Social Studies Mixed Practice Test 5

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.

The framers of the Constitution gave each branch of the national government ways to limit the other two. The diagram shows some of the most important checks.

Lakeland is a fictional state. Like the U.S. Constitution, Lakeland's constitution lets the governor veto bills and lets the legislature override a veto by a two-thirds vote in each chamber.

(1) Governor Ruth Okafor took office in 2019. For her first two years, her party held a majority in both chambers of the legislature.

(2) In the 2020 election, the opposing party won more than two-thirds of the seats in both chambers. In the 2022 election, the governor's party gained seats, and from 2023 on the opposing party no longer held two-thirds of either chamber.

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

(1) Second Amendment: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

(2) Third Amendment: "No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law."

(3) Seventh Amendment: "In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved …"

(4) Ninth Amendment: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

(5) Tenth Amendment: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Note: "Suits at common law" are civil lawsuits, such as disputes between people or businesses over money, property or contracts. They are not criminal cases.

(1) In 2025, the fictional Riverton County surveyed 1,500 randomly selected adults. It asked which civic activities each person had done in the past 12 months. Each adult could name more than one activity.

(2) The chart shows the results for all adults.

(3) The table shows results for two of the activities by age group.

(1) In 2016, the fictional state of Northfield adopted a rule requiring its coal- and gas-fired power plants to cut emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO₂), a pollutant linked to acid rain and breathing problems. Plants could meet the rule by installing pollution-control equipment or switching to cleaner fuels. The neighboring state of Easton, which has similar power plants, adopted no new rule.

(2) Supporters of Northfield's rule said it would protect public health. Opponents warned that it would raise electricity prices and cost jobs at power plants.

(3) The table shows data reported by the two states.

The legislature of the fictional state of Carver is debating Senate Bill 12. The bill would let parents who take their child out of public school receive about $7,000 a year from the state in an education savings account (ESA). Parents could spend the money on private school tuition, tutoring, therapy or approved learning materials. Below are statements from two fictional officials.

State Senator Dana Whitfield (supports the bill)

(1) Every child deserves a school that fits how they learn. Right now, a family's address largely decides where a child goes to school. Families with money can move to another neighborhood or pay private tuition. Families without money usually cannot.

(2) SB 12 would give more families a real choice. Parents know their children best. When schools must compete for students, I believe they will work harder to improve.

(3) The bill also requires families to keep receipts for every purchase, and it requires private schools that accept ESA money to give students a yearly standardized test, so taxpayers can see the results.

Marcus Hale, County School Board Member (opposes the bill)

(4) I agree that every child deserves a school that fits how they learn, and I agree that taxpayers should be able to see how public money is spent. But SB 12 is the wrong way to get there.

(5) Public schools have costs that do not shrink when a few students leave — buildings, buses, heating. If funding leaves with each student, the students who remain could face larger classes and fewer programs. In rural areas, there may be no private school nearby to choose.

(6) Public schools must accept every student and follow state rules on testing and special education. Private schools that take ESA money would not have to follow all of those same rules. Tax money should come with the same accountability wherever it goes.

The Constitution gives both Congress and the President a part in making national policy.

(1) Article II, Section 3 (the President): "He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient;"

(2) Article I, Section 7: "Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated," …

(3) Article I, Section 7 (continued): "If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law."

(4) Sixteenth Amendment (1913): "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration."

Policy experts often describe five stages of policy-making: agenda setting (a problem gets officials' attention), formulation (options are developed and studied), adoption (officials choose and approve a policy), implementation (the policy is put into action) and evaluation (results are measured and judged).

(1) For years, every household in the fictional city of Harlow paid the same trash fee — $20 a month — no matter how much it threw away. In 2017, the operators of the city landfill warned that it would be full within 12 years. A news series and several crowded neighborhood meetings made landfill space a top issue for the city council.

(2) A council committee studied three options: building a new landfill, trucking trash to another county, or a pay-as-you-throw system, in which households pay by the size of their trash cart and recycling is collected for free. City staff estimated the cost of each option, and the committee held two public hearings.

(3) In June 2019, the council voted 6–1 to adopt pay-as-you-throw starting in January 2020. The monthly fee became $14 for a small cart, $20 for a medium cart and $30 for a large cart. Low-income households could apply for a 50% discount. The one member who voted no worried that some residents would dump trash illegally to avoid the fee.

(4) During the second half of 2019, the city mailed guides to every home, delivered new carts and trained collection crews. Starting in January 2020, inspectors began issuing warnings and fines for illegal dumping.

(5) In 2024, city staff reported the results shown in the graph. Staff also reported that reports of illegal dumping rose from 85 in 2019 to 120 in 2020, then fell to 90 by 2023. The landfill's expected life grew by about five years.

Policy experts often describe five stages of policy-making: agenda setting (a problem gets officials' attention), formulation (options are developed and studied), adoption (officials choose and approve a policy), implementation (the policy is put into action) and evaluation (results are measured and judged).

(1) For years, every household in the fictional city of Harlow paid the same trash fee — $20 a month — no matter how much it threw away. In 2017, the operators of the city landfill warned that it would be full within 12 years. A news series and several crowded neighborhood meetings made landfill space a top issue for the city council.

(2) A council committee studied three options: building a new landfill, trucking trash to another county, or a pay-as-you-throw system, in which households pay by the size of their trash cart and recycling is collected for free. City staff estimated the cost of each option, and the committee held two public hearings.

(3) In June 2019, the council voted 6–1 to adopt pay-as-you-throw starting in January 2020. The monthly fee became $14 for a small cart, $20 for a medium cart and $30 for a large cart. Low-income households could apply for a 50% discount. The one member who voted no worried that some residents would dump trash illegally to avoid the fee.

(4) During the second half of 2019, the city mailed guides to every home, delivered new carts and trained collection crews. Starting in January 2020, inspectors began issuing warnings and fines for illegal dumping.

(5) In 2024, city staff reported the results shown in the graph. Staff also reported that reports of illegal dumping rose from 85 in 2019 to 120 in 2020, then fell to 90 by 2023. The landfill's expected life grew by about five years.

(1) Veloria is a fictional country used for practice. It fought a war from Year 1 to Year 5. The government paid for the war partly by borrowing and partly by creating new money. Factories that made cars and refrigerators were ordered to make military trucks and aircraft instead.

(2) At the start of Year 3, the government set price ceilings—legal maximum prices—on food, fuel and clothing, and it issued ration coupons. Soon, some sellers began trading scarce goods illegally above the legal prices, on what was called the black market. The controls were removed at the start of Year 6, after the war ended, when families rushed to buy goods they had gone without.

(1) For centuries, most European scholars learned about nature by studying ancient authorities such as the Greek philosopher Aristotle and the astronomer Ptolemy, who taught that the sun and planets circle the Earth. Between about 1540 and 1700, a group of thinkers began to test ideas by careful observation, measurement and experiment. Historians call this change the Scientific Revolution.

(2) In 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus published a book arguing that the Earth and other planets move around the sun. In 1609 and 1610 Galileo Galilei turned a telescope to the sky and saw moons circling Jupiter—proof that not everything circles the Earth. Church leaders put Galileo on trial in 1633 for supporting Copernicus. In England, the Royal Society, founded in 1660, took as its motto Nullius in verba—"take nobody's word for it." In 1687 Isaac Newton published the Principia, which explained motion and gravity with mathematical laws.

(3) In the Principia, Newton listed rules for reasoning. Two of them read (in Andrew Motte's English translation of 1729):

Rule I. We are to admit no more causes of natural things, than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.

Rule IV. In experimental philosophy we are to look upon propositions collected by general induction from phenomena as accurately or very nearly true, notwithstanding any contrary hypotheses that may be imagined, till such time as other phenomena occur, by which they may either be made more accurate, or liable to exceptions.

("Experimental philosophy" = science; "propositions" = conclusions; "phenomena" = things that are observed.)

(4) The new habits of measuring and testing spread beyond astronomy. James Watt was an instrument maker at the University of Glasgow when, in the 1760s, he repaired a model of an older steam engine. By measuring how much fuel and steam it wasted, he designed a separate condenser that made steam engines far more efficient. He patented it in 1769. Better steam engines soon powered mines, mills and, later, railroads—helping to launch the Industrial Revolution.

For more than a thousand years, merchants carried silk, spices, horses, paper, and ideas along a network of trade routes later called the Silk Road. The map shows one main route and six cities along it, placed on a latitude and longitude grid.

(1) About one-quarter of the Netherlands lies below sea level. For centuries, the Dutch have fought to keep the sea and the rivers off their land.

(2) Starting in the Middle Ages, people built dikes, or earthen walls, along the coast and rivers. Then they used windmills, and later electric pumps, to drain the water from lakes and marshes behind the dikes. The new dry land, called a polder, has rich soil, and farmers use it to grow crops and graze dairy cows. The pumps must keep running, because water keeps seeping back in.

(3) Draining the land had a side effect. As the soggy soil dried out, it shrank, and the land sank even lower. Today some polders lie several feet below the level of the sea beside them.

(4) In 1953, a powerful storm pushed the North Sea over the dikes. More than 1,800 people died. In response, the government built the Delta Works, a system of dams, barriers, and storm gates that can be closed when a storm surge threatens.

(5) Scientists expect sea levels to keep rising, and engineers continue to raise and strengthen the dikes. The Dutch have also begun to live with water instead of only fighting it. Under a program called Room for the River, some dikes were moved back so that rivers could spread out safely during floods. In some cities, families live in floating houses that rise and fall with the water.

Port Halden is a fictional city with one of the busiest container ports in its region. Since 2000, the port and the shipyards around it have hired thousands of dock workers, crane operators, and welders. The population pyramid shows the city's population in 2020.

Source 1 — Background

(1) In the early 1800s, Britain and France were at war. Each tried to stop the United States from trading with the other. The British navy also stopped American ships at sea and forced thousands of sailors into British service, a practice called impressment.

(2) President Thomas Jefferson answered with the Embargo Act of 1807, which banned American ships from sailing to foreign ports. The embargo hurt American merchants, sailors, and farmers far more than it hurt Britain or France. Shipping states in New England suffered most. Congress repealed the embargo in 1809.

(3) Americans in the West also blamed Britain for supplying weapons to Native nations that resisted settlement. Members of Congress called "War Hawks," many from the South and West, pushed for war, and some hoped to conquer British Canada. In June 1812, at President James Madison's request, Congress declared war on Britain.

(4) The war went badly for the United States at first. In August 1814, British troops burned the Capitol and the White House in Washington, D.C. In December 1814, the two sides signed the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war and left the borders as they had been before. News crossed the ocean slowly, and in January 1815 General Andrew Jackson's army defeated a British attack at New Orleans, weeks after the treaty had been signed.

(5) The war changed no borders, but many Americans felt proud that the young nation had stood up to Britain. The Federalist Party, which had opposed the war, lost much of its support and soon faded.

Source 2 — A letter from a fictional Boston ship owner, 1808 (written for this app)

(6) My three ships have sat at the wharf since the winter. The sailors I once paid have gone, some to the fishing boats and some to the poorhouse. Mr. Jefferson says he is protecting us from the British, yet no British captain has cost me as much as my own government has this year.

(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.

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.