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This page shows a list of standards in the 8th Grade Social Studies public release collection at MSDE. 8th Grade Social Studies
Released Questions in Standard "3.0 Geography"

Select a question from the following list. The content of that question will be shown, and you can interact with it here.

Expand All Official Practice Test

This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.

Information about the Question.

Read the excerpt.

At Concord, the terrain was more hilly and varied than at Lexington  . . .  with a number of hills and rivers that affected military strategy.  . . .  West of the North Bridge was an elevated ridge  . . .  alongside the river  . . .  [that] allowed a commanding view of the North Bridge and surrounding road.

—John C. Redmond, 2012

What factor that led to the American victory during the Revolutionary War is described in this excerpt?

  1. A.
    French economic intervention
  2. B.
    George Washington’s leadership
  3. C.
    domestic support for independence
  4. D.
    geographic knowledge of the land

This is a test question that allows you to select a spot or region on a graphic.

Study the map.

Select the two numbered regions that were the most geographically important to the American defeat of the British during the War of 1812.

This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.

Information about the Question.

What was one reason the War Hawks wanted to declare war against Great Britain in 1812?

  1. A.
    to defend freedom of the seas
  2. B.
    to prevent the spread of slavery
  3. C.
    to stop taxation without representation
  4. D.
    to protect American Indian allies

This is a question with 2 parts, including a drag and drop question that allows you to select objects and place them in an appropriate answer space.

Study the diagram.

Select two results of the rapid settlement of the United States that complete this diagram and move them to the boxes in any order.

This is a question with 2 parts, including a drag and drop question that allows you to select objects and place them in an appropriate answer space.

Select the two correct statements to complete the sequence of events of the War of 1812 and move them to the correct locations in the diagram.

This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select several options.

Study the political cartoon.

"Does Not Such a Meeting Make Amends?" 1869

Newspaper print showing the linking of the Trans-Continental Railroad in Utah. American Indians and buffalo are fleeing in the foreground as two trains with large hands extending from the locomotives, labeled San Francisco and New York approach each other to connect the railroad.
Select the three phrases most associated with the event shown in the cartoon.
  1. A.
    Manifest Destiny
  2. B.
    abolition
  3. C.
    Black Codes
  4. D.
    suffrage
  5. E.
    industrialization
  6. F.
    American Indian removal
  7. G.
    Freedmen's Bureau

This is a test question that allows you to select a spot or region on a graphic.

Study the map.

Select two regions where colonists experienced the most conflict over land after the French and Indian War.

This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select several options.

Study the political cartoon.

"Dividing the National Map," 1860

This political cartoon shows the four candidates in the 1860 presidential election. A map of the United States hung on a wall is being torn apart by three of the candidates, Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, and John Breckinridge.

Select the three events that led to the divisions represented in the cartoon.

  1. A.
    the Compromise of 1850
  2. B.
    the Missouri Compromise
  3. C.
    the Indian Removal Act
  4. D.
    the Louisiana Purchase
  5. E.
    the Kansas-Nebraska Act
  6. F.
    the decision in Plessy v. Ferguson
  7. G.
    the decision in Ex Parte Merryman

This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.

Information about the Paper Booklet.

Information about the Question.

Study the map.

United States, mid-1800s

The map is titled United States, mid eighteen hundreds. The southeastern region is darkly shaded from approximately the Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas up to the Chesapeake Bay area of the Mid-Atlantic. A question mark is in the center of the shaded region indicating a missing label.

Which region is identified by the question mark on this map?

  1. A.
    British colonies
  2. B.
    land ceded from Mexico
  3. C.
    Lewis and Clark expedition
  4. D.
    the Cotton Belt

This is a test question that allows you to select a spot or region on a graphic.

Study the newspaper headlines.

Select the two newspaper headlines that are the best examples of popular sovereignty.

This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.

Information about the Question.

How did the Missouri Compromise of 1820 affect the issue of slavery in the United States?

  1. A.
    It freed enslaved African Americans in southern states.
  2. B.
    It prompted southern states to secede from the Union.
  3. C.
    It granted popular sovereignty to new states.
  4. D.
    It balanced the number of free states and slave states.

This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.

Information about the paper booklet.

This question is based on a figure. If you are using a paper supplement, you may refer to it now.

Information about the question.

Multiple-choice question with one correct answer choice. Additional information needed to answer the question is provided.

Study the diagram.

Diagram. The figure shows a cause-and-effect diagram with three steps, flowing from left to right, as follows. Statement 1: The Erie Canal opens. Statement 2: blank. Statement 3: Trade between the East and West increases. End figure description.

Which statement completes this cause-and-effect diagram?

  1. A.
    The cost of shipping goods decreases.
  2. B.
    Steamboats are invented.
  3. C.
    The National Road opens.
  4. D.
    Interchangeable parts are invented.

This is a test question that allows you to enter extended text in your response.

Information about the Paper Booklet.

Information about the Question.

Study the map and use it to answer the constructed response question.

Map. The figure shows a map of the contiguous United States (also known as the Lower 48). A shaded region labeled “Louisiana Purchase” encompasses much, but not all, of the central part of the country between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River. End figure description.
  • Identify the geographic impact of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.
  • Explain how this impact affected relationships with American Indian tribes.
  • Use details and examples from the map to support your response.

Enter your answer in the space provided.

This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.

Information about the question.

Multiple-choice question with one correct answer choice.

Which event most contributed to the United States’ declaration of war on Mexico in 1846?

  1. A.
    the movement of settlers into the Oregon Territory
  2. B.
    the discovery of gold in California
  3. C.
    disputes along the border of Texas
  4. D.
    disputes along the border of the Louisiana Territory

This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.

Information about the question.

Multiple-choice question with one correct answer choice. Additional information needed to answer the question is provided.

Read the excerpt.

We know our lands are now become more valuable: the white people think we don’t know their value; but we are sensible that the land is everlasting, and the few goods we receive for it are soon worn out and gone.

—Canassatego, Onondaga Chief, speaker for the Iroquois Confederacy, 1742

Based on the excerpt, what was one source of conflict between American Indians and European colonists?

  1. A.
    American Indians preferred European currency rather than goods.
  2. B.
    American Indians refused to teach the colonists how to farm.
  3. C.
    American Indians refused to learn European languages.
  4. D.
    American Indians wanted to retain their land.

This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.

Information about the Question.

Which part of the Compromise of 1850 did southern states most support?

  1. A.
    the organization of New Mexico and Utah into territories
  2. B.
    the ban on the slave trade in Washington, D.C.
  3. C.
    the admission of California as a free state
  4. D.
    the establishment of a stricter Fugitive Slave Law

This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.

Information about the Question.

Which invention had the most direct impact on business communication during the 19th century?

  1. A.
    sewing machine
  2. B.
    barbed wire
  3. C.
    light bulb
  4. D.
    telegraph

This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.

Information about the Question.

Read the excerpt.

 . . .  On Easter Monday 1803 Napoleon announced his decision to sell to the U.S. the whole of Louisiana.  . . . 

—The Mammoth Book of the West, 2012

What was the significance of the decision described in this excerpt?

  1. A.
    It expanded the Cotton Belt to western territories.
  2. B.
    It paid off the debt for the United States.
  3. C.
    It provided more land for sharecropping in the South.
  4. D.
    It doubled the size of the United States.

This is a question with 2 parts, including a drag and drop question that allows you to select objects and place them in an appropriate answer space.

Select two results of the technological development described to complete the diagram.

This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.

Information about the question.

Multiple-choice question with one correct answer choice.

What was one event that led to the defeat of the British during the War of 1812?

  1. A.
    The United States bought the Louisiana Territory from France.
  2. B.
    The concept of Manifest Destiny was abandoned.
  3. C.
    The American Navy won control of the Great Lakes.
  4. D.
    The United States experienced draft riots across the country.

This is a test question that allows you to select a spot or region on a graphic.

In which two regions did the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 address the issue of slavery and lead to violence in Kansas?

This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.

Information about the Question.

Read the lyrics.

I’m a simple Irish girl, and I’m looking for a place,
I’ve felt the grip of poverty, but sure that’s no disgrace,
‘Twill* be long before I get one, tho’** indeed its hard I try.
For I read in each advertisement, “No Irish Need Apply.”
Alas!*** for my poor country, which I never will deny,
How they insult us when they write, “No Irish Need Apply.”

—Kathleen O’Neil, 1862

* ‘Twill: It will
** tho’: though
*** Alas!: Oh!
 * ‘Twill: It will
** tho’: though
*** Alas!: Oh!

These lyrics are a response to actions taken by which group in the United States in the 1800s?

  1. A.
    abolitionists
  2. B.
    temperance reformers
  3. C.
    women suffragists
  4. D.
    nativists

This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.

Which policy did Great Britain pass in response to Pontiac’s Rebellion?

  1. A.
    Proclamation of 1763
  2. B.
    Quartering Act of 1765
  3. C.
    Declaratory Act of 1766
  4. D.
    Townshend Acts of 1767

This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.

Which diagram accurately shows how new technologies unified the United States geographically during the early industrial period?

  1. A.
    interchangeable parts, arrow, jobs for new immigrants in southern cotton fields
  2. B.
    steamboats, arrow, increased tobacco exports to Great Britain
  3. C.
    railroads in the West, arrow, jobs for farmers in northeastern cities
  4. D.
    New England textile mills, arrow, increased cotton production in the South

This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.

Study the diagram.

The diagram has an oval at the top with a question mark on a blank line. The oval has lines to rectangles with text. Rectangle 1 says included many people in the Western United States. Rectangle 2 says wanted the British to stop interfering with American expansion westward. Rectangle 3 says put political pressure on President James Madison.

Which group completes the title of this diagram?

  1. A.
    Whigs
  2. B.
    Nativists
  3. C.
    War Hawks
  4. D.
    Loyalists

This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.

What was one effect that the rapid population growth in California in the late 1840s had on the sectionalism debate?

  1. A.
    Congress tried to maintain the balance between free and slave states.
  2. B.
    The slave trade was expanded in Washington, D.C.
  3. C.
    The Supreme Court declared the Fugitive Slave Act to be unconstitutional.
  4. D.
    Congress finalized the terms of the Gadsden Purchase.

This is a multiple choice question that allows you to select only one option.

Information about the question.

Multiple-choice question with one correct answer choice.

Which of the following was an accomplishment of the construction of the Erie Canal?

  1. A.
    It increased the nation’s reliance on railroads to transport goods from the North to the South.
  2. B.
    It strengthened economic interactions between eastern cities and western farms.
  3. C.
    It increased the South’s advantage over the North in clothing and textile manufacturing.
  4. D.
    It helped improve agricultural production in eastern farms and western ranches.

This is a drag and drop question that allows you to select text and place it in an appropriate answer space.

Select three impacts of technological changes on the United States during the 1800s and move them to complete the table.

lower taxes increased migration decline of the factory system increase in national unity economic growth introduction of popular sovereignty increased travel time
Impacts of Technological Changes on the
United States during the 1800s

This is a drag and drop question that allows you to select text and place it in an appropriate answer space.

Select two impacts of the Proclamation of 1763 and move them to complete the table.

taxed paper products such as newspapers, legal documents, and playing cards reduced conflicts with American Indians forbade American colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains required colonists to provide food and shelter for the British reduced colonial representation in Parliament
Impacts of the Proclamation of 1763

This is a test question that allows you to enter extended text in your response.

Information about the question.

Writing prompt. Additional information needed to answer the question is provided.

Use your knowledge of U.S. history to answer the constructed response question.

  • Identify two countries of origin for European immigrants to the United States in the 1800s.
  • Explain how nativism impacted the lives of these immigrants in the United States.
  • Use details and examples to support your response.

Enter your answer in the space provided.