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SAT Subject Test: U.S. History Vocab

Subjects : sat, history
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. An economic system in which the production and distribution of goods is determined by individual consumer preference. It is characterized by the free-enterprise system - competition - profit motive - and pricing based on the laws of supply and demand






2. A term coined in the 1950s to describe illegal or undesirable behavior by teenagers.






3. Opposition to communism. Extreme anti-communism was manifested in the "Red Scare" of the 1920s and McCarthyism of the 1950s.






4. The political advocacy of black-owned businesses and independent black political action. Stokely Carmichael first used the term in a position paper for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1965.






5. The political belief that America's obvious future was to "o'er spread the continent -" in the words of John O'Sullivan in 1846. A corollary was that Americans would bring democracy to the "ignorant and inferior" peoples of the West. The Mexican War






6. Trade that takes place between states. Under the US Constitution - the power to regulate interstate commerce is delegated to the Congress.






7. A policy in which one people or a group within a nation attempts to destroy people whose ethnic background differs from theirs.






8. Tax paid by those wishing to vote in several Southern states after Reconstruction. It was designed to limit political participation by African Americans.






9. A method of mass production whereby the products are moved from worker to worker - with each person performing a small - repetitive task on the product and sending it to the next for a different task until the finished item is assembled. In the 18th






10. The idea that each member of the British Parliament represented all British subjects - regardless of location.






11. A land policy developed in the 1600s in Virginia and Maryland designed to encourage settlement in the New World. It promised 50 acres to any person who paid his own passage to the New World. It also promised an additional 50 acres to any person who p






12. The promotion of products in various media. Modern advertising - employing psychology - expert testimony - and other innovations developed in the 1920s.






13. Blacks who had been freed from slavery or were not born slaves. They lived in the cities and countryside in both the North and the South. In 1860 - there were about 500 -000 free blacks evenly distributed between the North and the South.






14. Umbrella term for biological - chemical - and nuclear weapons designed to kill large numbers of people.






15. Sensationalist - lurid - and often falsified accounts of events printed by newspapers and magazines to attract readers.






16. A grouping of nations where each one pledges mutual support to the others. This support is usually defensive in nature. The formation of alliances was a nunderlying cause of WWI.






17. A slogan used by President Lyndon B. Johnson to describe his goal of ending poverty in the United States.






18. Motion pictures with sound. The Jazz Singer (1927) was the first movie to use sound in a significant way.






19. Those who were against the Vietnam War in the 1960s.






20. The series of laws designed to create separation between the races. These were by and large Southern state laws made constitutional by the Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896.






21. A type of coal - noted for being hard and clean burning.






22. The result of a general shift in society in the 1920s characterized by a greater emphasis on purchasing goods.






23. The theory that the path to economic growth is through tax cuts for the rich - who will then invest in new businesses and expand old ones - employing new workers as a result.






24. A program providing health care for the needy (people who lived below the poverty level) who were not covered by Medicare.






25. Techniques used in industry to produce large quantities of goods using interchangeable parts and moving assembly lines. Elements of mass production were developed in the 19th century; the process was perfected by Henry Ford in the 1910s.






26. Derisive term for US foreign policy in the early 20th century designed to protect the investments of US corporations in Latin America.






27. The name used by the administration of John F. Kennedy to describe its proposed programs for the nation.






28. The wave of immigration from the 1880s to the 1920s of Eastern and Southern Europeans - contrasted with the "old" immigration of Northern and Western Europeans.






29. A global pact initiated in 1997 and put into force in 2005 designed to reduce greenhouse emissions to levels that would avoid climate change. The United States is not one of the 187 nations who have ratified the pact.






30. A type of economic system in which the state controls the production and distribution of certain products that it deems necessary for the good of the people.






31. The policy used by the British before the War of 1812 wherein the British stopped US vessels and removed sailors from them to be used on British naval vessels. it was also used to a limited extent by the French during this same period. It was one of






32. A system of government in which the religious leaders rule. A church-state - where the church is the government - is an example.






33. The series of laws designed to create separation between the races. These were by and large Southern state laws made constitutional by the Supreme Court decision Plessy. v Ferguson in 1896.






34. The joining together of companies to control all aspects of the production process of an item - from the mining or growing of materials through production and distribution of the final product.






35. A method of mass production whereby the products are moved from worker to worker - with each person performing a small - repetitive task on the product and sending it to the next for a different task until the finished item is assembled. In the 18th






36. The building of canals - railroads - and turnpikes at state or federal expense. These were part of the American Plan - which became an important part of the Whig program of the 1830s. Internal improvements were also supported by the National Republic






37. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s was called the "Second Reconstruction" because the first Reconstruction in the 1860s and 1870s had not brought equality for blacks.






38. A term used to describe a person who believes that the Consitution must be interpreted word by word. Thomas Jefferson believed in strict construction of the Constitution.






39. A body of advisers to a head of state. The US president's cabinet consists of the heads of the various departments plus other advisers.






40. Government policy of noninterference in business practices and in individuals economic affairs; literally translated as "to let do."






41. The exodus of white - middle-class families from cities to suburbia following WWII - partially caused by the migration of African Americans to urban centers.






42. The movement to form labor organizations that represent every worker in a single industry - regardless of his or her level of skill.






43. A type of colony in which the people of the colony chose the governor of the colony. Rhode Island was a self-governing colony.






44. A defiant act of the colonies against the British government and its tea trade agreement with East India - which was causing colonial tea merchants to go bankrupt. Protesters dumped an entire shipment of tea into the Boston Harbor.






45. A system of government in which the power to rule comes from the people.






46. The system built into the US Constitution in which the three branches of government (legislative - executive - and judicial) have separate and equal powers that are limited and dependent upon each other. It is also called checks and balances.






47. The name used by the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson to describe its domestic programs.






48. The political position advocated by Jerry Falwell - Pat Robertson - and other conservative Republicans emphasizing a life of religious observance along with no drugs - no divorce - no abortions - no homosexuality - no working mothers - and no sex bef






49. An invention of the 1870's - barbed wire enabled farmers to enclose land and prevent the long cattle drives that cowboys conducted.






50. Perfected by Samuel F. B. Morse in 1844 - the telegraph allowed for communications over long distances by tapping out coded messages to be carried over wires.