TExES Social Studies 7-12 (232)

1. Question 1 · World History

   A traveler's description, paraphrased: South of the cataracts of the Nile lies a kingdom whose rulers once marched north and sat on the throne of Egypt as pharaohs. Driven back by Assyrian armies, they moved their royal city far upriver. There the furnaces never cool, and hills of black slag surround the town, for the people smelt iron for tools and weapons. Their kings are buried beneath small, steep pyramids, and their scribes now write in a script of their own.

   The description best fits which civilization?
   • A.The Nok culture of the Niger-Benue region
   • B.Old Kingdom Egypt, with its capital at Memphis
   • C.Kush, with its later capital at Meroë
   • D.Aksum, with its Red Sea port at Adulis
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: C. Kush, with its later capital at Meroë

   Kushite kings ruled Egypt as pharaohs until the Assyrians drove them out, after which Kush moved its capital south to Meroë, an iron-smelting center with steep pyramids and its own Meroitic script. Aksum later conquered Meroë and is known for stelae, coinage and Christianity, while the Nok culture worked iron but never ruled Egypt.

2. Question 2 · Social Studies Foundations, Skills, Research and Instruction

   Timeline of events in one state under the Articles of Confederation:

   1. The state legislature requires that taxes be paid in gold or silver to retire its war debts.

   2. Courts begin seizing the farms of indebted western farmers, many of them army veterans.

   3. Armed farmers close county courts and march toward a federal arsenal.

   4. Unable to act, Congress watches as a privately funded state militia breaks up the uprising.

   Which of the following best completes the timeline by showing the most direct consequence of these events?
   • A.Alarmed leaders support a convention in Philadelphia to strengthen the national government
   • B.Delegates meet at Hartford to propose amendments limiting the power of the national government
   • C.Congress passes an ordinance creating a government for the territory north of the Ohio River
   • D.Western farmers in Pennsylvania rise against a federal excise tax on whiskey and are suppressed
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: A. Alarmed leaders support a convention in Philadelphia to strengthen the national government

   Shays' Rebellion convinced leaders such as Washington and Madison that the Confederation was too weak to keep order, adding momentum to the Philadelphia Convention. The Whiskey Rebellion came later, under the new Constitution, when the national government could raise soldiers, the Hartford Convention was a reaction to the second war with Britain, and the Northwest Ordinance, though passed in the same period, addressed western lands rather than the uprising.

3. Question 3 · Texas History

   Paraphrase of grievances in a declaration adopted by a convention of Texas delegates: The government has failed to establish any system of public education, although it possesses vast public lands. It has denied us the right of trial by jury. It permits no freedom of worship but supports a national religion. It has dissolved our state legislature by force and replaced the federal system with military rule. It has demanded that we surrender the arms we need to defend ourselves on the frontier.

   The grievances in the document, drafted chiefly by George Childress, were most likely listed in order to
   • A.persuade Santa Anna to restore the federal constitution and reopen immigration to Texas
   • B.propose the terms under which colonists would accept a centralist government
   • C.argue that Mexico had broken its compact with the colonists, justifying independence
   • D.request that Coahuila y Tejas be divided so Texas could become a separate state
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: C. argue that Mexico had broken its compact with the colonists, justifying independence

   Like the U.S. Declaration of Independence on which it was modeled, the Texas declaration listed grievances to show that the government had violated the people's rights and so forfeited their loyalty. Requests to restore the federal constitution or to separate Texas from Coahuila belonged to the earlier conventions and the Consultation, not to a declaration of independence.

4. Question 4 · Geography, Culture and the Behavioral and Social Sciences

   In a study, each participant sits with seven other people who are secretly working with the researcher. On each trial the group is shown a line and asked aloud which of three comparison lines matches its length. On several trials every other member confidently gives the same obviously wrong answer before the participant responds. Many participants give the wrong answer at least once, but very few do so when one other member gives the correct answer.

   The study and its results best demonstrate which of the following?
   • A.Cognitive dissonance, in which people change attitudes to justify their own behavior
   • B.Obedience to an authority figure, which increases when the authority is physically present
   • C.Conformity to a group's judgment, which weakens sharply when a single ally dissents
   • D.The bystander effect, in which responsibility is diffused among the many people present
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: C. Conformity to a group's judgment, which weakens sharply when a single ally dissents

   This is Solomon Asch's line-judgment research: participants went along with a unanimous but wrong majority, and the presence of one dissenter greatly reduced conformity. Obedience studies such as Milgram's involve orders from an authority figure, and no one here gives orders. The bystander effect concerns failure to help in emergencies, and cognitive dissonance concerns changing attitudes after acting against them.

5. Question 5 · Economics and Science, Technology and Society

   Consumer prices have been rising rapidly for several months. Which action by the Federal Reserve would be most consistent with an effort to slow inflation?
   • A.Selling government securities through open-market operations
   • B.Lowering the reserve requirement for commercial banks
   • C.Raising federal income tax rates on high-income households
   • D.Buying government securities through open-market operations
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: A. Selling government securities through open-market operations

   When the Fed sells securities, buyers pay with bank reserves, which shrinks the money supply, pushes up the federal funds rate and slows spending. Buying securities and lowering reserve requirements are expansionary moves, and changing tax rates is fiscal policy set by Congress and the president, not a Federal Reserve tool. Economic data for one country

6. Question 6 · World History

   A paraphrase of a proclamation inscribed on a clay cylinder by a conquering king: When I entered Babylon in peace, I did not allow my soldiers to terrorize the land. I returned the images of the gods to their own shrines in the cities from which they had been taken. I gathered the peoples who had been carried off from their homelands and allowed them to return to their dwellings.

   The policies described best reflect which approach to imperial rule?
   • A.Winning the loyalty of diverse subjects by respecting local religions and customs
   • B.Holding conquered lands through mass deportations and public displays of terror
   • C.Ruling through local kings who sent yearly tribute and sacrificial captives
   • D.Unifying an empire by imposing one state religion on all conquered peoples
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: A. Winning the loyalty of diverse subjects by respecting local religions and customs

   The proclamation reflects Cyrus the Great of Persia, whose empire held many peoples together by tolerating their gods and customs and letting deported groups, including the Jews, return home. Deportation and terror characterized the Assyrians, and tribute in sacrificial captives describes the much later Aztec Empire.

7. Question 7 · Social Studies Foundations, Skills, Research and Instruction

   Paraphrase of a statement by a Southern political leader: The states created the federal government and remain sovereign. When Congress passes a law that exceeds its constitutional powers, such as a tariff that protects Northern manufacturers at the expense of Southern planters, a state convention may declare that law void within its borders. Such a step does not destroy the Union; it preserves the Constitution as the states understood it.

   The doctrine expressed in the statement led most directly to which event?
   • A.Jackson's threat of force and a compromise tariff lowering rates
   • B.The Hartford Convention's proposal of amendments to limit federal power
   • C.The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions protesting the Alien and Sedition Acts
   • D.The secession of South Carolina after the election of a Republican president
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: A. Jackson's threat of force and a compromise tariff lowering rates

   Calhoun's nullification doctrine led South Carolina to nullify the tariff; Jackson answered with the Force Bill, and Clay's compromise tariff lowered rates so South Carolina rescinded its ordinance. The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions came earlier and inspired the doctrine rather than resulting from it, and secession came nearly three decades later over slavery.

8. Question 8 · Texas History

   Juan N. Seguín and Lorenzo de Zavala were similar in that both
   • A.were Mexican federalists who supported Texas independence and served the new Republic
   • B.fled to Mexico after being accused of aiding the Mexican invasions of San Antonio
   • C.signed the Treaties of Velasco on behalf of the Texas government after San Jacinto
   • D.were born in San Antonio and represented Béxar at the Washington-on-the-Brazos convention
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: A. were Mexican federalists who supported Texas independence and served the new Republic

   Both opposed Santa Anna's centralism: Seguín led Tejano soldiers and later sat in the Republic's Senate, and Zavala, a Yucatán-born federalist, signed the declaration and served as interim vice president. Zavala was not born in San Antonio, and only Seguín fled to Mexico under suspicion.

9. Question 9 · Geography, Culture and the Behavioral and Social Sciences

   An anthropologist who lived for two years in a farming village records that parents arrange their children's marriages. Rather than judging the practice by her own society's ideal of romantic choice, she explains how the marriages link families into alliances that share labor, land and support during droughts, and she records how villagers themselves describe the custom as a sign of responsibility to kin.

   The anthropologist's approach best illustrates
   • A.assimilation, applied through a large-scale written survey
   • B.cultural relativism, applied through participant observation
   • C.ethnocentrism, applied through comparative historical analysis
   • D.cultural diffusion, applied through a laboratory experiment
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: B. cultural relativism, applied through participant observation

   Interpreting a practice through the values and functions it has within the culture itself, rather than by outside standards, is cultural relativism, the stance Franz Boas made central to anthropology; living in the village for two years is participant observation. Ethnocentrism would judge the custom by the anthropologist's own cultural ideals. Assimilation and diffusion describe cultural change, not a research stance.

10. Question 10 · Economics and Science, Technology and Society

    Working-age population	200 million
    Labor force	125 million
    Employed	117.5 million

    Based on the data, what is the country's unemployment rate?
    • A.6.4%
    • B.6%
    • C.3.75%
    • D.62.5%
    Show answer and explanation

    Answer: B. 6%

    Unemployed = 125 - 117.5 = 7.5 million, and the rate divides by the labor force: 7.5 ÷ 125 = 0.06 = 6%. Dividing by the working-age population gives 3.75 percent, dividing by the employed gives 6.4 percent, and 62.5 percent is the labor force participation rate.

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