In 1680, Pueblo communities in New Mexico revolted and drove Spanish colonists out of the region for about twelve years. Which grievance was most central to the uprising?

Spanish friars' suppression of Pueblo religious ceremonies

English traders' sale of firearms to rival Apache raiding bands

Mexico's secularization of the Franciscan mission lands

French efforts to pull the Pueblos into the fur trade

“196. If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out. … 198. If he put out the eye of a freed man, or break the bone of a freed man, he shall pay one gold mina. 199. If he put out the eye of a man's slave … he shall pay one-half of its value.” — Code of Hammurabi, c. 1754 BCE (L. W. King translation) Read together, these provisions best support which conclusion about Babylonian society?

Penalties depended on the social rank of the injured person

Judges could set penalties freely without written guidance

Retaliation in kind was applied equally to every class of victim

Slaves were protected by the same laws as free citizens

“Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.” — Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 1651 Based on the reasoning in the excerpt, the author would most likely conclude that people should

give up their natural liberty to a sovereign strong enough to keep peace

divide government power among branches so that each checks the others

abolish the state once class divisions have finally disappeared

keep a right to overthrow any ruler who fails to protect their property

A ship's navigator wants a map on which a route of constant compass bearing plots as a straight line. Which projection meets this need, and what is its chief distortion?

Mercator, which greatly enlarges landmasses at high latitudes

Robinson, which keeps true shapes but shrinks the tropics

Albers conic, which keeps true bearings but splits the oceans

Gall-Peters, which keeps true angles but stretches the poles

A paper mill discharges waste into a river. Towns and fisheries downstream pay to clean the water and lose catch, but these costs do not appear in the mill's production costs or in the price of paper. Which statement best describes the market outcome and an efficient policy response?

Output is too high; a per-unit tax equal to the external cost would reduce it

Output is efficient, because the paper's price already covers all its costs

Output is too low; a per-unit subsidy equal to the external cost would raise it

Output is too high; a per-unit subsidy to paper buyers would reduce it

“Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighbouring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favours the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy.” — Pericles' Funeral Oration, in Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War (Richard Crawley translation) Which fact most significantly qualifies Pericles' claim that Athens favored 'the many'?

Women, slaves, and resident foreigners were excluded from citizenship

Most Athenian officials held office by hereditary succession

Ordinary citizens were forbidden from serving on the large popular juries

Athens had no popular assembly, so elders made all decisions

“The great and chief end, therefore, of men's uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property.” — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 1690 Elsewhere in the same work, the author uses this premise to argue that

a government that invades the people's lives, liberties, and estates may be resisted

subjects must obey a sovereign who seizes their goods, since anarchy is far worse

private property breeds inequality and must yield to the general will of all

private property should be abolished because it lets one class exploit another

Which data set is best suited to display as a choropleth map?

The percentage of adults with a college degree, by county

The total number of hospitals located in each county

The exact location of every individual farm in the region

The average January temperature recorded across the region

Four airlines operate about 80 percent of the flights between a group of large cities. Airport gate space is scarce, so new carriers find it hard to enter. When one airline lowers fares, the others typically match the cut within hours. Which feature of this market structure best explains why each airline hesitates to cut fares?

Each firm's best strategy depends on how its few rivals respond

Each firm faces no close substitutes and sets its fare alone

Each firm is a price taker that must accept the market fare

Each firm's service is so distinctive that price barely matters

Praxis Social Studies Content Knowledge (5081)

Free Praxis Social Stud 5081 Practice Questions

10 sample questions for the Praxis Social Studies Content Knowledge (5081), 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: United States History, World History, Government/Civics/Political Science, Geography, Economics, Behavioral Sciences.

Question 1 · United States History
In 1680, Pueblo communities in New Mexico revolted and drove Spanish colonists out of the region for about twelve years. Which grievance was most central to the uprising?
- A.Spanish friars' suppression of Pueblo religious ceremonies
- B.English traders' sale of firearms to rival Apache raiding bands
- C.Mexico's secularization of the Franciscan mission lands
- D.French efforts to pull the Pueblos into the fur trade
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Spanish friars' suppression of Pueblo religious ceremonies
Popé and other leaders rose against Franciscan campaigns to destroy kivas and ceremonial objects and punish native religious leaders, along with forced labor and tribute demands. Mexico's mission secularization came in the 1830s, more than 150 years later, and neither English nor French traders were a major presence in New Mexico in 1680.
Question 2 · World History
“196. If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out. … 198. If he put out the eye of a freed man, or break the bone of a freed man, he shall pay one gold mina. 199. If he put out the eye of a man's slave … he shall pay one-half of its value.” — Code of Hammurabi, c. 1754 BCE (L. W. King translation)
Read together, these provisions best support which conclusion about Babylonian society?
- A.Penalties depended on the social rank of the injured person
- B.Judges could set penalties freely without written guidance
- C.Retaliation in kind was applied equally to every class of victim
- D.Slaves were protected by the same laws as free citizens
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Penalties depended on the social rank of the injured person
Putting out a free man's eye brought equal retaliation, but injuring a freed man or a slave brought only a fine, so punishment varied with the victim's status. The 'eye for an eye' phrase tempts students to see equal retaliation for all, but the code applied it only between equals. Because the penalties are written down in fixed terms, judges did not set them freely.
Question 3 · Government/Civics/Political Science
“Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.” — Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 1651
Based on the reasoning in the excerpt, the author would most likely conclude that people should
- A.divide government power among branches so that each checks the others
- B.give up their natural liberty to a sovereign strong enough to keep peace
- C.abolish the state once class divisions have finally disappeared
- D.keep a right to overthrow any ruler who fails to protect their property
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. give up their natural liberty to a sovereign strong enough to keep peace
Hobbes argues that without a common power life is a war of all against all, so rational people trade their natural liberty for the protection of an absolute sovereign. A right of revolution against a ruler who fails to protect property is Locke's position, which Hobbes rejected; separation of powers is Montesquieu's remedy, and the withering away of the state is Marx's.
Question 4 · Geography
A ship's navigator wants a map on which a route of constant compass bearing plots as a straight line. Which projection meets this need, and what is its chief distortion?
- A.Robinson, which keeps true shapes but shrinks the tropics
- B.Mercator, which greatly enlarges landmasses at high latitudes
- C.Albers conic, which keeps true bearings but splits the oceans
- D.Gall-Peters, which keeps true angles but stretches the poles
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Mercator, which greatly enlarges landmasses at high latitudes
The Mercator projection is conformal, so rhumb lines (constant compass bearings) are straight, which made it the standard navigation chart. The price is severe area exaggeration toward the poles, which is why Greenland looks as large as Africa. Robinson is a compromise projection that preserves neither shape nor area exactly, and Gall-Peters is equal-area, so it distorts shapes rather than preserving angles.
Question 5 · Economics
A paper mill discharges waste into a river. Towns and fisheries downstream pay to clean the water and lose catch, but these costs do not appear in the mill's production costs or in the price of paper.
Which statement best describes the market outcome and an efficient policy response?
- A.Output is efficient, because the paper's price already covers all its costs
- B.Output is too high; a per-unit tax equal to the external cost would reduce it
- C.Output is too low; a per-unit subsidy equal to the external cost would raise it
- D.Output is too high; a per-unit subsidy to paper buyers would reduce it
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Output is too high; a per-unit tax equal to the external cost would reduce it
The mill's pollution imposes costs on downstream users that the mill does not pay, a negative externality, so the market price understates the true social cost and too much paper is produced. A per-unit (Pigouvian) tax equal to the marginal external cost makes the mill internalize that cost and moves output toward the efficient level. A subsidy would raise output further; subsidies fit positive externalities, not negative ones.
Question 6 · United States History
Archaeologists near where the Missouri River meets the Mississippi find a huge earthen platform mound once topped by an elite building, large plazas, evidence of intensive maize farming, and goods traded from the Gulf Coast and Great Lakes, dated to roughly 1050–1250.
The site is most likely associated with which culture?
- A.Hopewell
- B.Clovis
- C.Ancestral Puebloan
- D.Mississippian
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. Mississippian
The site described matches Cahokia, the largest Mississippian center, known for platform mounds topped by elite buildings, plazas and maize-based farming. The Hopewell also built mounds and traded widely, but earlier (about 100 BCE–500 CE) and mainly as burial and ceremonial earthworks without a maize-based city; Ancestral Puebloans lived in the Southwest, and Clovis refers to Ice Age hunters.
Question 7 · World History
“Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighbouring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favours the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy.” — Pericles' Funeral Oration, in Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War (Richard Crawley translation)
Which fact most significantly qualifies Pericles' claim that Athens favored 'the many'?
- A.Most Athenian officials held office by hereditary succession
- B.Women, slaves, and resident foreigners were excluded from citizenship
- C.Ordinary citizens were forbidden from serving on the large popular juries
- D.Athens had no popular assembly, so elders made all decisions
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Women, slaves, and resident foreigners were excluded from citizenship
Athenian democracy was direct but limited: only adult male citizens could vote, leaving out women, enslaved people, and metics, likely a majority of residents. The other options are false: many offices were filled by lot or election, the Assembly was open to all citizens, and citizens served on large juries, which were central to the system.
Question 8 · Government/Civics/Political Science
“The great and chief end, therefore, of men's uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property.” — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 1690
Elsewhere in the same work, the author uses this premise to argue that
- A.subjects must obey a sovereign who seizes their goods, since anarchy is far worse
- B.private property breeds inequality and must yield to the general will of all
- C.a government that invades the people's lives, liberties, and estates may be resisted
- D.private property should be abolished because it lets one class exploit another
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. a government that invades the people's lives, liberties, and estates may be resisted
Locke uses 'property' broadly to mean lives, liberties and estates; because government exists to preserve them, a government that systematically invades them dissolves itself and may be resisted, an argument echoed in the Declaration of Independence. Unconditional obedience to protect against anarchy is Hobbes's view, the general will is Rousseau's, and abolition of property is Marx's.
Question 9 · Geography
Which data set is best suited to display as a choropleth map?
- A.The percentage of adults with a college degree, by county
- B.The total number of hospitals located in each county
- C.The exact location of every individual farm in the region
- D.The average January temperature recorded across the region
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. The percentage of adults with a college degree, by county
Choropleth maps shade enumeration units (counties, states) and work best with standardized data such as rates or percentages. Raw totals like hospital counts mislead on choropleths because larger units tend to have more of everything; proportional symbols suit them better. Continuous fields like temperature call for isolines, and individual point locations call for a dot map.
Question 10 · Economics
Four airlines operate about 80 percent of the flights between a group of large cities. Airport gate space is scarce, so new carriers find it hard to enter. When one airline lowers fares, the others typically match the cut within hours.
Which feature of this market structure best explains why each airline hesitates to cut fares?
- A.Each firm faces no close substitutes and sets its fare alone
- B.Each firm's best strategy depends on how its few rivals respond
- C.Each firm is a price taker that must accept the market fare
- D.Each firm's service is so distinctive that price barely matters
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Each firm's best strategy depends on how its few rivals respond
A few dominant firms, high entry barriers and rapid matching of fare cuts mark an oligopoly, whose defining feature is mutual interdependence: a fare cut is likely to be matched and could start a price war that leaves everyone worse off. Price takers exist only in perfect competition, and a firm with no close substitutes is a monopoly, so neither fits a market with several rivals.

Keep practicing for the Praxis Social Stud 5081

TTP Prep has 200 Praxis Social Stud 5081 practice questions with explanations, timed and mock-exam modes, 69 flashcards, interactive lessons, a printable cheat sheet and a readiness score. Start free, no card needed.

Take a free Quick 10 See everything in the Praxis Social Stud 5081 prep