Praxis 5941 Practice Test
Question 1 of 5.
Which of the following most directly facilitated mass violence by states against civilian populations during the twentieth century?
A. Totalitarian state power
B. Weapons of mass destruction
C. Mass communications technology
D. Adoption of human rights
Explanation: Totalitarian regimes like those in Nazi Germany, Stalin's USSR, and Mao's China centralized authority, using secret police, propaganda, and concentration camps to perpetrate genocides and purges against civilians on an unprecedented scale. Weapons of mass destruction were used limitedly, like in Hiroshima, but most violence was conventional. Mass communications spread ideology but required totalitarian control to mobilize. Human rights adoption post-WWII aimed to prevent such violence, not facilitate it.
Question 2 of 5.
After the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, the western portion of the empire
A. flourished economically through trade with the Islamic world
B. quickly unified under state sponsored conversion to Christianity
C. stagnated economically and fragmented politically
D. underwent a period of rich cultural and intellectual development
Explanation: The collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE resulted in the breakdown of centralized governance, leading to the rise of numerous barbarian kingdoms that divided the territory politically. Economic activities declined as long-distance trade routes deteriorated, urban centers shrank, and agricultural production became more localized and less efficient. The Islamic world did not emerge until the 7th century, so economic flourishing through trade with it was impossible in the immediate aftermath. Unification under Christianity was a gradual process spanning centuries, not quick or driven by state sponsorship in the chaotic post-Roman period. Cultural and intellectual development suffered, with literacy rates dropping and much classical knowledge lost or preserved only in isolated monastic communities, contrary to a period of rich development.
Question 3 of 5.
Which of the following was Mao Zedong's term for his radical 1958 farmland-collectivization program?
A. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
B. The Gre Grept Leap Forward
C. The National Liberation Front
D. The Down to the Countryside Movement
Explanation: In 1958, Mao Zedong launched a campaign to collectivize agriculture into people's communes and boost industrial production, intending to accelerate China's development but resulting in catastrophic famine and millions of deaths. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was a later movement from 1966 to 1976 aimed at purging capitalist elements and consolidating Mao's power through mass mobilization. The National Liberation Front was a political organization in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, unrelated to Chinese policies. The Down to the Countryside Movement was a policy during the Cultural Revolution sending urban youth to rural areas for re-education and labor.
Question 4 of 5.
Which three powers formed the Triple Entente before the First World War?
A. Ottoman Empire, France, and Great Britain
B. Austria-Hungary, France, and Russia
C. Italy, Great Britain, and Germany
D. France, Great Britain, and Russia
Explanation: The Triple Entente was formed through a series of agreements: the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1894, the Entente Cordiale between France and Britain in 1904, and the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907, creating a counterbalance to the Triple Alliance. The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in WWI. Austria-Hungary was a member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Italy. Italy was part of the Triple Alliance but did not join the Central Powers at the start of the war and eventually sided with the Entente in 1915.
Question 5 of 5.
An epidemic of which of the following diseases killed at least 50 million people in the aftermath of the First World War?
A. Typhus
B. Influenza
C. Malaria
D. Tuberculosis
Explanation: The 1918 influenza pandemic, also known as the Spanish Flu, spread rapidly due to wartime conditions, troop movements, and demobilization, infecting about one-third of the world's population and causing massive mortality rates far exceeding those of the war itself. Typhus epidemics occurred in some regions like Eastern Europe but did not cause global deaths on this scale. Malaria was endemic in tropical areas but not responsible for a post-war pandemic. Tuberculosis was a chronic disease with high mortality but its deaths were ongoing, not concentrated in a single epidemic event following the war.
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