Social Studies Diagnostic Test

James Madison wrote this essay in 1787 to persuade New Yorkers to ratify the new Constitution.

(1) "By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community."

(2) "From this view of the subject it may be concluded that a pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction."

(3) "A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking."

(4) "The two great points of difference between a democracy and a republic are: first, the delegation of the government, in the latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest; secondly, the greater number of citizens, and greater sphere of country, over which the latter may be extended."

(5) "The effect of the first difference is, on the one hand, to refine and enlarge the public views, by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country…"

Word help: actuated = moved to act; adverse to = against; mischiefs = harms; the latter = the second one named (here, a republic); sphere = area.

Adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.

(1) "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

(2) "The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States."

(3) "He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good." …

(4) "He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries." …

(5) "For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:" …

Word help: self-evident = obvious, needing no proof; unalienable = cannot be taken away or given up; instituted = set up; usurpations = wrongful seizures of power; tenure = length of time in a job.

(1) Article I, Section 1: "All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives."

(2) Article I, Section 2: "The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States…"

(3) Seventeenth Amendment (1913): "The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote."

(4) Article II, Section 1: "The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years…"

(5) Article III, Section 1: "The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour…"

Word help: vested in = given to; legislative = lawmaking; executive = carrying out laws; judicial = relating to courts and judges; inferior courts = lower courts; ordain = set up; during good Behaviour = as long as they behave properly (in practice, for life).

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution were ratified in 1791. Together they are called the Bill of Rights. Five of them are quoted below.

(1) First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

(2) Fourth Amendment: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

(3) Fifth Amendment: "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."

(4) Sixth Amendment: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence."

(5) Eighth Amendment: "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."

(1) The fictional country of Alder chooses its president much like the United States does. Each of its five states has a set number of electoral votes. The candidate who wins the most popular votes in a state wins all of that state's electoral votes (winner-take-all). To become president, a candidate must win a majority — more than half — of the 52 electoral votes.

(2) The table shows the results of Alder's most recent election.

Article I of the Constitution gives Congress control over federal taxes and spending, often called the "power of the purse."

(1) Article I, Section 7: "All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills."

(2) Article I, Section 8: "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;"

(3) Article I, Section 8 (continued): Congress shall have power … "To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;"

(4) Article I, Section 9: "No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time."

The graph shows the estimated percentage of the U.S. labor force that was unemployed each year from 1929 to 1941. The stock market crashed in October 1929. President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in March 1933 and began the New Deal.

Source: estimates based on historical U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Farmers at a busy farmers' market sell fresh strawberries by the pint. The graph shows the demand (D) for strawberries and the supply (S) of strawberries at different prices.

Main Street Bakery makes one product: loaves of bread, which it sells for $5 each. The owner pays $1,200 per month for rent and an equipment loan, no matter how many loaves she bakes. Ingredients and packaging cost $2 per loaf.

Total revenue = price × quantity sold. Profit = total revenue − total cost. Assume every loaf baked is sold.

(1) During the Great Depression of the 1930s, millions of Americans could not find work. In 1939, World War II began in Europe. The United States started selling and lending weapons and supplies to Britain and its allies, and in 1940 Congress passed the first peacetime military draft in U.S. history. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the United States entered the war.

(2) Factories that had been idle switched to making tanks, planes, ships and uniforms, and more than 16 million Americans eventually served in the armed forces. The graph shows what happened to unemployment.

Hammurabi ruled the city of Babylon in Mesopotamia from about 1792 to 1750 BCE. His laws were carved on a tall stone pillar and set up where people could see them. The excerpts below come from a 1910 English translation.

From the Prologue

…Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak…

From the Laws

196. If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.

197. If he break another man's bone, his bone shall be broken.

198. If he put out the eye of a freed man, or break the bone of a freed man, he shall pay one gold mina.

199. If he put out the eye of a man's slave, or break the bone of a man's slave, he shall pay one-half of its value.

The map below shows land types, cities, and resources in Teravia, a fictional country. Use the legend and the scale bar to answer the questions.

(1) Ana Ruiz grew up in a small farming village. For three years in a row, too little rain fell, and her family's corn crop failed. The village school closed when its only teacher left, and gangs began demanding money from local shop owners.

(2) Ana's cousin had moved to a city in another country five years earlier. He wrote that a food-processing plant there was hiring workers and paid about four times what Ana could earn at home. He also said the city had good public schools for her two children.

(3) In 2019, Ana and her children left their village and moved to that city, where they joined her cousin's family. Ana began working at the plant, and her children started school the following month.

Adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. Spelling and capitalization follow the original.

(1) When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

(2) We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

In the Declaration of Independence, the colonists listed their complaints, or grievances, against King George III. "He" refers to the King.

(1) The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

(2) He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. …

(3) He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: …

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: …

In July 1848, about 300 people met in Seneca Falls, New York, for the first women's rights convention in the United States. One hundred people — 68 women and 32 men — signed this declaration, written mainly by Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

(1) We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness …

(2) The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

(3) He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise.

(4) He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice.

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.

After World War II, the Soviet Union set up communist governments across Eastern Europe. In 1947, Britain told the United States it could no longer afford to support the governments of Greece, which was fighting communist-led rebels, and Turkey, which faced Soviet pressure. On March 12, 1947, President Harry S. Truman asked Congress for $400 million in aid for the two countries.

(1) At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. …

(2) I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.

(3) I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way.

(4) I believe that our help should be primarily through economic and financial aid which is essential to economic stability and orderly political processes.