I officially have a 5-day weekend (Monday is a holiday to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) to get lots of ‘stuff’ done! A huge storm blew through here yesterday and is wrapping up today, although this is really the first big storm we’ve had all winter, very unusual for Maine!
My students were to have an exam yesterday and today (we have a rotating schedule) and I’m fairly certain I heard the faint shrieks of teenage joy from 16 miles away in the wee hours of the morning as school was called off for a second day! I feel the compulsive need to test SOMEONE’S knowledge so I’ll throw a few questions from the exam your way and see how you do (answers at the end of the post)! Shall we begin?
1. The first government of the United States was a confederation. What does this mean?
b. The government follows the Bill of Rights.
c. Most of the political power is given to the states.
d. The states are prevented from having much say in government issues.
2. All of the following methods were used to convince each state to ratify the new Constitution EXCEPT:
a. the publication of the Federalist Essays
b. giving each state a series of tax breaks
c. the addition of the Bill of Rights to the Constitution
d. economic threats and boycotts
3. One of the major reasons President Polk asked Congress to declare war on Mexico was because:
a. Mexico had outlawed slavery, which angered the U.S.
b. Mexican soldiers crossed the Rio Grande River and killed U.S. soldiers.
c. Mexico had sent troops to California were a revolt occurred.
d. U.S. soldiers crossed the Rio Grande River and killed Mexican citizens.
4. The belief that God intended for the U.S. to expand from coast to coast is:
a. Manifest Destiny
b. the Frontier Thesis
c. Nationalism
d. Popular Sovereignty
5. The person who authorized the Louisiana Purchase and sent Lewis & Clark on a journey west was:
a. President Theodore Roosevelt
b. President George Washington
c. President Thomas Jefferson
d. President James K. Polk
Can you identify several symbols in this lithograph and what they represent in terms of America’s expansion westward during the 1800s?
OK, smarty-pants, here are the answers to the multiple choice questions above:
Question 1: C
Question 2: B
Question 3: B
Question 4: A
Question 5: C
If you are thinking, ‘hey, won’t your students see these questions’, don’t worry…I don’t think they read this blog and even if they did, these are the same questions they’ve already seen on quizzes and study guides that they should be using to study! I’ve also switched up the answers so they aren’t exactly how they will appear on the exam! Happy Friday to you! What was your score?
