Topic 9 AP Exam Practice
Multiple-Choice Questions
Questions 1 to 3 refer to the passage below.
“The invalid workman is saved from starvation by the measure we now advocate. . . .Whosoever has looked closely into the state of the poor in large towns, or into the arrangements made for paupers in country communes, and has seen for himself how—even in the best-managed villages—a poor wretch is sometimes treated when weakly and crippled, must admit that any healthy operative, contemplating that spectacle, is fully justified in exclaiming: ‘It is simply horrible that a human being should be treated worse than a dog in his own house!’ I say, therefore, our first object in bringing forward this bill is to ensure kindlier treatment to this class of the poor; and next year I will do my best to give Deputy Richter full satisfaction as to the extent of the provision proposed to be made by the state for the better usage of the unemployed. For the present this measure must be regarded as an experiment—an attempt to find out the depth of the financial water into which we ask the country to plunge.”
Otto von Bismarck, speech, 1881
1. Which statement provides the best context for understanding the passage?
- (A) Germany lagged behind Britain in enacting reforms to improve the lives of industrial workers and the unemployed.
- (B) The problems of urban industrial workers and the unemployed were much worse in Germany than in Britain.
- (C) The United States led the way in enacting reforms to improve the lives of industrial workers and the unemployed.
- (D) Industrialization caused greater economic insecurity in the lives of many urban workers.
2. Bismarck made the proposal in the passage because he believed that
- (A) the end of capitalism would create an era of equality and justice for industrial workers
- (B) if the government did not address worker problems associated with industrialization, socialists and other radicals might incite a revolt
- (C) he had to appeal to socialists and other radicals in order to get them to join his government and provide their input
- (D) the government needed to step in to reverse the environmental effects created by industrialization and urbanization
3. Which reform was instituted by another government in response to the problems of industrialization?
- (A) Britain expanded voting by reducing property-owning qualifications.
- (B) The U.S. government encouraged the growth of labor unions.
- (C) Russia adopted a form of utopian socialism.
- (D) The United States allowed a women’s rights movement to emerge.
Short-Answer Questions
1. Use the passage below to answer all parts of the question that follows.
“Five Points was the most notorious neighborhood in nineteenth-century America. Beginning in about 1820, overlapping waves of Irish, Italian, and Chinese immigrants flooded this district in what is now New York’s Chinatown. Significant numbers of Germans, African Americans, and Eastern European Jews settled there as well. All but forgotten today, the densely populated enclave was once renowned for jam-packed, filthy tenements, garbage-covered streets, prostitution, gambling, violence, drunkenness, and abject poverty. . . .
Few historians devoted much attention to Five Points in the early years of the twentieth century. Academic historians concerned themselves primarily with politics and law. Slums, immigrants, and crime—none of these subjects seemed important enough to merit scholarly analysis.”
Tyler Anbinder, Five Points: The Nineteenth Century New York City Neighborhood, 2001
2. Answer all parts of the question that follows.