers, or lost it to squatters while they waited."
Reasoning: The treaty promised to respect property. The later history shows that the legal process made that promise hard to keep. Note the careful wording in Source 2: "Most claims were eventually confirmed"—so the problem was not that courts rejected most claims, but that the slow, costly process cost many families their land anyway.
Answer: Source 2 shows that the property rights promised in Source 1 were hard to protect in practice.
Check: The wrong choices each contradict a specific line: the treaty does mention property; Source 1 lets people stay; Source 2 says most claims were confirmed.
Tip: When a primary source makes a promise and a later source describes results, the GED often asks whether practice matched the promise.
Question 28 of 36
A Letter Home from Wisconsin (1853)
This letter is fictional. It was written for this app, based on the kinds of letters German immigrants sent home in the 1850s. "Johanna Becker" is not a real person.
(1) Dear Sister, You asked whether you and Karl should follow us. Let me tell you plainly what we have found.
(2) You remember why we left Hesse. Two potato harvests failed in a row, the landlord raised our rent every year, and after the uprising of 1848 the soldiers were everywhere. Papa said there was no future for the boys there.
(3) Here the government land office sold us 80 acres at $1.25 an acre. Cousin Friedrich, who came two years before us, met us in Milwaukee and found Heinrich work on the docks until our first crop was in. In our town there are two German churches, and no one asks which one we attend.
(4) I will not pretend it is easy. The winter was colder than any in Hesse, and our baby was sick for a month. Wisconsin is surely the finest place on God's earth, but you must bring warm blankets and every coin you can save.
(5) Come in the spring, when the ships are less crowded. Your loving sister, Johanna
Which statement best describes Johanna's point of view about moving to America in "A Letter Home from Wisconsin (1853)"?
Hint
Read the whole letter, especially paragraphs 4 and 5. Does she encourage her sister or warn her—or both?
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 4: "I will not pretend it is easy. The winter was colder than any in Hesse, and our baby was sick for a month." Paragraph 4 continues: "you must bring warm blankets and every coin you can save." Paragraph 5: "Come in the spring."
Reasoning: Johanna's view is mixed but clear. She praises the land, the help from family and the religious freedom, and she tells her sister to come. She also warns honestly about cold, illness and cost. So she believes the move is worthwhile and hard.
She does not regret leaving: she invites her sister to follow.
She does not deny hardship: she lists it.
Religious freedom is only one of several reasons she gives.
Answer: She believes the move is worth it but warns that life there is hard.
Check: A point-of-view answer must fit the whole letter. The correct choice uses both the praise in paragraph 3 and the warning in paragraph 4.
Tip: Writers often hold balanced views. Watch for choices that keep only half of the picture.
Question 29 of 36
Two Newspapers Debate the "New Immigrants" (1891)
Both editorials are fictional. They were written for this app to show arguments Americans made in the 1880s and 1890s, when millions of immigrants arrived from southern and eastern Europe.
Editorial A — from the fictional Riverton Daily Sentinel
(1) Every week the steamships unload thousands more foreigners at our ports. They crowd into city tenements, work for wages no American family can live on, and cling to their own languages and customs. These newcomers will never become true Americans. Congress must close the door before our way of life is lost.
Editorial B — from the fictional Lakeport Evening Star
(2) The immigrants arriving today are doing the same hard work that earlier Irish and German newcomers did: they lay our railroad tracks, mine our coal and run the machines in our mills. Their children sit in our public schools and learn English beside our own sons and daughters. A nation built by immigrants should not slam the door on the next generation of builders.
Read both editorials in "Two Newspapers Debate the 'New Immigrants' (1891)."
On which point would the writers of both editorials most likely agree?
Hint
Look for a fact that each writer mentions, even though they draw different conclusions from it.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Editorial A: "Every week the steamships unload thousands more foreigners at our ports" and they "work for wages." Editorial B: immigrants "lay our railroad tracks, mine our coal and run the machines in our mills."
Reasoning: Both writers accept the same basic facts: many immigrants are arriving, and they are working in American industries. They disagree about what that means. Writer A wants Congress to "close the door"; Writer B says the nation "should not slam the door." Writer B says the children are learning English, while Writer A claims the newcomers "cling to their own languages"—so that point is disputed. Neither blames the earlier Irish and German immigrants; Writer B praises them.
Answer: Large numbers of immigrants were arriving and working in American industries.
Check: Find support for the answer in each editorial separately. Only the correct choice has a match in both.
Tip: Opposing writers often agree on facts and disagree on conclusions. Separate the two before answering a "both agree" question.
Question 30 of 36
The Homestead Act (1862)
During the Civil War, with most Southern members gone from Congress, lawmakers passed the Homestead Act. President Abraham Lincoln signed it on May 20, 1862. The law offered "public land"—land owned by the federal government, much of it on the Great Plains and in the West—to settlers. (A quarter section was 160 acres. A "patent" is the official document that gives ownership of land.)
(1) That any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or who shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such, as required by the naturalization laws of the United States, and who has never borne arms against the United States Government or given aid and comfort to its enemies, shall, from and after the first January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, be entitled to enter one quarter section or a less quantity of unappropriated public lands …
(2) … no certificate shall be given or patent issued therefor until the expiration of five years from the date of such entry …
The Homestead Act took effect on January 1, 1863. Which later development is most directly connected to this law?
Hint
Two of the choices happened before 1863. Of the later events, which one would follow from millions of settlers claiming western land?
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: The excerpt offers "unappropriated public lands" to settlers starting "the first January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three," with ownership after five years. Much of this public land lay on the Great Plains.
Reasoning:
Eliminate events that came before the law: the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Indian Removal Act (1830) cannot be results of an 1862 law. The Mexican Cession (1848) also came first—in fact, it added some of the land that homesteaders later claimed.
The remaining choice follows from the law: free land drew farm families west, and their farms, fences and towns spread across land that Plains nations used for hunting. Over the following decades, homesteaders claimed about 270 million acres, adding to the pressure that pushed Plains nations onto reservations.
Answer: Farm families settled large parts of the Great Plains, increasing pressure on the lands of Plains nations.
Check: Ask "Could the law have caused this?" A cause must come before its effect.
Tip: On "later development" questions, first cross out every event that happened earlier, then pick the one with a real cause-and-effect link.
Question 31 of 36
Building the Transcontinental Railroad
(1) In 1862, Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act. It gave two companies loans and huge grants of public land to build a railroad across the continent. The Union Pacific built west from Omaha, Nebraska; the Central Pacific built east from Sacramento, California.
(2) The Central Pacific could not find enough workers in thinly populated California, so in 1865 it began hiring Chinese immigrants. Within a few years, Chinese laborers made up most of its workforce. They blasted tunnels through the granite of the Sierra Nevada, often for lower pay than white workers received.
(3) The two lines met at Promontory Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869. A trip from New York to California that had taken months by wagon or ship now took about a week. Settlers, soldiers and hunters poured onto the Great Plains. Hunters killed buffalo by the millions, destroying the herds that Plains nations depended on for food, shelter and clothing.
(4) When the railroad was finished, thousands of Chinese workers lost their jobs and looked for work in California's cities. During the economic depression of the 1870s, anti-Chinese movements grew, leading to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Read "Building the Transcontinental Railroad."
Which sequence of causes and effects is best supported by the passage?
Hint
Paragraph 3 describes what happened after the two lines met in 1869. Check that each cause comes before its effect.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Paragraph 3: "A trip from New York to California that had taken months by wagon or ship now took about a week. Settlers, soldiers and hunters poured onto the Great Plains. Hunters killed buffalo by the millions, destroying the herds that Plains nations depended on for food, shelter and clothing."
Reasoning: The chain runs: railroad completed (1869) → travel much faster → more settlers and hunters on the Plains → buffalo herds destroyed → Plains nations lose their main source of food, shelter and clothing.
The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) came after the Central Pacific hired Chinese workers (1865), so it cannot be the cause.
The Pacific Railway Act (1862) came before the buffalo were destroyed, so that chain is reversed.
Paragraph 2 says California was "thinly populated," which is why the company needed immigrant workers.
Answer: The railroad made travel faster → more settlers and hunters came to the Plains → the buffalo herds were destroyed, harming Plains nations.
Check: Put a date on each link: 1869 → 1870s → 1870s–1880s. The order holds.
Tip: For a chain question, test each arrow: did the first event happen before the second, and does the passage connect them?
Question 32 of 36
Drag and drop
Drag these events from the era of European colonization into chronological order, from earliest (1) to latest (5).
1 (earliest)
2
3
4
5 (latest)
Tap a tile, then tap a box to place it.
Hint
Anchor the timeline with 1492. Then remember that Spain colonized before England, and that Georgia was the last of the 13 colonies.
Step-by-step solution
Correct order:
Columbus reaches the Caribbean (1492) — the start of lasting contact between Europe and the Americas and of the Columbian Exchange.
Spain founds St. Augustine in Florida (1565) — the oldest continuously settled European city in the present-day United States.
The English found Jamestown, Virginia (1607) — the first permanent English colony.
The Pilgrims sign the Mayflower Compact (1620) — an early agreement to make and obey their own laws, signed before founding Plymouth.
Georgia, the last of the 13 colonies, is founded (1732).
Reasoning: Spain's empire came first, so St. Augustine comes before both English settlements. Jamestown (1607) came 13 years before Plymouth (1620). The tile itself tells you Georgia was last.
Check: 1492 < 1565 < 1607 < 1620 < 1732 ✓.
Tip: Use clue words inside the tiles ("first," "last") and big patterns you know (Spain before England) to order events even when you do not remember every date.
Question 33 of 36
Select allWaves of Immigration, 1840s–1930s
(1) The first large wave of immigration came in the 1840s and 1850s. Many newcomers were Irish families escaping the Potato Famine (1845–1849) and Germans fleeing poor harvests and political unrest.
(2) A second, larger wave began in the 1880s. Most of these "new immigrants" came from southern and eastern Europe, especially Italy, Austria-Hungary and Russia. Many were processed at Ellis Island in New York Harbor, which opened in 1892. They found work in the factories, mines and growing cities of the industrial North.
(3) Not every group was welcome. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 stated that "the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities" and banned their immigration. World War I (1914–1918) made Atlantic crossings dangerous. Then the Immigration Act of 1924 set strict yearly quotas for each nationality, favoring northern and western Europeans.
(4) In the 1930s, the Great Depression left millions of Americans without jobs, and few immigrants came.
Use the graph and the text in "Waves of Immigration, 1840s–1930s."
Select all of the statements that are supported by both the graph and the text.
Select all that apply.
Hint
For each statement, find a matching number on the graph AND a matching sentence in the text. If either is missing, leave it unselected.
Step-by-step solution
Check each statement against both sources:
A. Supported. Graph: 1.4 million (1840s) rose to 2.8 million (1850s). Text, paragraph 1: Irish families escaping "the Potato Famine (1845–1849)" and Germans fleeing hard times.
B. Not supported. The graph shows a drop from 8.2 million (1900s) to 6.3 million (1910s), but 6.3 million is still the second-highest decade, so immigration did not "nearly stop." Paragraph 3 says the war made crossings dangerous—a reason for a decline, not an end.
C. Supported. Graph: 4.3 million (1920s) fell to 0.7 million (1930s). Text: the 1924 quotas (paragraph 3) and the Great Depression, when "few immigrants came" (paragraph 4).
D. Not supported. Paragraph 2 says most new immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe, and the Chinese Exclusion Act suspended the entry of Chinese laborers. The graph shows totals only, not origins.
E. Supported. Graph: the 1880s total (5.2 million) is almost double the 1870s (2.7 million). Text, paragraph 2: a "second, larger wave began in the 1880s."
Answer: A, C and E.
Tip: On "supported by both" items, a statement can sound true from your own knowledge and still be wrong if one source does not back it. Graphs show how much; texts usually explain why or who.
Question 34 of 36
Two Newspapers Debate the "New Immigrants" (1891)
Both editorials are fictional. They were written for this app to show arguments Americans made in the 1880s and 1890s, when millions of immigrants arrived from southern and eastern Europe.
Editorial A — from the fictional Riverton Daily Sentinel
(1) Every week the steamships unload thousands more foreigners at our ports. They crowd into city tenements, work for wages no American family can live on, and cling to their own languages and customs. These newcomers will never become true Americans. Congress must close the door before our way of life is lost.
Editorial B — from the fictional Lakeport Evening Star
(2) The immigrants arriving today are doing the same hard work that earlier Irish and German newcomers did: they lay our railroad tracks, mine our coal and run the machines in our mills. Their children sit in our public schools and learn English beside our own sons and daughters. A nation built by immigrants should not slam the door on the next generation of builders.
Editorial A claims that the new immigrants "will never become true Americans."
Which evidence would most weaken this claim?
Hint
The claim is about the future: will these newcomers and their families become part of American life? Which choice gives facts about that?
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: Editorial A, paragraph 1: "These newcomers will never become true Americans."
Reasoning: To weaken a prediction about whether immigrants will become Americans, you need facts showing that they or their children did join American life—learning English, becoming citizens, voting. Records of children speaking English and families naturalizing are direct evidence against the claim.
The number of steamships arriving shows how many immigrants came; it says nothing about whether they became Americans.
A list of tenement buildings describes housing, not belonging.
Editorial B's line "A nation built by immigrants should not slam the door" is an opinion, not evidence. Countering one opinion with another opinion does not weaken it.
Answer: Records showing that most children of these immigrants spoke English and that many families later became citizens.
Check: Ask, "If this evidence were true, would the claim still stand?" Only the correct choice makes the claim false.
Tip: Strong evidence is specific, checkable and directly about the claim. A related fact or another writer's opinion is not enough.
Question 35 of 36
Drag and drop
Immigration to the United States came in waves, and laws changed as each wave arrived. Put the six events below on the timeline in the order they happened (1 = earliest, 6 = latest).
1 (earliest)
2
3
4
5
6 (latest)
Tap a tile, then tap a box to place it.
Hint
Use cause and effect: Chinese workers came for gold, then built a railroad, then were excluded. Irish famine immigration was part of the first great wave; national-origin quotas ended the second wave.
Step-by-step solution
Correct order:
The Irish Potato Famine begins (1845) — drove the first great wave of immigration in the 1840s–1850s.
The California Gold Rush draws Chinese miners (1849).
The transcontinental railroad is completed (1869) — Chinese laborers did much of the Central Pacific's work.
The Chinese Exclusion Act is passed (1882) — the first major federal law to bar a group by nationality.
Ellis Island opens in New York Harbor (1892) — it processed millions of "new immigrants" from southern and eastern Europe.
The Immigration Act sets national-origin quotas (1924) — sharply cut immigration from southern and eastern Europe.
Reasoning: Steps 2–4 form a cause-and-effect chain: Chinese immigrants came for gold, then worked on the railroad, then faced exclusion after the 1870s depression. Ellis Island processed the second wave, which the 1924 quotas ended.
Check: 1845 < 1849 < 1869 < 1882 < 1892 < 1924 ✓.
Tip: Group events into stories (the Chinese story, the European waves), order each story, then merge them by the dates you are sure of.
Question 36 of 36
The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
Thousands of Chinese immigrants came to California beginning with the Gold Rush of 1849, and many later helped build the Central Pacific Railroad. During a hard economic depression in the 1870s, some white workers and politicians blamed Chinese laborers for low wages and lost jobs. In 1882, Congress passed the following law, and President Chester A. Arthur signed it on May 6.
(1) Whereas in the opinion of the Government of the United States the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities within the territory thereof: Therefore,
(2) Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the expiration of ninety days next after the passage of this act, and until the expiration of ten years next after the passage of this act, the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States be, and the same is hereby, suspended …
(3) Section 14: That hereafter no State court or court of the United States shall admit Chinese to citizenship …
The ban was extended in 1892 and made permanent in 1902. Congress repealed it in 1943, when China was a U.S. ally in World War II.
The Chinese Exclusion Act barred a group of immigrants because of their nationality. Which later development continued this approach to immigration?
Hint
You need an event that came after 1882 and limited immigration based on where people came from. Some choices went in the opposite direction.
Step-by-step solution
Evidence: The 1882 law suspended "the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States" and said courts could not "admit Chinese to citizenship." It singled out one nationality.
Reasoning: Check each later event for direction:
Immigration Act of 1924: set yearly quotas by national origin, cutting immigration from southern and eastern Europe and barring most immigration from Asia. This extends the 1882 approach—continues it.
The 1898 Supreme Court ruling (United States v. Wong Kim Ark) held that a man born in San Francisco to Chinese parents was a U.S. citizen. It limited the reach of exclusion—opposite direction.
The 1943 repeal ended Chinese exclusion—opposite direction.
Ellis Island (1892) was a processing station where most arriving Europeans were admitted; it did not set limits by nationality.
Answer: The Immigration Act of 1924, which set quotas by national origin and barred most immigration from Asia.
Check: The answer must pass two tests: later than 1882, and restricting by nationality. Only the 1924 law passes both.
Tip: "Continued" means same direction. Before choosing, label each option as same direction, opposite direction or unrelated.
