Quiz for Sources for America’s History, Chapter 31

Question

1. As indicated in Document 31-1, the protests against the 1999 meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle, Washington, demonstrated that the American political environment was in the midst of a transformation caused by

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is b. The protests at the 1999 meeting of the WTO in Seattle indicated that new political issues were becoming centrally important in the United States and in the world, and that political protest movements were organizing in new and different ways. Economic globalization was the source of the new issues that were emerging, and the Internet was a new tool that political activists were using to disseminate their messages and mobilize their protests.
Incorrect. The answer is b. The protests at the 1999 meeting of the WTO in Seattle indicated that new political issues were becoming centrally important in the United States and in the world, and that political protest movements were organizing in new and different ways. Economic globalization was the source of the new issues that were emerging, and the Internet was a new tool that political activists were using to disseminate their messages and mobilize their protests.

Question

2. The text of California Proposition 187 and the amendments that were proposed in 1994 (Document 31-2) suggested that California lawmakers’ and voters’ anxieties and concerns about illegal immigration stemmed primarily from which of the following sources?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is d. California Proposition 187 reflected California lawmakers’ and voters’ concerns about the state’s economic stability. The law sought to limit illegal immigration in order to minimize competition for jobs and to limit the number of people who were taxing the state’s public resources.
Incorrect. The answer is d. California Proposition 187 reflected California lawmakers’ and voters’ concerns about the state’s economic stability. The law sought to limit illegal immigration in order to minimize competition for jobs and to limit the number of people who were taxing the state’s public resources.

Question

3. What was the cartoonist David Horsey suggesting in his 1996 cartoon “Character” (Document 31-3) about the state of American society at the end of the twentieth century?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is b. Horsey’s cartoon intended to illustrate that Americans’ notions about morality were in flux. He portrays the extent to which ideas about marriage, family, and sexuality were liberalizing and how the shift in these ideas influenced Americans’ views about their political leaders.
Incorrect. The answer is b. Horsey’s cartoon intended to illustrate that Americans’ notions about morality were in flux. He portrays the extent to which ideas about marriage, family, and sexuality were liberalizing and how the shift in these ideas influenced Americans’ views about their political leaders.

Question

4. In her commencement speech at the Harvard School of Government in 1994 (Document 31-4), Secretary of State Madeleine Albright offered her assessment of the foreign policy challenges the United States was facing in the first decade after the end of the Cold War. According to Albright, Americans’ chief international concern in the twenty-first century would be to

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is c. Although Albright outlined her ideas about which regions of the world might pose the most serious threats to American interests, she did not specify one particular threat that she found most pressing, nor did she advocate one foreign policy approach over another. Rather, her speech made the case for a flexible and context-specific approach to foreign policy in which the United States had a responsibility “to be pathfinders; not to be imprisoned by history but to shape it; to build a world not without conflict but in which conflict is effectively contained; a world, not without repression but in which the sway of freedom is enlarged; a world not without lawless behavior but in which the law-abiding are progressively more secure.”
Incorrect. The answer is c. Although Albright outlined her ideas about which regions of the world might pose the most serious threats to American interests, she did not specify one particular threat that she found most pressing, nor did she advocate one foreign policy approach over another. Rather, her speech made the case for a flexible and context-specific approach to foreign policy in which the United States had a responsibility “to be pathfinders; not to be imprisoned by history but to shape it; to build a world not without conflict but in which conflict is effectively contained; a world, not without repression but in which the sway of freedom is enlarged; a world not without lawless behavior but in which the law-abiding are progressively more secure.”

Question

5. In his television speech to the American people after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001 (Document 31-5), George W. Bush alleged that Al Qaeda’s actions were motivated primarily by what?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is a. According to Bush’s 2001 speech, Al Qaeda’s motivations were religious. Bush argued that the group’s goal was to wage a holy war on the West and impose its radical beliefs on the rest of the world.
Incorrect. The answer is a. According to Bush’s 2001 speech, Al Qaeda’s motivations were religious. Bush argued that the group’s goal was to wage a holy war on the West and impose its radical beliefs on the rest of the world.

Question

6. In his 2008 speech, “A More Perfect Union” (Document 31-6), Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama responded to public outcry over his relationship with his former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who had expressed controversial criticisms of the United States from his pulpit. Obama’s speech successfully defused the situation by

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is d. Obama defused the controversy over his association with Wright by putting the man and his views into a larger historical context. He explained how Wright had come of age in the racist 1950s and 1960s “when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted,” and emphasized that “For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years.”
Incorrect. The answer is d. Obama defused the controversy over his association with Wright by putting the man and his views into a larger historical context. He explained how Wright had come of age in the racist 1950s and 1960s “when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted,” and emphasized that “For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years.”