From the New York State Education Department. New York State Testing Program Regents Exam in U.S. History and Government January 2020. Internet. Available from https://www.nysedregents.org/USHistoryGov/120/ushg12020-examw.pdf; accessed 3, May, 2023.
This examination has three parts. You are to answer all questions in all parts. Use black or dark-blue ink to write your answers to Parts II, III A, and III B.
Part I contains 50 multiple-choice questions. Record your answers to these questions as directed on the answer sheet.
Part II contains one thematic essay question. Write your answer to this question in the essay booklet, beginning on page 1.
Part III is based on several documents:
Part IIIA contains the documents. When you reach this part of the test, enter your name and the name of your school on the fi rst page of this section. Each document is followed by one or more questions. Write your answer to each question in this examination booklet on the lines following that question.
Part III B contains one essay question based on the documents. Write your answer to this question in the essay booklet, beginning on page 7. When you have completed the examination, you must sign the declaration printed at the end of the answer sheet, indicating that you had no unlawful knowledge of the questions or answers prior to the examination and that you have neither given nor received assistance in answering any of the questions during the examination. Your answer sheet cannot be accepted if you fail to sign this declaration.
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1.
Most of the northern boundary of the United States was created by treaties between the United States and
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2.
In colonial America, geography most directly infl uenced
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3.
European Enlightenment writers of the 17th and 18th centuries such as John Locke infl uenced America’s colonial development by providing
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4.
Which document encouraged public support for declaring independence from Great Britain?
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5.
What was a major success of the national government under the Articles of Confederation (1781–1788)?
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6.
Which statement best illustrates the meaning of federalism?
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7.
The authors of the United States Constitution established a bicameral legislature primarily because they
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8.
Base your answers to questions 8 and 9 on the passage below and on your knowledge of social studies. . . . But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department, the necessary constitutional means, and personal motives, to resist encroachments of the others. The provision for defence must in this, as in all other cases, be made commensurate [corresponding] to the danger of attack. Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. . . . — James Madison, The Federalist No. 51, 1788
In this passage, James Madison argues for the governing principle known as
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9.
Madison was one of the statesmen who wrote articles for The Federalist primarily to
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10.
Base your answer to question 10 on the passage below and on your knowledge of social studies. . . . The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfi lled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. . . . — George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796
President George Washington made this statement in response to concerns over United States involvement in the
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11.
The establishment of judicial review in Marbury v. Madison (1803) gave the Supreme Court the authority to
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12.
The Supreme Court decisions in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) and Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) were important because they
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13.
In the 1840s and 1850s, immigration to the United States was characterized by
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14.
Base your answer to question 14 on the passage below and on your knowledge of social studies.
. . . As to the policy I “seem to be pursuing” as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be “the Union as it was.” If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views. . . .
— President Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862
According to the passage, President Abraham Lincoln’s primary goal in fi ghting the Civil War was to
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15.
Which geographic factor most directly infl uenced the rapid settlement of the Great Plains after the Civil War?
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16.
What was one reason the 14th and 15th amendments failed to prevent future racial segregation?
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17.
Base your answers to questions 17 and 18 on the speakers’ statements below and on your knowledge of social studies.
Speaker A: The time of unlimited immigration is now past; controls are necessary to preserve the customs and values that have made this nation great.
Speaker B: In order to protect our citizens’ jobs, restrictions must be placed on the number of immigrants.
Speaker C: More workers are needed. The most important consideration is whether they are willing to work hard.
Speaker D: There’s plenty of land left to settle in the West, and there is plenty of room for all.
Which two speakers would most likely have supported the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)?
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18.
Which speaker would most likely agree with the economic point of view of big business owners in the late 1800s?
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19.
In the late 19th century, what was the major goal in developing the “New South?”
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20.
“Senate Votes to Annex Philippines” “U.S. Sends Warships to Panama” “President Roosevelt Strengthens Monroe Doctrine”
These headlines refl ect the transformation of United States foreign policy into one that
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21.
What was the major goal of the political reforms enacted during the Progressive Era (1900–1920)?
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22.
Base your answer to question 22 on the photograph below and on your knowledge of social studies.
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23.
The Meat Inspection Act (1906), the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906), and the Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) were similar in that each
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24.
The Federal Reserve System, created in 1913, extended government control over the banking system by
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25.
Base your answer to question 25 on the photograph below and on your knowledge of social studies.
Actions such as the one shown in the photograph helped lead to the
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26.
Which term from the 1920s is most closely associated with Duke Ellington and Langston Hughes?
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27.
Federal economic policies during the 1920s contributed to the start of the Great Depression by
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28.
Base your answer to question 28 on the passage below and on your knowledge of social studies. . . . But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis— broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe. . . . — President Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933
President Franklin D. Roosevelt dealt with the emergency referred to in this speech primarily by
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29.
The main goal of the fi rst Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was to
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30.
Base your answer to question 30 on the poem below and on your knowledge of social studies
. . . . We’ll be back when it rains,
they say,
setting out with their bedsprings and mattresses,
their cookstoves and dishes,
their kitchen tables,
and their milk goats
tied to their running boards
in rickety cages,
setting out for California,
where even though they say they’ll come back,
they might just stay
if what they hear about that place is true. . . .
— Karen Hesse, Out of the Dust, April 1935
What was the main reason for the migration described in this poem?
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31.
Base your answer to question 31 on the cartoon below and on your knowledge of social studies.
This cartoon suggests that Congress believed President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s proposals concerning the Supreme Court threatened the United States Constitution by
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32.
During the 1930s, the major foreign policy goal of the United States Congress was to
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33.
The primary reason President Harry Truman made the decision to use atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was to
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34.
Organizing the Berlin airlift, implementing the Marshall Plan, and fi ghting the Korean War were early events in the United States policy of
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35.
In the late 1940s, hearings by the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the use of loyalty oaths illustrate concerns over the
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36.
The Korean War (1950–1953) was the fi rst war in which the United States
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37.
Base your answer to question 37 on the passage below and on your knowledge of social studies
. . . . Finally, you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the “falling domino” principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the fi rst one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound infl uences. . . .
— President Dwight D. Eisenhower, April 7, 1954
Which action is most closely associated with the foreign policy concern expressed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in this passage?
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38.
The actions of Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X helped focus national attention on the need for reform in the area of
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39.
Which statement best describes an outcome of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis?
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40.
Mapp v. Ohio (1961), Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), and Miranda v. Arizona (1966) are all Supreme Court decisions that strengthened individual rights by
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41.
President Richard Nixon chose to resign the presidency mainly because of his involvement in the
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42.
In Tinker v. Des Moines School District (1969) and in New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985), the United States Supreme Court addressed the
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43.
Results of the Bush-Gore presidential election of 2000 renewed the debate over
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44.
Base your answer to question 44 on the map below and on your knowledge of social studies.
The gains and losses shown on the map were primarily the result of
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45.
Base your answer to question 45 on the chart below and on your knowledge of social studies.
Which government programs will be most directly affected by the trend shown on this chart?
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46.
“Same-Sex Marriage Upheld by Supreme Court” “47% of Children Live With One Parent” “Majority of College Degrees Now Go to Women”
A conclusion that can be drawn directly from these headlines is that
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47.
Which statement refl ects a major transportation trend of the post–World War II period?
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48.
One way in which the Truman Doctrine and the Eisenhower Doctrine are similar is that both
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49.
The programs of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty had goals which were most similar to the programs of
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50.
Which pair of economic situations faced both President Franklin D. Roosevelt and President Barack Obama during the fi rst 100 days of their administrations?
