CHAPTER 4 EXAM.
Multiple Choice
Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.
____
1. The Magna Carta was a document that
a. shifted the power from the monarchs to the people in Britain.
b. required British royalty to obey the same laws as other English people.
c. limited the power of the people in the British government.
d. gave the power in the British government to members of Parliament.
____
2. Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom declared that
a. governments could punish those who tried to control the religion of
citizens.
b. it was the government’s responsibility to provide funding for churches.
c. church and state should not be separated when it came to matters of
religion.
d. no person could be forced to attend church or to pay for a church with
taxes.
____
3. How did the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 affect education in the Northwest Territory?
a. It provided education for wealthy citizens by creating private schools.
b. It created the first public university system in the United States.
c. It made education a basic right by providing public education for all
citizens.
d. It made education available to slaves for the first time in the United States.
____
4. What was the purpose of the Land Ordinance of 1785?
a. to set up a system for surveying and dividing territory
b. to form a political system for the Northwest Territory
c. to create new states out of the Northwest Territory
d. to give away property to deserving citizens
____
5. How were western lands divided by the Land Ordinance of 1785?
a. The land was divided into counties, each under the control of the national
government.
b. The land was split into two sections, one section banning slavery and the
other permitting slavery.
c. The land was divided into five states, and then the governor of each state
divided it into smaller portions.
d. The land was split into townships and then each township was divided
into a smaller lot.
____
6. How did the Declaration of Independence influence the Articles of Confederation?
a. The Declaration of Independence stated that when a government becomes
controlling it should be destroyed, which was a law included in the
Articles.
b. The Declaration of Independence declared that all men were created equal,
which was reflected in laws that gave equal opportunities to all citizens in
the Articles.
CHAPTER 4 EXAM.
c. The Declaration of Independence condemned the power of the British king
over the colonies, which was reflected in the creation of a limited
government in the Articles.
d. The Declaration of Independence stated that a state should have the
power to make treaties with other countries, which was a law established
in the Articles.
____
7. Which of these was the main cause of Shays’s Rebellion?
a. the depression that followed the severing of trade ties with Britain
b. the Massachusetts policy that forced farmers to pay taxes on land
c. the period of inflation in the United States after the war
d. the inability of the national government to regulate trade
____
8. How did the Articles of Confederation contribute to the economic problems of the United
States in the late 1700s?
a. The Articles gave Congress little power to pass or enforce nationwide laws
and tariffs, which ultimately led to increased U.S. debt.
b. The Articles banned trade with foreign nations, which caused a great deal
of American businesses to suffer.
c. The Articles gave Congress the power to print limitless amounts of paper
money, which caused inflation in the U.S.
d. The Articles included a clause stating that the U.S. would pay back all
debts owed to Britain, which increased the U.S. debt.
____
9. How did the Great Compromise resolve the debate over state representation in the federal
government?
a. It created a bicameral legislature, where the population of each individual
state in the nation would determine the number of representatives in each
house.
b. It created a unicameral legislature, where the number of representatives in
the house would be based on the population of a state.
c. It created a bicameral legislature, where in one house state population
determined the number of representatives and in the other the number of
representatives were equal.
d. It created a unicameral legislature, where the number of representatives in
the house would be equal regardless of the size of the state.
____ 10. What is federalism?
a. a system of government in which the central government has all the
powers of government
b. a system of government that keeps each branch of government from
having too much power
c. a system of government in which powers of government are shared
between the national and state governments
d. a system of government in which the state governments have all the
powers of government
CHAPTER 4 EXAM.
____ 11. Both the federal and state governments share the power to
a. establish post offices.
c. declare war.
b. maintain armed forces.
d. establish courts.
____ 12. Which of the following is a power reserved only to the states?
a. to establish and maintain schools c. to regulate foreign trade
b. to borrow money
d. to declare war
____ 13. Why did the framers of the Constitution create a system of checks and balances?
a. to outline the powers held by each branch of government
b. to keep any one branch of government from becoming too powerful
c. to give the people an opportunity to control the branches of government
d. to strengthen the powers held by each branch of government
____ 14. The Constitution delegated the power to coin money to the federal government. Which of
these is an advantage of this decision?
a. The federal government could control the distribution of money to each
state.
b. A single currency would be used and accepted everywhere in the United
States.
c. The federal government could prevent the nation from going into debt.
d. It ensured that there would never be another depression in the U.S.
____ 15. While taking part in the writing of the Constitution, whose views did Gouverneur Morris of
New York strongly support and fight for?
a. northerners
c. slaves
b. women
d. farmers
____ 16. How did the Federalist Papers try to assure Americans about the new federal government
created under the Constitution?
a. by saying that the government would be more like Great Britain’s
b. by saying that the government would not overpower the states
c. by saying that the government would one day abolish slavery
d. by saying that the government would protect the rights of citizens
____ 17. How did the Bill of Rights, added to the Constitution in 1791, use the ideas introduced in
the Declaration of Independence?
a. It included all of the rights that the Declaration of Independence stated
were essential to the success of a nation.
b. It served to further limit the rights and powers of the federal government,
an idea included in the Declaration of Independence.
c. It provided a new list of ways to maintain American independence based
on ideas presented in the Declaration of Independence.
d. It ensured the protection of individual rights so that the abuses listed in
the Declaration of Independence would be illegal.
CHAPTER 4 EXAM.
____ 18. What was the Bill of Rights?
a. a document added to the Constitution to protect the rights of individual
citizens
b. a document used to limit the powers of state governments
c. a document outlining the rights of the federal government
d. a document stating the ways in which citizens can participate in
government
____ 19. What is one reason the U.S. Constitution has survived for more than 200 years?
a. the Bill of Rights
b. the flexibility of the Constitution to meet the needs of a changing nation
c. the Federalists and their arguments supporting the Constitution
d. the Antifederalists and their arguments against the Constitution
____ 20. Ratification means
a. the right to free speech.
b. the right to vote.
c. an official change.
d. official approval.
____ 21. How might the Articles of Confederation best be described?
a. a framework for a national government, but not a perfect plan
b. a proposed style of government that was never used in the United
States
c. too radical for the first Americans
d. almost exactly like today’s Constitution
____ 22. Ideas in Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights helped Americans create
a. direct democracy.
c. a religious republic.
b. a limited government.
d. Congress.
True/False
Indicate whether the statement is true or false.
____ 23. The term suffrage means the right to vote.
____ 24. After the Revolutionary War, the states were eager to cooperate on laws to regulate
interstate commerce.
____ 25. The Bill of Rights is a list of amendments to the Constitution intended to protect
citizens' rights.
____ 26. Antifederalists opposed the Constitution because they thought it gave too much
power to the central government.
CHAPTER 4 EXAM.
Completion
Complete each statement.
27. The system of ___________________ keeps any branch of government from
becoming too powerful. (federalism/checks and balances)
28. Those who favored a strong central government were called
_____________________. (Federalists/Antifederalists)
29. In the ____________________, Congress agreed that the legislative branch would
have two houses—the Senate and the House of Representatives. (Three-Fifths
Compromise/Great Compromise)
30. One major weakness of the Articles of Confederation is that the central
government had little _____________________. (inflation/power)
Matching
In the space provided, write the letter of the term that best matches
that description. Some answers will not be used.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Articles of Confederation
confederation
depression
federalism
inflation
interstate commerce
h.
i.
j.
k.
l.
m.
New Jersey Plan
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
popular sovereignty
Shays’s Rebellion
tariffs
Virginia Statute of Religious
Freedom
g. Magna Carta
____ 31. System of government set up by the U.S. Constitution which involves the sharing
____ 32.
____ 33.
____ 34.
____ 35.
____ 36.
____ 37.
____ 38.
____ 39.
____ 40.
of powers between a central government and the states
Trade between two or more states
The idea that political authority belongs to the people
A period of low economic activity combined with a rise in unemployment
The Confederation Congress could not regulate this, causing disunity among states
Legislation that created a system for bringing new states into the Union
An uprising staged by Massachusetts farmers to protest high taxes and debt
Taxes on imports or exports
Ratified in 1777, this established a national government with limited powers
Document that declared that no person could be forced to attend a particular
church or be required to pay for a church with tax money