The U.S. Constitution-Stimulus based Exam

Base your answer to the question on the passage below and your knowledge of social studies.

1. Based on the letter, what problem is being described?

• Loyalists’ plotting to reunite Britain with its former colonies

• weakness of the federal government under the Articles of Confederation

• states trying to secede from the country

• rampant poverty in the 18th century United States

Which of these actions was the most direct result of the situation described in the document?

• The government created welfare programs

• The government forgave people’s debts.

• The government created a national bank

• Delegates created a new Constitution.

Shay’s Rebellion (1786) became a concern for many national leaders because it…

• indicated there would be future conflicts over the spread of slavery

• exposed fundamental weaknesses in government under the Articles of Confederation

• exposed the need for federal government regulation of interstate commerce

• showed the frontier settlements were vulnerable to raids by Native American Indians

Base your answer to the question on the pasages below and your knowledge of social studies.

What issue is being discussed in the documents?

• Whether the Constitution should allow the slave trade to continue

• Whether the Emancipation Proclamation is constitutional

• Whether southern states have the right to secede

• Whether enslaved people have the right to purchase their freedom

Base your answer to the question on the passages below and your knowledge of social studies.

Which statement identifies a key difference between the arguments presented in both documents?

• Mason argued that enslaved Africans are equal to European-Americans, while Ellsworth argued for their inferiority.

• Mason argued that slavery is a hereditary system, while Ellsworth argues that it is a modern system.

• Mason argued against the slave trade on moral grounds, while Ellsworth argued in favor of it based on federalism and economics.

• Mason argued that religion justifies slavery, while Ellsworth argued that religion is irrelevant.

In the United States, activities such as Cabinet meetings and Committee hearings are described as....

• examples of direct democracy

• responsibilities of the executive branch

• features of the unwritten constitution

• requirements of the system of checks and balances.

The significance of the Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison is that the decision…

• advanced civil rights for minorities

• upheld the constitutionality of a national bank

• established the power of judicial review

• limited Presidential control of foreign policy

Base your answer to the question on the passages below and your knowledge of social studies.

The purpose of each of these provisions is to…

• determine the division of power between state and central governments

• create a process for allowing amendments

• grant the central government power to control the states

• limit the power of the executive branch

Base your answer to the question on the passages below and your knowledge of social studies.

Which of the following Supreme Court decisions most closely relates to the provision in Document 2?

• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)

• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

• McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

• Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)

Base your answer to the question on the passages below and your knowledge of social studies.

Which principle of the United States Constitution is most directly described in this passage?

• States rights

• checks and balances

• the elastic clause

• concurrent powers