AP Government Ch 5 and 6 Test
Name___________________________________
MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.
1) Which of the following statements is FALSE?
A) Liberals tend to support affirmative action; conservatives tend to oppose it.
B) Liberals are more likely to favor military intervention around the globe; conservatives are
less willing to commit troops to action.
C) Liberals seek to tax the rich more; conservatives seek to maintain the free market and tax
the rich less.
D) Liberals generally think we should spend less on military spending; conservatives are
more likely to support maintaining higher levels of military strength.
E) Liberals generally believe that we can solve the problems that cause crime; conservatives
believe that we should stop "coddling" criminals.
1)
2) Public opinion is defined in the text as
A) opinions solicited from a random sample of the public.
B) beliefs about government held by a majority of people.
C) opinions that are expressible in public, as opposed to the more truthful private opinions
that most individuals are reluctant to state publicly.
D) widely held beliefs about the public's role in politics and policy.
E) the distribution of the population's beliefs about politics and policy.
2)
3) Demography refers to
A) the science of population changes.
B) Constitutional rules governing reapportionment of Congress.
C) the science of democracy.
D) the science of public opinion.
E) the U.S. census planning process.
3)
4) African Americans comprise what proportion of the American population, approximately?
A) 20 percent
B) 30 percent
C) 25 percent
D) 5 percent
E) 12 percent
4)
5) A political ideology is
A) a relatively small proportion of people who are chosen as representative of the whole.
B) the distribution of the population's beliefs about politics and policy issues.
C) the process through which an individual acquires his or her political skills.
D) a coherent set of values and beliefs about public policy.
E) the set of courses that a political science student must complete to attain a degree.
5)
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6) In Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), Chief Justice Taney declared that
A) slavery is inherently unconstitutional.
B) the importation of slaves into the United States was illegal, but slavery itself was not.
C) slavery can be practiced in the so-called free states.
D) a slave who had escaped to a free state became a free man.
E) Congress had no authority to ban slavery.
6)
7) Which of the following was a method used to discourage or prevent Blacks from voting?
A) Literacy tests
B) Poll taxes
C) White primaries
D) All of the above
E) None of the above
7)
8) Reapportionment occurs after every census to reallocate seats in
A) the House of Representatives.
B) the president's cabinet.
C) the Senate.
D) the Supreme Court.
E) both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
8)
9) The term "minority-majority" is used to signify
A) African Americans' underrepresentation in elective office.
B) unconstitutionally gerrymandered congressional districts.
C) the fact that the U.S. is moving toward a situation in which minority groups will out
number Caucasians and Whites of European descent.
D) increasing numbers of minorities being elected to office.
E) the melting pot character of the U.S.
9)
10) Conservatives would tend to favor each of the following EXCEPT
A) free-market solutions.
B) low taxes.
C) the right to life.
D) increased military spending.
E) affirmative action.
10)
11) Which of the following is TRUE about most liberals in American politics?
A) They believe we should guard carefully the rights of defendants in criminal cases.
B) They oppose abortion.
C) They are supportive of prayer in public schools.
D) They favor keeping taxes and government spending low.
E) None of the above
11)
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12) The case of Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenberg County Schools (1971)
A) gave state legislatures the power to determine school desegregation procedures in each
state.
B) permitted judges to achieve racially balanced schools through busing.
C) prohibited busing for school integration.
D) ruled that schools could not limit the number of Black students enrolled in an effort to
minimize desegregation.
E) ruled that schools must set aside a federal judge-determined number of spots for Blacks
before they would be considered desegregated.
12)
13) The largest minority group in the United States is
A) Asian Americans.
B) Native Americans.
C) African Americans.
D) Hispanic Americans.
E) Japanese Americans.
13)
14) The Nineteenth Amendment
A) gave African Americans the constitutional right to vote.
B) gave women the constitutional right to vote.
C) outlawed the poll tax in federal elections.
D) ended slavery.
E) repealed Prohibition.
14)
15) In public opinion polling, a sample as small as about ________ people can faithfully represent
the "universe" of Americans.
A) 50,000
B) 5,000
C) 1,500
D) 20,000
E) 10,000
15)
16) Brown v. Board of Education
A) held that school segregation was inherently unconstitutional under the Fourteenth
Amendment.
B) set aside the Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson.
C) ended legal segregation.
D) All of the above
E) B and C only
16)
17) The Brown v. Board of Education decision overturned the Supreme Court's 1896 ruling in
A) Plessy v. Ferguson.
B) Dred Scott v. Sandford.
C) Marbury v. Madison.
D) Amos v. Alabama.
E) Craig v. Boren.
17)
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18) In the case of Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the Court
A) refused to allow the admission of Bakke to University of California-Davis.
B) ruled that nursing schools cannot discriminate against men in their admissions
procedures.
C) was united in its decision.
D) ruled that a public university could not set aside a quota of spots for particular groups.
E) ordered that University of California-Davis could not use race as a criterion for
admission.
18)
19) Hispanics comprise approximately what percent of the American population?
A) 28 percent
B) 18 percent
C) 13 percent
D) 5 percent
E) 23 percent
19)
20) The key to the accuracy of public opinion polls is
A) sampling error.
B) random sampling.
C) political ideology.
D) polygraphs.
E) the larger the size of the sample, the better.
20)
21) The grandfather clause was passed by Oklahoma and other southern states to
A) deny African Americans the right to vote.
B) guarantee the equal rights of senior citizens in employment.
C) distribute land to former slaves on the basis of how many generations they had served on
a particular plantation.
D) exclude Blacks from having the right to vote in primary elections, though they could vote
in general elections.
E) deny land to anyone whose grandfathers were not White.
21)
22) In the case of Plessy v. Ferguson,
A) the principle of "separate but equal" was overturned.
B) United States citizenship and all rights that go with it were granted to former slaves.
C) school busing was allowed to remedy racial segregation.
D) housing discrimination was forbidden.
E) the principle of "separate but equal" was used to justify segregation.
22)
23) In Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Supreme Court
A) enunciated the principle of separate but equal.
B) enunciated the principle of equal but separate.
C) ruled that the visible signs of education were substantially equal between Black schools
and White ones.
D) ordered the Topeka school district to spend more money on Black schools.
E) ruled that school segregation was inherently unequal.
23)
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24) The Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling was handed down by the Supreme Court
A) in 1896.
B) a few years after the Civil War.
C) in the 1950s.
D) during the Civil War.
E) a few years prior to the Civil War.
24)
25) De jure educational segregation occurs
A) by law.
B) from day-to-day depending on changing enrollments at a particular school.
C) by constitutional amendment.
D) by the reality of neighborhood schools located in areas that happen to be racially
segregated.
E) by forced school busing to integrate the races.
25)
26) Suffrage refers to
A) the legal segregation of the races or of men and women in hotels, motels, restaurants, and
other public places.
B) the practice of de facto slavery rather than de jure slavery.
C) the hardships endured to obtain civil rights for African Americans and equal rights for
women.
D) the legal right to vote.
E) the practice of shackling slaves working in fields so they could not run away.
26)
27) The most valuable method for understanding demographic changes in America is the
A) Internal Revenue Service statistical tax abstracts.
B) Statistical Abstract of the United States.
C) turnout in presidential elections.
D) public opinion poll.
E) census.
27)
28) Which amendment extended suffrage to African American men?
A) Nineteenth
B) Thirteenth
C) Fifteenth
D) Fourteenth
E) Sixteenth
28)
29) The procedure for conducting ________ includes randomly selected voting places around the
country and asking every tenth person how they voted.
A) reapportionment
B) a referendum
C) preventing voting fraud
D) an exit poll
E) absentee balloting
29)
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30) What are the three levels of scrutiny used by the Supreme Court to discover whether
discrimination is permissible?
A) Reasonable, inherently suspect, and the intermediate standard
B) Arguably discriminatory, reasonable analysis, and negligent
C) Suspect, inherently suspect, and the intermediate standard
D) Reasonable, inherently suspect, and grossly discriminatory
E) Negligent, arguably discriminatory, and reasonable
30)
31) The process through which an individual acquires his or her particular political orientations,
including his or her knowledge, feelings, and evaluations regarding his or her political world, is
known as
A) political ideology.
B) demography.
C) political socialization.
D) political indoctrination.
E) political orientation.
31)
32) The courts have recently ruled that, under the Fourteenth Amendment, racial and ethnic
classifications by states in regard to any matter
A) are not the proper business of the federal courts to consider, but are up to the states
individually.
B) are unconstitutional.
C) are inherently suspect.
D) are arbitrary, but usually reasonable.
E) are reasonable.
32)
33) Because it would be prohibitively expensive to ask every citizen his or her opinion on a whole
range of issues, polls rely on what is called a(n) ________ of the population.
A) extraction
B) demography
C) census
D) slice
E) sample
33)
34) Jim Crow laws were those that
A) the North enforced in the South in the Reconstruction era following the Civil War,
granting rights to former slaves.
B) established slavery and contract law regulating the slave trade.
C) sought to end segregation and bring the races into closer contact with one another.
D) were enacted by Southern Whites in the late nineteenth century to segregate African
Americans from Whites.
E) justified slavery and set codes for slaves' behavior.
34)
35) De facto educational segregation occurs
A) when segregated classrooms occur within an integrated school.
B) by the reality of neighborhood schools located in areas that happen to be racially
segregated.
C) by forced school busing to separate the races.
D) by law.
E) by forced school busing to integrate the races.
35)
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TRUE/FALSE. Write 'T' if the statement is true and 'F' if the statement is false.
36) Most of our knowledge and opinions about politics is learned through formal, in-class learning.
36)
37) Political learning ends by the time a person reaches the age of 18.
37)
38) Aging increases political participation, as well as strength of party attachment.
38)
39) In the United States, a census is taken every five years.
39)
40) The larger the sample, the larger the sampling error.
40)
ESSAY. Write your answer in the space provided or on a separate sheet of paper.
41) Describe what is meant by "melting pot." What does "minority majority" mean and why is it likely to be
increasingly significant in American society? How will it change America? Do you think it will have any
effect on the quality of life in the United States? Explain.
42) What effect does the census have on representation in Congress? What states showed the greatest gains in
population in the last census? How are they rewarded? Is this a fair system? Explain the rationale behind it
and your opinion.
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Answer Key
Testname: AP GOV TEST 3 CH 5 AND 6
1) B
2) E
3) A
4) E
5) D
6) E
7) D
8) A
9) C
10) E
11) A
12) B
13) D
14) B
15) C
16) D
17) A
18) D
19) C
20) B
21) A
22) E
23) E
24) E
25) A
26) D
27) E
28) C
29) D
30) A
31) C
32) C
33) E
34) D
35) B
36) FALSE
37) FALSE
38) TRUE
39) FALSE
40) FALSE
41)
42)
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