Practice Test: The Gilded Age

What was one long-term effect of federal land grant policies such as the Morrill Act and railway subsidies?

• Expansion of higher education and western settlement

• Collapse of small family farms in the Midwest

• Decrease in agricultural exports to Europe

• End of railroad construction after the Civil War

Which inventor is most closely linked to advances in electric power and systems of distribution?

• Samuel Morse

• Nikola Tesla

• Alexander Graham Bell

• Cyrus McCormick

The expansion of petroleum refining in the late 1800s most directly encouraged:

• Rapid growth of the automobile industry

• Widespread use of kerosene and lubricants

• The decline of steel production in Pennsylvania

• Development of transatlantic telegraph cables

John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company is best known for using which practice to dominate the industry?

• Government subsidies

• Horizontal integration

• Open shop contracts

• Tariff reductions

A meatpacking company owns cattle ranches, slaughterhouses, refrigerated railcars, and butcher shops. This describes:

• Vertical integration

• Horizontal integration

• Trust-busting

• Sharecropping

Why was the Sherman Antitrust Act initially ineffective?

The growth of railroads in the late 19th century resulted in all of the following EXCEPT:

• A. Standardized time zones

• B. Growth of national markets

• C. Decline in urban population

• D. Expansion of western farming

A major difference between the First and Second Industrial Revolutions was that the Second relied more heavily on:

• Steel, chemicals, and electricity

• Water power and iron production

• Textile mills and canals

• Artisan guilds and handcraft labor

What did Granville Woods, an African-American inventor, improve with his patents?

• Communication systems for railroads

• Safety devices for elevators

• The efficiency of cotton gins

• The durability of farm plows

Which business practice of the late 1800s most worried critics who feared the rise of "robber barons"?

• Competition between small producers

• Creation of monopolies and trusts

• Open immigration for cheap labor

• Use of scientific management in factories