Multiple-Choice Questions - chapter 20
1. Why was the development of cast-iron and steel-frame construction techniques significant to the growth of cities?
A. The growth of streetcars depended on such techniques.
B. They were the primary engines of job growth.
C. They allowed developers to erect high-rise buildings.
D. They were invented by immigrant laborers.
E. They demonstrated the value of female ingenuity.
2. By 1900, all of the following technologies had helped transform mass transit EXCEPT:
A. subways
B. electric trolleys
C. cable cars
D. gasoline-powered buses
E. elevated trains
3. All of the following contributed to epidemics, disease, and high mortality rates in the growing cities EXCEPT:
A. overflowing garbage
B. untreated sewage
C. contaminated water
D. the banishment of animals to outside city limits
E. overcrowding
4. In 1890, New York City had twice as many Irish as:
A. Limerick
B. Hamburg
C. Lodz
D. Warsaw
E. Dublin
5. Why did the U.S. government open Ellis Island?
A. It needed an outpost to house immigrants before scheduled deportation.
B. The federal government wanted to ease prison overcrowding, so they used Ellis Island as a prison solely for criminal immigrants.
C. It was needed as a place on which to construct the Statue of Liberty.
D. It was a tourist site designed to show visitors how immigrants came to the United States.
E. It was part of a federal effort to take charge of admitting immigrants to the country in light of the corruption that afflicted the city of New York’s system.
6. After 1890, most immigrants were:
A. from northern and western Europe
B. from southern and eastern Europe
C. of Teutonic and Celtic origin
D. from Mexico
E. members of the professional class
7. All of the following motivated nativists EXCEPT:
A. anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic sentiments
B. beliefs in the superiority of earlier generations of immigrants
C. concerns over the influence of Protestantism
D. convictions that Slavic, Italian, Greek, and Jewish immigrants were inferior
E. alarm that immigrants were taking jobs away from Americans
8. Why was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 significant in American immigration history?
A. It sent all the Chinese immigrants in the United States back to China.
B. It was the first federal law to restrict immigration on the basis of race and class.
C. It was the first time Congress was unable to override a presidential veto of an immigration law.
D. It denied citizenship to any Chinese born in the United States.
E. It removed all restrictions from American immigration law.
9. Vaudeville shows were popular because:
A. they included something to please every taste, social class, and type
B. women and children were not permitted to attend them
C. native-born Americans liked that immigrants were banned from them
D. they were free
E. they doubled as inexpensive daycare for the working poor
10. Young, urban women eager for recreation often encountered far more obstacles than men because:
A. they lacked the strength to participate in the most popular leisure pursuits
B. they frequently had children born out of wedlock
C. few spoke English
D. of their religious convictions
E. parents and authorities tried to limit their access to “cheap amusements”
11. Baseball could lay claim to being the most democratic sport in nineteenth century America because:
A. of its commitment to racial integration
B. both men and women played on the same team
C. people of all social classes attended the games
D. there were several different leagues spanning from the major to the minor leagues
E. local political organizations and parties fielded their own teams
12. The spread of public education between the 1880s and 1900 reflected the desire:
A. to stop the proliferation of religious (namely Catholic and Jewish) schools
B. to Americanize immigrant children
C. to educate former slaves
D. to give southern children the broader context of a story about Republican ideology in the North
E. of college administrators to have better-prepared students
13. The Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890:
A. restricted Chinese immigration
B. placed severe quotas on “new immigrants” from Europe
C. established vocational schools aimed at giving job skills to immigrants
D. established and funded land-grant colleges
E. said that interstate trade of alcohol was illegal
14. Women’s access to higher education by the end of the century:
A. only existed in graduate schools in Boston and Baltimore until the 1870s
B. was practically nonexistent until the 1920s, and even then was only available to elites
C. was resisted most strongly by state universities in the West
D. expanded significantly to the point that women made up one-third of all college students
E. was impossible until Vassar’s founding in 1865
15. The main idea of reform Darwinism was that:
A. humans, made in the image of God, should not be included among the animals when discussing Darwinism
B. government should not interfere with business
C. cooperation, not competition, would best promote progress
D. man continued to evolve according to Darwin’s principles of natural selection
E. for society to truly reform, any “imitation” of welfare must cease