Which terrorist network, led by Osama bin Laden, carried out the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States?
Al-Qaeda
✓
Hezbollah
Hamas
The Islamic State
Correct Answer
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda, run by the Saudi-born Osama bin Laden from bases in Afghanistan, sent hijackers to seize four airliners on September 11. Hezbollah is a Lebanese militant group linked to the 1983 Beirut bombings. Hamas is a Palestinian militant organization. The Islamic State, or ISIS, rose to prominence more than a decade later, in Iraq and Syria.
Category: War on Terror
Question 2
Why did the United States begin military strikes in Afghanistan in October 2001?
Afghan troops had invaded neighboring Pakistan
The Taliban government refused to hand over Osama bin Laden
✓
Afghanistan had tested a nuclear weapon
The United Nations asked the United States to end a civil war there
Correct Answer
The Taliban government refused to hand over Osama bin Laden
Bush demanded that Afghanistan's Taliban rulers surrender bin Laden and close al-Qaeda's camps, and when they refused, U.S. forces allied with the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance and drove the Taliban from Kabul within weeks. Afghan troops had not invaded Pakistan; bin Laden later fled into Pakistan's mountains. Afghanistan had no nuclear weapons. The war was a response to the attacks, not a United Nations request to end a civil war.
Category: War on Terror
Question 3
What principle was at the core of the Bush Doctrine announced after September 11?
The nation would rely on economic sanctions instead of force
The nation would act only with United Nations approval
The nation could strike first against threats before being attacked
✓
The nation would withdraw its troops from the Middle East
Correct Answer
The nation could strike first against threats before being attacked
The Bush Doctrine held that the United States could wage preemptive war and remove hostile governments to protect itself from terrorism and from states that might arm terrorists. Relying on sanctions instead of force is the opposite of that approach. Acting only with United Nations approval was not part of the doctrine. Withdrawing troops from the Middle East contradicts the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that followed.
Category: War on Terror
Question 4
What was the Bush administration's leading public justification for invading Iraq in 2003?
Iraq had invaded Kuwait a second time
Iraq had cut off oil exports to the West
Iraq had sheltered the September 11 hijackers in Baghdad
Fear that Saddam Hussein held weapons of mass destruction
✓
Correct Answer
Fear that Saddam Hussein held weapons of mass destruction
Officials warned that Saddam Hussein was building chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, though United Nations inspectors had found none and no such stockpiles turned up after the invasion. Iraq had not invaded Kuwait again after 1990. It had not cut off oil exports to the West. The hijackers were not sheltered in Baghdad; al-Qaeda's base was Afghanistan.
Category: War on Terror
Question 5
What did the Homeland Security Act of 2002 accomplish?
Combined many federal security agencies into one new department
✓
Ended the use of the National Guard in disaster relief
Required all airline passengers to carry a national identity card
Moved the FBI under the control of the Pentagon
Correct Answer
Combined many federal security agencies into one new department
The act created the cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security, bringing together agencies such as the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, FEMA and the new Transportation Security Administration. It did not end National Guard disaster relief. It created no national identity card requirement. The FBI remained part of the Justice Department, not the Pentagon.
Category: War on Terror
Question 6
In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006), what did the Supreme Court rule about detainees held at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba?
The military could hold them forever without any review
The military tribunals set up to try them violated federal law and the Geneva Conventions
✓
They had to be released to their home countries within a year
They could be tried only in the state courts of Florida
Correct Answer
The military tribunals set up to try them violated federal law and the Geneva Conventions
The Court held that the military commissions the administration created lacked congressional authorization and fell short of the Geneva Conventions, a check on presidential power in the war on terror. It did not approve indefinite detention without review. It did not order releases within a year. It said nothing about trials in Florida state courts.
Category: War on Terror
Question 7
What did the No Child Left Behind Act, signed in 2002, require of schools that received federal funds?
Free college tuition for their graduates
A national curriculum written by Congress
Standardized testing of students in reading and math
✓
Separate classes for students learning English
Correct Answer
Standardized testing of students in reading and math
No Child Left Behind required yearly testing and labeled schools that failed to make progress as in need of improvement, with penalties for those that kept falling short. It did not provide free college tuition. It left curriculum to the states rather than having Congress write one. It did not mandate separate classes for English learners.
Category: Bush Domestic Policy
Question 8
Why did the government's handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 damage the Bush administration's reputation?
The president ordered New Orleans abandoned permanently
Congress refused to fund any rebuilding
The military was barred from helping in the rescue
The federal emergency response was widely seen as slow and badly managed
✓
Correct Answer
The federal emergency response was widely seen as slow and badly managed
After the levees failed and much of New Orleans flooded, FEMA was faulted for poor coordination, and critics pointed to its director, Michael Brown, a political appointee with little emergency experience, as an example of cronyism. The president did not order the city abandoned. Congress did fund rebuilding. The military was not barred from helping; the Coast Guard rescued tens of thousands of people.
Category: Bush Domestic Policy
Question 9
What were the subprime mortgages that helped trigger the financial crisis of 2008?
Home loans made to borrowers with weak credit
✓
Loans backed by the federal government with no risk
Business loans made only to large corporations
Student loans issued directly by the Treasury
Correct Answer
Home loans made to borrowers with weak credit
Lenders made risky home loans to borrowers who were likely to have trouble repaying, then sold them to banks that bundled them into securities; when housing prices fell, defaults spread through the financial system. They were not risk-free government-backed loans. They were not business loans to corporations. They were not student loans.
Category: Great Recession
Question 10
What was the purpose of the Troubled Asset Relief Program that Congress created in 2008?
To cut income taxes for middle-class families
To rescue failing banks and other financial firms
✓
To build new public housing for those who lost homes
To replace the Federal Reserve with a new central bank
Correct Answer
To rescue failing banks and other financial firms
TARP authorized up to $700 billion to stabilize the financial system by buying troubled assets and investing in banks, and it was later used to aid automakers as well. It was not a middle-class tax cut. It did not build public housing. It left the Federal Reserve in place, and the Fed under Ben Bernanke helped shape the rescue.
Category: Great Recession
Question 11
What happened to the comprehensive immigration reform bills that Congress debated in 2006 and 2007?
They granted citizenship to all undocumented immigrants
They ended all guest worker programs
They failed to become law
✓
They were struck down by the Supreme Court
Correct Answer
They failed to become law
The proposals tried to combine tougher border security, guest worker programs and a path to legal status for long-term undocumented residents. The Senate passed a bill in 2006 but the House did not agree to it, and a 2007 version stalled in the Senate, so nothing became law. No law granted citizenship to all undocumented immigrants. Guest worker programs were not ended. Because the bills never became law, there was nothing for the Supreme Court to strike down.
Category: New Century Disputes
Question 12
In 2004, Massachusetts took what step after a ruling by its highest court?
It made English the state's official language
It banned affirmative action in state colleges
It ended the state's income tax
It became the first state to allow same-sex marriage
✓
Correct Answer
It became the first state to allow same-sex marriage
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that barring same-sex couples from marriage violated the state constitution and that civil unions alone were not enough, and marriage licenses were issued in May 2004. Making English the official language describes a 2006 Arizona ballot measure. Massachusetts did not ban affirmative action that year. It did not end its income tax.
Category: New Century Disputes
Question 13
What did the Supreme Court decide about the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013?
It struck down the law's federal definition of marriage
✓
It upheld the law in every respect
It extended the law to cover civil unions
It ruled that only Congress could decide the question
Correct Answer
It struck down the law's federal definition of marriage
In United States v. Windsor, the Court held that the 1996 law's definition of marriage as only between a man and a woman violated the Constitution, so the federal government had to recognize legal same-sex marriages. It did not uphold the law in every respect. It did not extend the law to civil unions. It did not leave the question to Congress.
Category: New Century Disputes
Question 14
How did Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign break new ground in political organizing?
It refused all private donations and relied on federal funds alone
It used social media to organize supporters and collect small donations
✓
It campaigned only through television advertising
It skipped the primaries and was chosen at the convention
Correct Answer
It used social media to organize supporters and collect small donations
Obama's campaign used Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to mobilize young and first-time voters and raised a large share of its money in small online gifts, a model later campaigns copied. It did not refuse private donations; it in fact declined public financing for the general election. It did not campaign only on television. Obama won the nomination through the primaries, defeating Hillary Clinton.
Category: Obama Presidency
Question 15
Which feature was part of the Affordable Care Act that Obama signed in 2010?
A single government insurer that replaced private plans
A ban on insurance provided by employers
Marketplaces where people could buy private insurance plans
✓
The end of Medicare for Americans over sixty-five
Correct Answer
Marketplaces where people could buy private insurance plans
The Affordable Care Act created insurance exchanges where individuals could compare and buy private plans, often with subsidies, and originally required most Americans to obtain coverage or pay a penalty, which Congress reduced to zero beginning in 2019. It did not create a single government insurer. It did not ban employer insurance, which remained the most common source of coverage. It did not end Medicare.
Category: Obama Presidency
Question 16
What was the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009?
A law that ended the war in Afghanistan
A program that bought back homes from banks
A treaty with China on trade and currency
A stimulus package of spending and tax cuts to revive the economy
✓
Correct Answer
A stimulus package of spending and tax cuts to revive the economy
Passed early in Obama's presidency, the act pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into infrastructure, aid to states and tax relief to fight the Great Recession. It did not end the war in Afghanistan, which continued for years. It was not a program to buy homes from banks. It was a domestic law, not a treaty with China.
Category: Obama Presidency
Question 17
The Tea Party movement that emerged in 2009 and 2010 centered its demands on what goal?
Limiting the size and spending of government
✓
Expanding federal aid to cities
Raising tariffs on foreign goods
Ending the war on terror
Correct Answer
Limiting the size and spending of government
The Tea Party was a conservative grassroots movement that opposed the bailouts and the Affordable Care Act and called for less federal spending and smaller government, helping Republicans win the House in 2010. Expanding aid to cities ran against its goals. Raising tariffs was not its central demand. Ending the war on terror was not its focus.
Category: Obama Presidency
Question 18
What was unusual about the outcome of the 2016 presidential election?
No candidate won a majority of electoral votes
The Electoral College winner lost the national popular vote
✓
The House of Representatives chose the president
A third-party candidate carried several states
Correct Answer
The Electoral College winner lost the national popular vote
Hillary Clinton, the first woman nominated for president by a major party, won more popular votes, but Donald Trump won the Electoral College by carrying key states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, as George W. Bush had done in 2000. A candidate did win an electoral majority, so the House did not choose the president. No third-party candidate carried any state.
Category: Political Divides
Question 19
Shortly after taking office in 2017, President Trump issued an executive order that set off airport protests and lawsuits by doing what?
Closing all American embassies in the Middle East
Ending the Department of Homeland Security
Barring entry to travelers from several Muslim-majority countries
✓
Ordering the deportation of all foreign students
Correct Answer
Barring entry to travelers from several Muslim-majority countries
The order suspended entry for people from a group of mostly Muslim nations, causing confusion at airports and immediate court challenges, and later versions were revised. It did not close embassies in the Middle East. It did not end the Department of Homeland Security. It did not order the deportation of all foreign students.
Category: Political Divides
Question 20
Who began using the phrase "Me Too" in 2006 to support survivors of sexual violence?
Anita Hill
Hillary Clinton
Nancy Pelosi
Tarana Burke
✓
Correct Answer
Tarana Burke
Activist Tarana Burke started the phrase to support survivors, and it spread worldwide in 2017 when actress Alyssa Milano invited people to share their experiences on Twitter and then credited Burke. Anita Hill testified about harassment at the 1991 Clarence Thomas hearings. Hillary Clinton was a senator and secretary of state. Nancy Pelosi was the first woman Speaker of the House.
Category: Political Divides