Between roughly 1050 and 1350 CE, a city near where the Missouri and Illinois rivers join the Mississippi supported perhaps 10,000–20,000 people. Residents raised maize on the fertile bottomlands, traded for copper and marine shells from distant regions, and built more than 100 earthen mounds, the largest a flat-topped platform covering about 14 acres at its base. The settlement described was a center of which culture, and what geographic advantage BEST supported its growth?

Mississippian; river floodplains suited to maize farming and trade

Ancestral Puebloan; canyon cliffs that offered defense on an arid plateau

Hopewell; Great Lakes shorelines that supported year-round fishing camps

Haudenosaunee; forested uplands that supported hunting and the fur trade

In Korematsu v. United States (1944), the Supreme Court

upheld the exclusion of Japanese Americans from the West Coast as a wartime necessity

ruled that the internment of Japanese Americans violated Fifth Amendment due process

ordered Congress to compensate Japanese Americans who had lost homes and property

upheld military tribunals for trying Japanese American citizens accused of spying

Remaining state Electoral votes State W 20 State X 16 State Y 15 State Z 13 In a presidential election, Candidate A has won 241 electoral votes and Candidate B has won 233. Four states remain, as shown. Which result would send the election to the House of Representatives?

Candidate A wins States Y and Z; Candidate B wins States W and X.

Candidate A wins States W and Z; Candidate B wins States X and Y.

Candidate A wins State X only; Candidate B wins States W, Y, and Z.

Candidate A wins State W only; Candidate B wins States X, Y, and Z.

Five nations of the Northeast—the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca—formed a league governed by a Grand Council of chiefs, or sachems, who were selected by clan mothers. The council sought consensus on matters of war, peace, and diplomacy, while each nation continued to manage its own internal affairs. The political arrangement described is BEST characterized as

a confederacy balancing shared decisions with each nation's autonomy

an empire ruling conquered peoples through a system of tribute

a hereditary monarchy governed from a single capital city

a theocracy led by priests of an official state religion

The Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957 led most directly to which U.S. domestic response?

The National Defense Education Act, funding science and math education

The Federal-Aid Highway Act, funding an interstate road network

The Peace Corps Act, sending American volunteers to developing nations

The Economic Cooperation Act, funding the rebuilding of Western Europe

Both Qing China and Tokugawa Japan faced Western demands for open trade in the mid-1800s. Which statement BEST contrasts their situations by 1900?

Japan industrialized and built a modern army, while China lost wars and ceded rights

China adopted a Western-style constitution early, while Japan expelled all foreigners

Japan became a British colony after the Opium Wars, while China stayed closed to trade

Both rejected Western technology and relied on traditional armies to resist pressure

Under Joseph Stalin, the Soviet state set production targets through Five-Year Plans, collectivized agriculture, controlled all newspapers and radio, and demanded ideological conformity in art and schooling. These features BEST distinguish a totalitarian regime from a merely authoritarian one because—

the state seeks to control economic, social, and private life, not just political power

a single ruling party holds power and outlaws organized political opposition groups

the head of state gains office through hereditary succession rather than by election

the regime never holds elections of any kind for national or local public offices

Praxis Middle School Social Studies (5089)

Free Praxis Middle Scho 5089 Practice Questions

10 sample questions for the Praxis Middle School Social Studies (5089), with the correct answer and an explanation for each. No account needed. Try each one before you open the answer.

Sections covered on the exam: U.S. History, World History, Short Content Essays, Government/Civics, Geography, Economics.

Question 1 · U.S. History
Between roughly 1050 and 1350 CE, a city near where the Missouri and Illinois rivers join the Mississippi supported perhaps 10,000–20,000 people. Residents raised maize on the fertile bottomlands, traded for copper and marine shells from distant regions, and built more than 100 earthen mounds, the largest a flat-topped platform covering about 14 acres at its base.
The settlement described was a center of which culture, and what geographic advantage BEST supported its growth?
- A.Ancestral Puebloan; canyon cliffs that offered defense on an arid plateau
- B.Mississippian; river floodplains suited to maize farming and trade
- C.Hopewell; Great Lakes shorelines that supported year-round fishing camps
- D.Haudenosaunee; forested uplands that supported hunting and the fur trade
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Mississippian; river floodplains suited to maize farming and trade
The platform mounds, maize economy, and location near the Mississippi–Missouri–Illinois confluence identify Cahokia, the largest Mississippian center; fertile floodplains fed a dense population and rivers carried trade goods such as copper and shells. The Hopewell also built earthworks, but they flourished centuries earlier and did not build large maize-based platform-mound cities. Ancestral Puebloans lived in the arid Southwest, not the Mississippi Valley.
Question 2 · World History
In Korematsu v. United States (1944), the Supreme Court
- A.ruled that the internment of Japanese Americans violated Fifth Amendment due process
- B.ordered Congress to compensate Japanese Americans who had lost homes and property
- C.upheld military tribunals for trying Japanese American citizens accused of spying
- D.upheld the exclusion of Japanese Americans from the West Coast as a wartime necessity
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. upheld the exclusion of Japanese Americans from the West Coast as a wartime necessity
Following Executive Order 9066, the Court in Korematsu accepted the government's claim of military necessity and upheld the exclusion order, despite dissents calling it racial discrimination. Compensation came much later through the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, passed by Congress rather than ordered by the Court.
Question 3 · World History
Date Event
1946 Churchill warns of an "iron curtain" across Europe
1948–1949 Berlin Airlift supplies West Berlin
1950–1953 Korean War
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
Which event occurred between the end of the Berlin Airlift and the start of the Korean War?
- A.The Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite.
- B.Soviet troops crushed a popular uprising in Hungary.
- C.Mao Zedong's Communists won the Chinese Civil War.
- D.East Germany built the Berlin Wall.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Mao Zedong's Communists won the Chinese Civil War.
The Berlin Airlift ended in September 1949, Mao proclaimed the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949, and North Korea invaded South Korea in June 1950. The Hungarian uprising (1956), Sputnik (1957), and the Berlin Wall (1961) all came after the Korean War began.
Question 4 · Short Content Essays
Remaining state Electoral votes
State W 20
State X 16
State Y 15
State Z 13
In a presidential election, Candidate A has won 241 electoral votes and Candidate B has won 233. Four states remain, as shown. Which result would send the election to the House of Representatives?
- A.Candidate A wins States W and Z; Candidate B wins States X and Y.
- B.Candidate A wins State X only; Candidate B wins States W, Y, and Z.
- C.Candidate A wins State W only; Candidate B wins States X, Y, and Z.
- D.Candidate A wins States Y and Z; Candidate B wins States W and X.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. Candidate A wins States Y and Z; Candidate B wins States W and X.
There are 538 electors (241 + 233 + 20 + 16 + 15 + 13 = 538), so a majority is 270. If A wins Y and Z, A has 241 + 15 + 13 = 269 and B has 233 + 20 + 16 = 269, a tie, so under the Twelfth Amendment the House chooses the President with each state delegation casting one vote. A winning W and Z gives A 274; A winning only X gives B 233 + 48 = 281; A winning only W gives B 233 + 44 = 277.
Question 5 · Geography
A new clothing style appears first in New York, Paris, and Tokyo, then in regional centers such as Denver and Lyon, and only later in small towns, often skipping the rural areas between large cities. This spread is BEST classified as
- A.contagious diffusion
- B.relocation diffusion
- C.hierarchical diffusion
- D.stimulus diffusion
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. hierarchical diffusion
Hierarchical diffusion moves from the most connected or influential places down through a ranked set of smaller places, leapfrogging the areas in between. Contagious diffusion would spread outward continuously to adjacent areas, like a ripple, rather than skipping rural districts. Relocation diffusion requires people to carry the trait as they move, and stimulus diffusion involves adopting an underlying idea while changing the trait itself.
Question 6 · U.S. History
Five nations of the Northeast—the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca—formed a league governed by a Grand Council of chiefs, or sachems, who were selected by clan mothers. The council sought consensus on matters of war, peace, and diplomacy, while each nation continued to manage its own internal affairs.
The political arrangement described is BEST characterized as
- A.a confederacy balancing shared decisions with each nation's autonomy
- B.an empire ruling conquered peoples through a system of tribute
- C.a hereditary monarchy governed from a single capital city
- D.a theocracy led by priests of an official state religion
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. a confederacy balancing shared decisions with each nation's autonomy
The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) League joined independent nations under a Grand Council that decided common matters by consensus while each nation kept control of its internal affairs, the defining features of a confederacy. Unlike the Aztec Empire, the League did not rule subject peoples through tribute, and leadership was chosen through clan mothers rather than inherited by a single monarch.
Question 7 · World History
The Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957 led most directly to which U.S. domestic response?
- A.The Federal-Aid Highway Act, funding an interstate road network
- B.The National Defense Education Act, funding science and math education
- C.The Peace Corps Act, sending American volunteers to developing nations
- D.The Economic Cooperation Act, funding the rebuilding of Western Europe
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. The National Defense Education Act, funding science and math education
Fearing a technology gap, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act in 1958 to fund science, mathematics, and foreign-language education, and created NASA the same year. The Federal-Aid Highway Act passed in 1956, before Sputnik; the Economic Cooperation Act, which launched the Marshall Plan, dated from 1948; and the Peace Corps was created in 1961 to promote goodwill abroad rather than to answer a technological challenge.
Question 8 · World History
Both Qing China and Tokugawa Japan faced Western demands for open trade in the mid-1800s. Which statement BEST contrasts their situations by 1900?
- A.China adopted a Western-style constitution early, while Japan expelled all foreigners
- B.Japan industrialized and built a modern army, while China lost wars and ceded rights
- C.Japan became a British colony after the Opium Wars, while China stayed closed to trade
- D.Both rejected Western technology and relied on traditional armies to resist pressure
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Japan industrialized and built a modern army, while China lost wars and ceded rights
After the Meiji Restoration (1868) Japan adopted Western industry, a conscript army, and a constitution, and it defeated China in 1894–1895, whereas the Qing lost the Opium Wars and granted treaty ports, extraterritoriality, and Hong Kong. The Opium Wars were fought against China, not Japan, and Japan was never colonized.
Question 9 · Government/Civics
Under Joseph Stalin, the Soviet state set production targets through Five-Year Plans, collectivized agriculture, controlled all newspapers and radio, and demanded ideological conformity in art and schooling. These features BEST distinguish a totalitarian regime from a merely authoritarian one because—
- A.a single ruling party holds power and outlaws organized political opposition groups
- B.the state seeks to control economic, social, and private life, not just political power
- C.the head of state gains office through hereditary succession rather than by election
- D.the regime never holds elections of any kind for national or local public offices
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. the state seeks to control economic, social, and private life, not just political power
Authoritarian regimes also concentrate power and suppress opposition, so one-party rule alone does not distinguish totalitarianism; what sets Stalin's system apart is the attempt to direct the entire economy through central planning and to control culture, education, and private belief. Stalin did not inherit power, and the Soviet Union did hold elections, though they offered no real choice.
Question 10 · Geography
The Kurds, numbering in the tens of millions, share a language and a strong sense of common identity, yet live divided among Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria without a sovereign country of their own. The Kurds are BEST described as
- A.a nation-state
- B.a multinational state
- C.a microstate
- D.a stateless nation
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. a stateless nation
A nation is a people united by culture and identity, while a state is a sovereign political unit with defined territory; the Kurds are a nation that lacks a state of its own. A nation-state is a state whose territory closely matches one nation, such as Japan, and a multinational state contains several nations, as Turkey and Iraq do. The term microstate describes a very small sovereign country, so it cannot apply to a people without a state.

Date	Event
1946	Churchill warns of an "iron curtain" across Europe
1948–1949	Berlin Airlift supplies West Berlin
1950–1953	Korean War
1962	Cuban Missile Crisis

Remaining state	Electoral votes
State W	20
State X	16
State Y	15
State Z	13

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