Lehman College -- CST Multi-Subject Prep Workbook

MULTIPLE CHOICE –
MIXED PACKET FIVE

1. Which of the following has the least significant impact on the culture of a
group?

(A) geography
(B’) material conditions of life
(C) climate
(D) variations in people’s physical appearance

Key

The correct answer is D. Every cultural group displays a wide variety in terms of
people’s appearance.

2. Which of the following forms of government is least used today?

(A) democracy
(B’) aristocracy
(C) monarchy
(D) federal states

Key

The correct answer is D. Federal states refers to a country that is politically

organized into semi-independent states, like the old Soviet Union.

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3. Which of the following limits the powers of the US federal government?

(A) judicial branch

(B’) the Bill of Rights
(C) the Constitution
(D) executive branch

Key

The correct answer is C. The US Constitution established the respective powers

and restraints on the three branches of federal government (executive, legislative,
judicial). This is knows as the checks and balances system.

4. In the United States, the power to declare war is given to the:

(A) President
(B’) Congress
(C) Supreme Court
(D) Senate

Key

The correct answer is B. Only the Legislative branch of government can, by vote,
declare war. D is incorrect because the Legislature consists of both the House of
Representatives and the Senate.

5. Social psychologists focus on:

(A) people as individuals

(B’) animals in interactive settings
(C) children at play
(D) how people behave in group settings

Key

The correct answer is D. C is incorrect because children often play by themselves,

which would not be a primary interest of a social psychologist.

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6. All of the following would be considered the job of an anthropologist

EXCEPT:

(A) studying the genetic makeup of an Incan aristocrat

(B’) living in a community of native Americans
(C) testing a rock sample with carbon 14
(D) organizing a dig at a burial site

Key

The correct answer is C. Anthropologists study past and present human culture
systems. C pertains to the work of a geologist.

7. Which invention revolutionized the southern US economy and revitalized

the institution of slavery there?

(A) the steam engine

(B’) the cotton gin
(C) standardized parts
(D) the compressor belt

Key

The correct answer is B. Eli Whitney’s cotton gin made the growing and harvesting
of cotton more economically viable. Slaves were always an essential aspect of the
cotton industry.

8. Why do multinational companies produce goods in countries such as Mexico

and the Philippines?

(A) to increase the cash flow in such countries

(B’) to widen the marketing area
(C) to lower the cost of labor
(D) to lower the price of the product

Key

The correct answer is B. This is a better answer than D because the goal is to make
a profit by exploiting cheap and relatively available labor. This enables US
companies to lower the prices of their merchandise, thus increasing sales.

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9. All of the following were advised by George Washington in his farewell

Presidential address EXCEPT:

(A) avoid permanent alliances with foreign powers

(B’) avoid political parties based on geographic boundaries
(C) safeguard America’s ability to pay its national debts
(D) avoid supplying monetary aid to foreign countries

Key

The correct answer is D. Washington stresses that the newly established United
States remain neutral in terms of international conflicts; this included lending money
for fear that it would antagonize other counties and jeopardize our international
standing.

10. Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto expressed the strong desire for an
economic revolution to achieve:

(A) a society where the proletariat ruled

(B’) a democratic society
(C) an authoritarian society
(D) a classless society

Key

The correct answer is D. In his book, Marx argued for a classless society where no
one class of people controlled a society’s political and economic structure. He
wanted the proletariat (working class) to be a just beneficiary of a country’s natural
and man-made wealth.

11. Social psychology is a field of study that focuses on:

(A) the affect of group membership on the individual

(B’) human behavior in crowds or mobs
(C) changes in values and attitudes over a person’s life span
(D) the process of learning the traditions of one’s culture

Key

The correct answer is A. Answer choice B is not wrong but it is too narrow
compared to A. Do you see this? D is really more in the domain of anthropology.

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12. Sociological research is likely to include all of the following except:

(A) independent variables

(B’) dependent variables
(C) operational definitions
(D) haphazard sampling

Key

The correct answer is D. Sociologists are social scientists and as such use the
scientific method to develop new theories and knowledge. No reputable scientist
in any field would base a study on a haphazard sampling; even a random sampling
is controlled to some extent.

13. The social scientist examining class stratification would be least interested
in which of the following?

(A) the impact of education on upward mobility

(B’) the distribution of property in a specific society
(C) the occupations that are considered most prestigious
(D) the impact of race on morality and fertility

Key

The correct answer is D because it does not directly deal with the issue of social
class differentiations (‘class stratification’). Do you se this?

14. The Bay of Pigs refers to which of the following events?

(A) a vote of Congress to permit the bombing of North Vietnam

(B’) an anti-Castro invasion of Cuba
(C) the invasion of Cambodia by South Vietnamese troops
(D) the American refusal to permit the building of Soviet missiles in the Western
Hemisphere

Key

The correct answer is B. Think of the Cold War period in the 1960s when Cuba was
a Russian sphere of influence under Castro.

The next three questions refer to the following statement.

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European nations sent early explorers for three main reasons: gold, glory and
God. Later explorers were sent out for raw materials, trading posts and places
to colonize.

15. According to this statement, which of the following could be considered an

early explorer or exploration?

(A) the Dutch east India Company trading with Indians for fur
(B’) Sieur de la Salle setting up trading posts
(C) James Oglethorpe settling Savanna, Georgia
(D) Francisco Coronado searching for the Seven Cities of Cibola in Arizona and
New Mexico

Key

The correct answer is D. You are expected to know that the Spanish conquistadors
were looking to exploit the natural wealth of the ‘new world,’ especially its precious
metals like gold and silver.

16. According to this statement, which of the following could be considered a

later explorer or exploration?

(A) Cortes stealing the Inca’s treasures from the Yucatan

(B’) Sir Francis Drake returning to England with a cargo of Spanish silver
(C) Lewis and Clarke’s mapping of the territory west of the Mississippi acquired in
the Louisiana Purchase
(D) Ponce de Leon searching for the Fountain of Youth

Key

The correct answer is C. You are expected to know that the Lewis and Clarke
expedition was undertaken by the US government to explore the mostly unknown
western part of the country for future settlement and economic advantage via trading
with the indigenous people.

17. According to this passage, which of the following motivated early

explorers?

(A) hope of fame and fortune

(B’) a desire for better living conditions
(C) a need for religious freedom
(D) a belief that the government was always right

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Key

The correct answer is A. One of the stated reasons was glory.

18. Which of the following best describes the concept of a business cycle?

(A) a corporation’s profits and losses over a one-year period

(B’) fluctuations in corporate profits in a specific geographic region
(C) upswings and downswings in the overall economy
(D) the life span of a business or corporation

Key

The correct answer is C. A business cycle moves between alternating periods of

steady or rapid growth and stagnation / decline.

19. A recession may best be described as:

(A) a limited period of time when unemployment rises and business activity slows
down
(B’) a limited period time of rising prices, increased industrial output and falling
wages
(C) the extended aftermath of a long depression
(D) a sudden an acute rise in unemployment, business activity and industrial output

Key

The correct answer is A. A recession is characterized by a general decrease of

economic activity. A depression typically occurs when a recession continues and
then reaches a critical point of economic crisis.

20. In a sample survey, questions are asked of a group of people who:

(A) volunteer to participate

(B’) can understand the goals of the researcher
(C) are chosen at random from the general population
(D) are carefully selected to be representative of a larger group

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Key

The correct answer is D. A meaningful statistical sample of people must be chosen

based on selected commonly shared characteristics of an identifiable larger group
(e.g., people who moved at least three times in the past 5 years)

21. In a well-known experiment, psychologists frustrated young children by

placing a wire fence between the children and a pile of toys. When finally
allowed to play with the toys, many of the children smashed and destroyed
them. This reaction is an example of:

(A) dormant aggression

(B’) displaced aggression
(C) sustained aggression
(D) self-protective aggression

Key

The correct answer is B. The children were mad at the people who put the fence
there but could not take it out on them so they ‘transferred’ their anger to the
defenseless toys.

22. The reason teachers use guided reading in the classroom is to give
students:

(A) the chance to apply reading strategies with support from the teacher
(B’) books they can take home and read
(C) the chance to show the entire class they can read aloud
(D) the chance to read aloud in unison

Key

The correct answer is A. Guided reading involves the teacher actively giving
support to children as they read quietly in group settings in a classroom.

23. It has been suggested that the most effective way to decrease word-by-
word reading, and thereby increase more fluid reading, is by helping students
improve their ___________ skills.

(A) phonetic
(B’) sight vocabulary
(C) comprehension
(D) word attack

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Key

The correct answer is B. Better sight vocabulary will help a child not to pause when
reading successive words.

24. The process of understanding the ways in which people think is called:

(A) cognition
(B’) philosophy
(C) comprehension
(D) intellect

Key

The correct answer is A. Metacognition has to do self-conscious reflection on

how we think -- monitoring our thoughts as they occur.

25. Ms. Smith observed her daughter, Jackie, crying while she was reading the
novel A Lady and A Champion. When she asked Jackie what was wrong, she
replied “It makes me feel so sad that Angela’s father died. He was just a
poor, older man whose life was changed when he became disabled after the
war. If I became a famous swimmer like her, I would want my dad to be
around to see it!”

Angela’s response showed that she was identifying and making an emotional
response to the characters in the story. To which higher-order thinking
level was Jackie’s response?

(A) literal
(B’) inferential
(C) evaluative
(D) affective

Key

The correct answer is D. Jackie here is primarily responding in an emotional way to

what happened in the story.

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26. A syllable is a word or part of a word that has only one vowel:

(A) letter
(B’) sound
(C) symbol
(D) marking

Key

The correct answer is B.

27. Cause and effect thinking has a relationship with which type of
organization skill?

(A) summarizing
(B’) inferring
(C) outlining
(D) sequencing

Key

The correct answer is D. A cause and effect relationship is based on a perceived

intrinsic relationship between two events whereby a prior event led to the other. Do
you see this?

28. Everyone seemed to understand what Mary meant when she said “I was
stuck with the job!” Mary was describing how she felt when she was assigned a
task none of her classmates wanted. Her statement is an example of:

(A) an idiom
(B’) a slang expressions
(C) a metaphor
(D) an analogy

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Key

The correct answer is A. This is a commonly used expression to convey a feeling of

helpless responsibility.

29. Bobby stopped to purchase a treat on the way home. When he went to pay
the sales clerk, Bobby found he was short a dime. His friend Lee, who was in
line behind him, loaned Bobby the dime. How much did the treat cost Bobby?

Evaluation of this problem indicates that the information is:

(A) adequate
(B’) extraneous
(C) insufficient
(D) ambiguous

Key

The correct answer is C. We need to have additional information (i.e., how much
money Bobby had).

An airline has three flights each day from Columbus, Georgia to Detroit,
Michigan. The early flight can carry 396 passengers on a jumbo jet. The mid-
day and late flights can each carry 137 people on regular jets.

30. How many passengers can be flown to Detroit on these flights?

(A) 533
(B’) 670
(C) 274
(D) 660

Key

The correct answer is B. Just add 396 + 137 + 137.

31. How many passengers can travel on the early flight in one week than on
both of the regular flights?

(A) 854
(B’) 1,813
(C) 122
(D) 670

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Key

The correct answer is A. Just do 396 x 7 = 2772; 274 x 7 = 1918; 2772 – 1918 =
854.

32. If jumbo jets were not available for the morning flight, how many more
regular jet daily flights would it take to carry the same number of passengers
as the jumbo jet could carry in one week (assuming the jumbo jet would carry a
full complement of passengers)?

(A) 7 more regular jet flights

(B’) 3 more regular jet flights
(C) 2 more regular jet flights
(D) 4 more regular jet flights

Key

The correct answer is A. We know that the jumbo jet can carry 396 x 7 passengers
per week (2772). The two daily regular jet flights can hold 274 x 7 passengers
(1918) per week. To determine how many extra passengers the regular jets would
have to carry in a week, do 2772 – 1918 = 854. Since they normally carry 137
people, seven more regular jet flights would be required; 6 would not be enough. Do
you see this?

33. Jim has 9 oranges, Tom has 3 apples and Pete has 7 pears. Which of the
following questions cannot be answered with the information provided?

(A) What is the total amount of fruit owned by the three boys?
(B’) What is the average number of pieces of fruit owned by the three boys?
(C) What is the median number of pieces of fruit owned by the three boys?
(D) Which boy paid the least for the fruit?

Key

The correct answer is D.

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34. Of the four types of inquiry research listed below, which focuses on
obtaining demographic information about distinctive groups of contemporary
people?

(A) historical research

(B’) descriptive research
(C) survey research
(D) experimental research

Key

The correct answer is C. Answer choice A focuses on the past rather than the
present. B depends primarily on direct observation. D involves active manipulation
of experimental variables a controlled setting.

35. Which of the following is a characteristic of divergent thinking?

(A) emphasis on getting the correct answers to questions

(B’) emphasis on arriving at consensus opinions
(C) emphasis on originality and inferential thinking
(D) emphasis on factual information

Key

The correct answer is C. Divergent thinking primarily involves thinking ‘outside the
box,’ going beyond factual information to arrive at judgments based on original
thinking and consideration of alternatives.

36. The ability of people to conceptually combine related ideas are related to:

(A) comprehension
(B’) knowledge
(C) synthesis
(D) analysis

Key

The correct answer is C. The other answer choices are too general. Do you see
this?

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37. In 1781 the Articles of Confederation were replaced by the U.S.

Constitution of 1787 because:

(A) under the Articles of Confederation, the federal government was too powerful
(B’) the Articles of Confederation kept the 13 British colonies in North America
subject to the British Parliament
(C) the Articles of Confederation ceded huge territories to Britain in exchange for
U.S. independence
(D) the Articles of Confederation were so weak that the central government could
not effectively function

Key

The correct answer is D. The Articles of Confederation reflected a fear of a

powerful central government, for example not allowing it to levy taxes, legislate for
national defense, create a standardized monetary system. It envisioned a
confederation of semi-independent states instead of a unified country.

38. Which is true of socialism as a political / economic system?

(A) Large corporations control the economy under close government oversight.
(B’) Secret police infiltrate citizens’ daily lives.
(C) An aggressive foreign policy is pursued.
(D) The government owns the major means of production and distribution.

Key

The correct answer is D. A is more descriptive of capitalist systems. Secret police

(B’) can be established in many types of authoritarian and totalitarian types of
governments. Not all socialist regimes are internationally assertive (C).

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39. An ecosystem can best be described as:

(A) the inter-relatedness of predators and prey in the animal and plant kingdoms
(B’) the total set of relationships between a community of organisms within a
shared, determinate physical environment
(C) the immediate environment or place when an animal or plant lives
(D) the sum total of all organisms that live and reproduce in a specific location

Key

The correct answer is B. An ecosystem pertains to how all life is sustained through
the comprehensive inter-relationships of plants and animals within a definable
physical environment, as well as such factors as soil, temperature and light. All of
the other answer choices are too narrow and incomplete. Do you see this?

40. Relay races are useful for all of the following EXCEPT:

(A) enhancing cooperative skills

(B’) following rules
(C) learning motor skills
(D) working toward common goals

Key

The correct answer is C. Relay races presuppose a certain level of motor skills
(e.g., running, passing an object). They stress teamwork and timing. There are a
set of rules that determine what is fair or foul (B’)

41. _____________ is a non-locomotor skill where the center of gravity is

fluidly and gradually transferred from one part of the body to another.

(A) bending
(B’) twisting
(C) rocking
(D) stretching

Key

The correct answer is C. In rocking, the legs and feet remain basically static and
the torso’s parts don’t change either. But the overall gravitational and positional
orientation of the entire body relative to the floor shifts as the rocking continues. Do
you see this?

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