Write your answer choices on a piece of paper, then click on the "Answer Key" button at the end to check and grade your test.

1. Which of these countries was NOT an ally or supporter of the U.S. during the Cold War?

A. Japan
B. Canada
C. England
D. China

2.  What does the term "baby boom" refer to?

A. The loud rock and roll music of the early 1950s.
B. The sound made by new jet airplanes breaking the sound barrier.
C. The children born in America in the decade or so after World War Two.
D. The millions of children worldwide vaccinated against polio.

3.  “McCarthyism” is a term associated with

A. a U.S. Senator who made exaggerated claims about communist spies in the U.S.
B. the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.
C. the trend to mass produced suburban housing.
D. the decision to build the Interstate Highway System.

4. The 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education held that

A. women must have equal access to government funded schools and colleges.
B. communists in America cannot be required to register with the government.
C. schools cannot refuse to hire teachers because of their race.
D. segregated public schools are unconstitutional and illegal.

5. Rosa Parks became famous in the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s as

A. the first black woman to join a professional sports team.
B. a woman who helped launch a bus boycott by blacks in Montgomery, Alabama.
C. a student who started the “sit-in” protests at lunch counters in North Carolina.
D. a minister in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood.

6.  Rev. Martin Luther King’s strategy known as “civil disobedience” called for protesters
against segregation to

A. create a public disturbance, then run away before police could make any arrests.
B. openly break unjust or discriminatory laws, then wait peacefully to be arrested.
C. find ways to embarrass white politicians who opposed new civil rights laws.
D. make it a point to include many white people in their protests.

7.  The geographic pattern of protests and riots in the 1950s and 1960s involving racial issues shows that racism was a serious problem

A. only in the southern states.
B. only in large cities.
C. only in northern states.
D. in all regions of the country.

8.  In the 1950s, Levittown became famous as an example of

A. the huge suburban housing developments growing outside American cities.
B. the peaceful use of atomic energy for low-cost electrical generation.
C. the American determination to lead the world in space exploration.
D. the construction of the Distant Early Warning system.

9. What was the first satellite launched into space that successfully orbited the earth?

A. Vanguard
B. Sputnik
C. ICBM
D. Nautilus

10.  What was President Dwight Eisenhower's warning about the "military-industrial complex"?

A. The military needed to modernize their weapons, or fall behind the Russians.
B. The military and industry needed to cooperate more in support of the "space race.”
C. The military and related industries were gaining great power in American politics.
D. Too many people were suspicious of America's good intentions in the world.

11.  Many people remember President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech for sparking a period of idealism in America.  Which of these is the best example of idealism in the early 1960s?

A. the building of fallout shelters
B. the start of the Peace Corps
C. the increase in technology used in spying
D. the growth of profits for large corporations like IBM and AT&T

12.  What was the main cause of the Cuban Missile Crisis?

A. The Soviet Union was building missile launchers in Cuba.
B. The Cuban government shot down an American space rocket.
C. Cuba blocked efforts to recover an American spy plane pilot.
D. America placed a boycott on Cuban products.

13.  Who spoke these famous lines in 1963: “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”?

A. Rev. Martin Luther King
B. Malcolm X
C. President John F. Kennedy
D. Betty Friedan

14.  Which of these statements best expresses the basic approach of President Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" programs?

A. Poverty will disappear by itself if American business is encouraged to grow rapidly.
B. States must take the lead in developing programs to end poverty.
C. Volunteer help and neighborhood churches are the keys to ending poverty.
D. The federal government should greatly expand its social and educational programs.

15.  Which of these is NOT a true statement about the Vietnam War?

A. The war began as a group of Vietnamese leaders sought independence from the French.
B. Ho Chi Minh was a communist leader of the North Vietnamese.
C. America supported South Vietnam.
D. President Lyndon Johnson ended American involvement in the Vietnam War.
 

16.  The main impact of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was that it outlawed

A. discrimination in public places.
B. attempts to stop blacks from voting.
C. the use of race in college admissions decisions.
D. attempts by police to stop protesters from marching on highways.

17.  Which of these movements is associated with the decade of the 1960s?

A. Women’s Liberation movement
B. Hippie movement
C. Black Power movement
D. all of the above

18.  In what year did the Apollo 11 mission successfully land the first men on the moon?

A. 1963
B. 1965
C. 1969
D. 1973

19.  The Watergate Scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon began with

A.  the building of a fallout shelter for government leaders in West Virginia.
B.  a break-in at the offices of the Democratic Party in Washington, D.C.
C.  the Nixon foreign policy called Vietnamization.
D.  the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Use this graph for the question below.

20.  Which statement below is NOT true, according to the graph shown above?

A. In 1950, at least half of all single women held jobs.
B. In 1960, less than 20 percent of married women with children under age 6 held jobs
C. Between 1960 and 1980, the percent of married women with children under age 6 holding jobs more than doubled.
D. In 1990, slightly less than 60 percent of single women held jobs.

21.  What is OPEC and what role did it play in the energy crisis that hit America during the 1970s?

A. an organization run by nations in the Middle East that sharply raised crude oil prices
B. a federal agency that insisted on higher gas mileage in American cars
C. a corporation that developed new solar cell technology
D. a citizens’ organization that started a movement for alternative energy sources

22.  Roe v. Wade was the U.S. Supreme Court decision that

A. declared segregated public schools unconstitutional.
B. made abortions legal in the U.S. 
C. upheld the death penalty as a valid punishment for certain crimes.
D. struck down the “poll tax” paid by citizens in some states to register to vote.

23.  How did the Vietnam War end?

A. negotiations ended the war, leaving North and South Vietnam at peace.
B. South Vietnam fell to the communists after America pulled out of the conflict. 
C. North Vietnam was defeated by American bombing near Hanoi.
D. South Vietnam defeated the North Vietnamese army.

24.  What was the location of the famous nuclear reactor accident that ended efforts to build more nuclear powered electric generating plants in the U.S.?

A. Los Alamos, New Mexico
B. Oak Ridge, Tennessee
C. Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania
D. Calvert Cliffs, Maryland

25.  President Jimmy Carter achieved a famous peace agreement in 1978 between Egypt and what other Middle East nation?

A. Saudi Arabia
B. Israel
C. Iran
D. Iraq
 
 

Copyright 2001, 2016 by David Burns
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