Diiculty Level: Easy
82. America’s isolation, relative prosperity, and sense of destiny all
contributed to the development of the idea of __________.
Topic: An Exceptional America
Learning Objective: LO 4.1: Understand the origins and
efects of American exceptionalism.
Page Reference: 104 – 105
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
83. In 2009, __________ became the irst Hispanic U.S. Supreme
Court Justice.
Topic: Who We Are
Learning Objective: LO 4.4: Analyze how such social and
demographic factors as race and ethnicity, religion, gender,
family structures, education, and age afect American politics.
Page Reference: 113
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
Diiculty Level: Easy
84. For approximately 50 years after gaining the right to vote,
American women tended to vote ________ than their Western
European counterparts.
Topic: Who We Are
Learning Objective: LO 4.4: Analyze how such social and
demographic factors as race and ethnicity, religion, gender,
family structures, education, and age afect American politics.
Page Reference: 116
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
Diiculty Level: Easy
85. __________ refers to the movement of white people away from
central cities so that their children can avoid being bused for
racial balance and attend generally better schools.
Topic: Where We Live
Learning Objective: LO 4.3: Evaluate the importance of where
we live on American politics.
Page Reference:109
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
Diiculty Level: Easy
86. The demographic change that has increased the proportion of
the population over the age of 65 is known as __________.
Topic: Who We Are
Learning Objective: LO 4.4: Analyze how such social and
demographic factors as race and ethnicity, religion, gender,
family structures, education, and age afect American politics.
Page Reference: 119
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
Diiculty Level: Easy
87. Intolerance is frowned upon in American political culture, but
that did not stop the governor of Missouri in 1838 from signing
an extermination order that made it legal to kill __________.
Topic: Who We Are
Learning Objective: LO 4.4: Analyze how such social and
demographic factors as race and ethnicity, religion, gender,
family structures, education, and age afect American politics.
Page Reference: 115
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
Diiculty Level: Easy
88. When social and economic diferences bolster one other, making
political conlict more intense and polarizing the society, social
scientists call them __________.
Topic: Introduction
Learning Objective: Introduction
Page Reference: 104
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
Diiculty Level: Easy
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89. It is an ongoing embarrassment that __________ make up a mere
1 percent of the U.S. population and that, despite the casinos,
one-third of them live on incomes below the poverty line.
Topic: Who We Are
Learning Objective: LO 4.4: Analyze how such social and
demographic factors as race and ethnicity, religion, gender,
family structures, education, and age afect American politics.
Page Reference: 110 – 111
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Diiculty Level: Moderate
90. Gays and lesbians have taken their battle for equal rights to the
courts, the legislatures, and the people, and in 2012, President
Obama came out in favor of __________.
Topic: Who We Are
Learning Objective: LO 4.4: Analyze how such social and
demographic factors as race and ethnicity, religion, gender,
family structures, education, and age afect American politics.
Page Reference: 117
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
Diiculty Level: Easy
Short Answer Questions
91. Expansion into the American West gave rise to a belief in
manifest destiny. What does “manifest destiny” mean? Who won
and who lost as a result of this belief? What was gained and
lost?
1. Deine manifest destiny as the belief held by nineteenth-
century Americans that the United States was destined to
rule the continent.
2. Explain that the winners were American settlers who
found an abundance of land and that the losers were
Native Americans, Canadians, and Mexicans.
3. Explain that what was won was not only a considerable
amount of resource-rich territory, but also an escape valve
from some of the political conlicts that were arising
because of cleavages in society. Although much was
gained from westward expansion, groups of Native
Americans, Canadians and Mexicans lost their land as a
result of the process.
Topic: Geography and National Identity
Learning Objective: LO 4.2: Assess the role of geography in
building a national identity.
Page Reference: 105
Skill Level: Analyze It
Diiculty Level: Diicult
92. Deine “sectional diferences” and explain their importance in
the American political scene.
1. Deine sectional diferences as groups of states that
share common characteristics, for example, the Rust Belt,
the Bible Belt, and the Sun Belt.
2. Explain that these sectional diferences matter because
their commonality of interests leads their citizens to vote
in certain ways overall (for example, the Republican
South) or generates speciic conlicts (for example, the
states versus the federal government in the struggle over
land use in the interior West).
Topic: Where We Live
Learning Objective: LO 4.3: Evaluate the importance of where
we live on American politics.
Page Reference: 107 – 108
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
93. Discuss when African Americans began to attain political power
in the United States and describe their current political
alignments.
1. Discuss how African Americans began to attain political
power after World War II due to the eforts of Franklin
Roosevelt and later the civil rights movement.
2. Explain that African Americans initially identiied with
the Republican Party, but that this loyalty began to shift to
the Democratic Party in the 1930s and 1940s and then
solidiied during the 1960s civil rights era. Further note
that Democratic presidential candidates now receive
nearly 90 percent of the African American vote.
Topic: Where We Live
Learning Objective: LO 4.4: Analyze how such social and
demographic factors as race and ethnicity, religion, gender,
family structures, education, and age afect American politics.
Page Reference: 112
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
94. Deine the gender gap and discuss how it has been a factor in
electoral politics in the United States.
1. Deine the “gender gap” as the diferences in political
opinions or political behaviors between men and women.
2. Explain that in the last three presidential elections,
women have voted in favor of Democrats at a higher rate
than men, but that gap narrowed during the 2012
election.
Topic: Who We Are
Learning Objective: LO 4.4: Analyze how such social and
demographic factors as race and ethnicity, religion, gender,
family structures, education, and age afect American politics.
Page Reference: 116
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
95. Identify which groups are most likely to be poor in the United
States and explain why this issue is largely overlooked in
American politics.
1. Explain that poverty afects groups diferently, with
women, single-parent households headed by women, and
minorities more likely to live in poverty than white men.
2. Explain that the issue is overlooked in general because
people in poverty lack political power based on the fact
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that they have little money to contribute to campaigns,
lower voter-turnout rates, and less conidence when it
comes to organizing to advocate for their issues.
Topic: How Much We Own
Learning Objective: LO 4.5: Describe the importance of
income, wealth, occupation, and social class in American
politics.
Page Reference: 122
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
96. How do Democrats and Republicans difer in their views of the
proper redistribution of wealth in the United States? How did
those views play out in the 2012 election?
1. Explain that Democrats in general favor greater
redistribution of wealth and that Republicans generally
favor minimal government action regarding wealth
redistribution.
2. Describe how these views materialized in both the
rhetoric and policies of the parties in the campaign, with
Democrats calling for increased taxes on the very rich and
Republicans calling for a lowering of tax rates.
Topic: Introduction
Learning Objective: Introduction
Page Reference: 103 – 104
Skill Level: Analyze It
Diiculty Level: Diicult
97. Describe a cross-cutting cleavage that is true for you personally.
How much does this afect your life? Why?
1. Deine cross-cutting cleavage as a division that cuts
across demographics in society.
2. Describe a speciic cross-cutting cleavage (for example,
race) that is personally true for the student and explain
how much it afects the student’s life (for example, living
in poverty).
Test Bank Item Title: TB_Q4.0.97
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Topic: Introduction
Learning Objective: Introduction
Page Reference: 104
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Diiculty Level: Diicult
98. What is urbanization? When did it begin? Is it continuing?
1. Deine urbanization as the movement from rural areas
to cities that began in the early twentieth century.
2. Explain that while urbanization still occurs, since the
1950s, the greater population movement has been from
the cities to the suburbs.
Topic: Where We Live
Learning Objective: LO 4.3: Evaluate the importance of where
we live on American politics.
Page Reference: 109
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
99. Deine race and ethnicity and provide examples of groups in
your city or community that it these deinitions.
1. Deine race as a grouping of human beings with
distinctive characteristics determined by genetic
inheritance.
2. Deine ethnicity as a social division based on national
origin, religion, language, and often race.
3. Explain how speciic groups in the student’s community
it into those deinitions.
Topic: Who We Are
Learning Objective: LO 4.4: Analyze how such social and
demographic factors as race and ethnicity, religion, gender,
family structures, education, and age afect American politics.
Page Reference: 110
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Diiculty Level: Diicult
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