Question 1 of 10
The Great Plains are primarily used for:
Asteel factories
Bmining
Cfishing
Dagriculture
Explanation
📌 Agriculture (wheat, corn, cattle ranching). Called 'America's breadbasket.'
Question 2 of 10
The Bill of Rights consists of the first ___ amendments.
A10
B13
C20
D5
Explanation
📌 First 10 amendments = Bill of Rights. Ratified 1791. Protects individual liberties.
Question 3 of 10
The Battle of Gettysburg (1863) was important because:
Ait fully ended slavery across the entire South
Bit was the turning point of the Civil War
Cit was the last battle of the entire Civil War
Dit was the war's first major battle
Explanation
📌 Turning point of the Civil War. Union victory. Ended Lee's invasion of the North. Bloodiest battle.
Question 4 of 10
Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in:
A1870
B1863
C1865
D1860
Explanation
📌 1863. Freed enslaved people in Confederate states. Did NOT free slaves in border states.
Question 5 of 10
The cotton gin was invented by:
AThomas Edison
BAlexander Graham Bell
CEli Whitney
DBenjamin Franklin
Explanation
📌 Eli Whitney (1793). Made cotton profitable → increased demand for slavery in the South.
Question 6 of 10
The Declaration of Independence was primarily written by:
AJohn Adams
BThomas Jefferson
CGeorge Washington
DBenjamin Franklin
Explanation
📌 Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
Adopted July 4, 1776 by the Continental Congress.
Adopted July 4, 1776 by the Continental Congress.
Question 7 of 10
The Louisiana Purchase (1803) doubled the size of the US. It was purchased from:
ABritain
BSpain
CMexico
DFrance
Explanation
📌 Napoleon's France sold it for $15 million. Doubled US territory. Lewis & Clark explored it.
Question 8 of 10
The 13th Amendment:
Acreated the income tax
Babolished slavery
Cgave women the right to vote
Destablished Prohibition
Explanation
📌 Abolished slavery (1865). 14th = citizenship/equal protection. 15th = voting rights regardless of race.
Question 9 of 10
The first permanent English settlement in America was:
APlymouth
BSt. Augustine
CJamestown
DRoanoke
Explanation
📌 Jamestown, Virginia (1607). Founded by the Virginia Company for economic reasons (gold, trade).
Question 10 of 10
The map below shades each state by how its population changed between the 1930 and 1940 censuses. The country as a whole grew by 7.3 per cent over that decade.
Five of the six states shaded as losing population form one block on the Great Plains. What best accounts for that pattern?
ADrought and dust storms drove farm families out
BImmigration restrictions passed in the 1920s applied only to the plains states
CThe federal government relocated residents away from the plains by statute
DWartime factories in those states closed and were never afterwards reopened
Explanation
Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and the Dakotas lost people as drought, erosion and falling crop prices pushed tenant farmers and owners off the land, many toward California. Vermont, the sixth state, lost population for an unrelated reason — the long drift away from marginal New England hill farms.