Social Changes

Which development was a result of increased urbanization during the Industrial Revolution?

• Decreased fertility rates

• Improved sanitation

• Increased pollution

• Decreased mortality rates

Which development resulted in the spread of disease and increased mortality rates during the Industrial Revolution?

• Increased division between social classes

• Overcrowding in cities

• Emigration to the United States

• Development of pasteurization

Which of the following statements best describes Queen Victoria’s impact on Great Britain during the Industrial Revolution?

• She created laws that granted wealthy women political equality with men.

• She contributed to economic growth by strictly following laissez-faire policies.

• She banned the practice of requiring poor workers to live in public workhouses.

• She supported reforms that improved education and sanitation for poor families.

Which of the following statements best describes the contributions of Louis Pasteur during the Industrial Revolution?

• He established that most diseases are caused by germs and developed a way to kill them.

• He wrote books and essays that convinced many people to move from farms to cities.

• He created a way to measure a population’s fertility and mortality rates.

• He organized popular protests calling for an end to child labor in coal mines.

How did the Industrial Revolution affect the development of social classes in Great Britain?

• It reduced the gap between the rich and poor classes.

• It led to the decline and eventual fall of the middle class.

• It divided society into a greater number of social classes.

• It led many to argue that all people belong to a single class.

How did industrialization affect business owners and working-class laborers differently?

• Business owners had access to clean drinking water, while laborers were forced to drink from polluted sources of water.

• Business owners could be either men or women, while laborers worked in mines and factories that did not allow female workers.

• Business owners made profits and benefited from new industrial technologies, while laborers were poorly paid and had limited access to new products.

• Business owners were not required to pay any taxes, while laborers were taxed at high levels to pay for public projects.

Read this passage:

Fog everywhere. Fog up the river . . . fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping, and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city. . . . Fog lying out on the yards, and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats. Fog in the eyes and throats of ancient Greenwich pensioners, wheezing by the firesides. . . . Chance people on the bridges peeping over the parapets into a nether sky of fog, with fog all round them, as if they were up in a balloon and hanging in the misty clouds.¹

—Charles Dickens, Bleak House

What was a major cause of the conditions described in the passage?

• The increase of women in the workforce

• The increase in division between social classes

• The growth of economic inequality

• The spread of steam-powered factories and mills

How did capitalist beliefs influence British leaders during the early years of the Industrial Revolution?

• They allowed leaders to prevent women from participating in the British political process.

• They convinced leaders not to make laws addressing issues such as child labor and pollution.

• They required leaders to vote against any law that might interfere with the environment.

• They prevented leaders from passing laws that were unpopular among lower-class citizens.

Which statement best describes a difference between upper- and lower-class women during the Industrial Revolution?

• Upper-class women often owned businesses and factories, while lower-class women were not allowed to own property.

• Upper-class women helped their young children find jobs, while lower-class women refused to let their children work.

• Upper-class women rarely had jobs outside the home, while lower-class women frequently held factory jobs.

• Upper-class women resisted social changes and reforms, while lower-class women often served as political activists.

Which of the following pieces of data would be most helpful to a researcher who would like to study mortality rates in British cities during the Industrial Revolution?

• A physical map showing the spread of railroad tracks across Great Britain during the 19th century

• A list of the average salaries paid to workers at different factories in a large industrial city

• A chart showing an increasing gap between the rich and poor starting in the Industrial Revolution

• A set of newspaper articles listing the age of each deceased person in various British cities over several years