Social Studies Mixed Practice Test 6

Excerpt 1: Massachusetts Constitution (1780), Part the First, Article XXX

(1) "In the government of this commonwealth, the legislative department shall never exercise the executive and judicial powers, or either of them: the executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them: the judicial shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them: to the end it may be a government of laws and not of men."

Excerpt 2: U.S. Constitution (1787), Article I

(2) 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."

(3) Section 8: "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises,…"

(4) Section 9: "The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it."

(5) Section 9: "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed."

Word help: commonwealth = state; to the end = so that; revenue = money the government collects; originate = start; concur = agree; duties, imposts, excises = kinds of taxes; writ of habeas corpus = a court order requiring officials to bring a jailed person before a judge and show a lawful reason for holding him or her; bill of attainder = a law that declares a person guilty and punishes him or her without a trial; ex post facto law = a law that punishes an act that was legal when it was done.

From the U.S. Constitution

(1) Article I, Section 8: "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises," … "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;" … "To establish Post Offices and post Roads;" …

(2) Article I, Section 8 (last clause): "To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof."

(3) Article I, Section 10: "No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit;" …

(4) Article VI: "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."

(5) Tenth Amendment (1791): "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."

Word help: commerce = trade; foregoing = listed before; letters of marque and reprisal = permits for private ships to attack enemy ships; emit bills of credit = issue paper money; in pursuance thereof = following from it; notwithstanding = in spite of; delegated = given.

From the U.S. Constitution

(1) Article I, Section 8: "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises," … "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;" … "To establish Post Offices and post Roads;" …

(2) Article I, Section 8 (last clause): "To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof."

(3) Article I, Section 10: "No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit;" …

(4) Article VI: "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."

(5) Tenth Amendment (1791): "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."

Word help: commerce = trade; foregoing = listed before; letters of marque and reprisal = permits for private ships to attack enemy ships; emit bills of credit = issue paper money; in pursuance thereof = following from it; notwithstanding = in spite of; delegated = given.

(1) The Supreme Court can overrule its own earlier decisions. Over the 1900s, the Court also ruled, one right at a time, that most protections in the Bill of Rights limit state governments as well as the federal government. It based these rulings on the Fourteenth Amendment, which says no state may deprive any person of liberty "without due process of law." The summaries below are written for this app.

(2) Betts v. Brady (1942) and Gideon v. Wainwright (1963). In Betts, the Court ruled that a state did not have to give a free lawyer to every poor person accused of a felony; a lawyer was required only in special circumstances. Twenty-one years later, Gideon overruled Betts. The Court held that a state must provide a lawyer to any person accused of a serious crime who cannot afford one.

(3) Wolf v. Colorado (1949) and Mapp v. Ohio (1961). In Wolf, the Court said the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches applies to the states, but it did not require state courts to throw out evidence that police had gathered illegally. Then, in 1957, police in Cleveland, Ohio, forced their way into Dollree Mapp's home without showing a valid search warrant and found materials that were later used to convict her. In Mapp, the Court ruled 6–3 that evidence gathered in an unconstitutional search may not be used in state courts. This is called the exclusionary rule. On this point, Mapp overruled Wolf.

(4) Engel v. Vitale (1962). New York state officials wrote a short prayer that did not favor any one religion, and some public schools had students recite it each morning. Students who did not wish to pray could stay silent or leave the room. The Court ruled 6–1 that the practice violated the First Amendment's ban on an "establishment of religion." Government officials may not write official prayers for students to recite in public schools, even when the prayer favors no religion and taking part is voluntary.

(5) New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985). A teacher found a 14-year-old student smoking in a school bathroom. An assistant vice principal searched her purse and found evidence that she had broken the law. The Court ruled 6–3 that the Fourth Amendment does apply to searches by public school officials, but that they do not need a warrant or probable cause. A school search is allowed if there are reasonable grounds to suspect it will turn up evidence that the student broke the law or a school rule, and if the search is not excessively intrusive.

(6) Texas v. Johnson (1989). During a protest outside the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, Gregory Lee Johnson burned an American flag. He was convicted under a Texas law against damaging a flag. The Court ruled 5–4 that burning a flag as a political protest is expression protected by the First Amendment. The government may not ban the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable.

The legislature of the fictional state of Delmar is considering House Bill 40. The bill would require every public school to keep students' cell phones stored away — for example, in lockers or locked pouches — for the entire school day, including lunch. Schools would have to allow exceptions for students with medical needs, and parents could still reach their children through the school office. Below are statements from two fictional people.

State Representative Joanna Pike (supports HB 40)

(1) Teachers in my district tell me the same story: phones pull students' attention away from lessons many times a day. Rules that change from classroom to classroom are hard to enforce, so one clear statewide rule is fairer to teachers and students alike.

(2) Several schools in our state that already store phones all day report fewer fights recorded on video and more conversation at lunch. Students deserve a full school day to focus on learning and on each other.

(3) HB 40 keeps the school office as a reliable way for families to reach students, and it lets a doctor's note override the rule for students who need their devices for health reasons.

Lionel Grant, President of the Delmar Parents' Council (opposes HB 40 as written)

(4) I share Representative Pike's concern about distraction. Phones should not be out during lessons, and many of our members support stronger classroom rules.

(5) But a single rule for every school ignores real differences. A high school senior who drives to an after-school job is not a second grader. Local school boards, which answer to local voters, are better placed to set rules that fit their own students.

(6) Buying lockable pouches and storage for every student costs money, and HB 40 provides no state funding, so districts would have to cut something else to pay for it. Parents also worry about reaching their children quickly during an emergency.

Source 1 — President Theodore Roosevelt, speech to a conference of state governors at the White House, 1908

We have become great in a material sense because of the lavish use of our resources, and we have just reason to be proud of our growth. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted, when the soils shall have been still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields, and obstructing navigation.

Source 2 — A modern summary written for this lesson

(1) In the early 1900s, high wheat prices and new tractors encouraged farmers to plow millions of acres of grassland on the southern Great Plains. For thousands of years, deep-rooted prairie grasses had held the soil in place, even during dry spells.

(2) In the 1930s, a severe drought struck. With the grass gone, nothing held down the dry, loose topsoil. Strong winds lifted it into enormous dust storms. On April 14, 1935 — "Black Sunday" — a wall of dust rolled across the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles and turned day into night. The worst-hit area became known as the Dust Bowl.

(3) Crops failed, and many farm families lost their land. Hundreds of thousands of people left the Plains, and many headed west to California in search of work.

(4) The federal government responded. In 1935, Congress created the Soil Conservation Service to teach farmers methods such as contour plowing, crop rotation, and planting rows of trees as windbreaks. Over time, these practices helped hold the soil in place.

In the 1840s the United States set two of its longest borders by treaty. The Oregon Treaty (1846) divided the Oregon Country with Great Britain, which then ruled Canada. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) ended the Mexican–American War. (A league is an old unit of distance, about three miles.)

Source 1 — From the Oregon Treaty, Article I (1846)

From the point on the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, where the boundary laid down in existing treaties and conventions between the United States and Great Britain terminates, the line of boundary between the territories of the United States and those of her Britannic Majesty shall be continued westward along the said forty-ninth parallel of north latitude to the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island…

Source 2 — From the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Article V (1848)

The boundary line between the two Republics shall commence in the Gulf of Mexico, three leagues from land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande, otherwise called Rio Bravo del Norte, … from thence up the middle of that river, following the deepest channel, where it has more than one, to the point where it strikes the southern boundary of New Mexico…

Talmora is a fictional country. The two population pyramids show Talmora's population in 1990 and in 2020. Each bar shows how many males or females were in a 10-year age group. The youngest group is at the bottom.

The two views below were written for this app by fictional historians. They describe a real debate among historians.

Historian A (Dr. Ruth Calder, fictional)

(1) On August 6, 1945, a U.S. bomber dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and a second bomb destroyed Nagasaki on August 9. Japan announced its surrender on August 15. American planners expected an invasion of Japan's home islands, planned for November 1945, to be extremely costly; the battle for Okinawa that spring had killed more than 12,000 Americans. In my judgment, President Truman made the only reasonable choice: the bombs ended the war quickly and saved lives on both sides.

Historian B (Dr. Samuel Ortega, fictional)

(2) The two bombs killed well over 100,000 people, most of them civilians. Japan was already badly weakened: U.S. firebombing had burned many of its cities, and a naval blockade was cutting off food and fuel. On August 8, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, and it invaded Manchuria the next day. I believe Japan's leaders might have surrendered without the bombs, especially if the United States had promised that Japan could keep its emperor.

(1) When Barack Obama became president in January 2009, the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan was growing stronger. In a speech at West Point on December 1, 2009, Obama said: "When I took office, we had just over 32,000 Americans serving in Afghanistan, compared to 160,000 in Iraq at the peak of the war." He announced that he had "determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan." He added: "After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home."

(2) In June 2011, Obama announced that 10,000 troops would leave Afghanistan by the end of that year. On May 27, 2014, he said U.S. forces had been reduced "from a peak of 100,000 U.S. troops, to roughly 32,000 today," and that about 9,800 would remain at the beginning of 2015 to train Afghan forces and support counterterrorism operations. This gradual reduction of forces is called a drawdown.

(3) In 2016, Obama decided to keep about 8,400 troops in Afghanistan into 2017. In February 2020, the United States signed an agreement with the Taliban that set a timeline for withdrawing all U.S. forces. The last U.S. troops left Afghanistan on August 30, 2021.