GED Practice Questions: Social Studies
Preparing for the GED? Try your hand at a few Social Studies practice questions.
[ TRY KAPLAN’S OTHER GED PRACTICE QUESTIONS: Science • Mathematics • Language Arts ]
GED Social Studies Answer 1
C. A cancer
By using a frightening and often fatal disease such as “cancer” to describe the impact of the proposed regulations, the citizen is making an emotional comparison. The analogy is especially aggressive given that the issue addresses health and safety.
GED Social Studies Question 2
The graph can be used to disprove which one of the following claims?
A. Third-party candidates have not enjoyed significant support in the 21st century.
B. The third-party candidate who garnered the most support since 1960 was Ross Perot in 1992.
C. Third party candidates have never captured more than 10 percent of the popular vote in any presidential election.
D. In most elections, all third-party candidates combined get less than 5 percent of the popular vote.
GED Social Studies Answer 2
C. Third party candidates have never captured more than 10 percent of the popular vote in any presidential election. The statement in choice (C) is disproved by 1968 (14 percent) and 1992 (more than 19 percent).
GED Social Studies Question 3
According to the bar graph, in what year were there approximately as many Americans living in rural locations as there were in urban settings?
A. 1860
B. 1910
C. 1920
D. 1930
GED Social Studies Answer 3
C. 1920
Of the years shown on the graph, 1920 is the point when the rural and urban populations are closest in number. Prior to 1920, the rural population was much larger than the urban population. After 1920, the urban population begins to be much larger than the rural population.
GED Social Studies Answer 4
D. Haitian refugees who fled to the United States to escape a dictatorship
Like the early colonists, the Haitian refugees of the mid- and late 1900s came to the United States seeking freedom from political persecution.
GED Social Studies Question 5
You MAY use your calculator to answer this question.
Based on the graphs, which of the following is true of the number of persons who came from Europe and gained legal permanent resident status?
A. In the 1890s, that number was roughly seven times what it was in the period of 2000–2009.
B. In the 1890s, that number was less than what it was in the period of 2000–2009.
C. In the 1890s, that number was roughly three times what it was in the period of 2000–2009.
D. In the 1890s, that number was the same as what it was in the period of 2000–2009.
GED Social Studies Answer 5
C. In the 1890s, that number was roughly three times what it was in the period of 2000–2009.
The question asks you to compare the number of persons from Europe in the first circle graph to the number of persons from Europe in the second circle graph. Keep in mind that the total numbers represented by the two graphs are different. Calculate that number for the period 1889–1890: 97 percent of 3,689,609 is about 3,578,920. (You could use your calculator or estimate to find an approximate number.) Then calculate that number for the period 2000–2009: 13 percent of 10,299,430 is about 1,338,925. (Use your calculator or estimate.) Now, compare those two numbers: 3,578,920 is a little less than three times 1,338,925.
GED Social Studies Answer 6
A. Mutual respect and convenience
Although in theory each state could insist on its own laws being followed even by residents of other states, in practice that would be too cumbersome. So on many matters, such as driver’s licenses, states respect one another’s laws because it is convenient to do so.
GED Social Studies Answer 7
A. People were less aware of soft money because disclosure was not required.
During the 1980s, political parties did not have to reveal the amount and sources of their soft money contributions, so the extent of this type of campaign financing was not generally known. Only when a law was passed requiring disclosure did people become aware of the scale of soft money donations and so began to raise their concerns about the issue.
GED Social Studies Question 8
At different times during the business cycle, the gross domestic product—the total value of goods and services produced in a year—rises and falls.
Which of the following conclusions is supported by the paragraph and the graph?
A. High points in the business cycle are generally followed by recoveries.
B. Low points in the business cycle are generally followed by slowdowns.
C. During recessions, the rate of unemployment drops.
D. Despite ups and downs, the gross domestic product generally increases over time.
GED Social Studies Answer 8
D. Despite ups and downs, the gross domestic product generally increases over time.
Even though the gross domestic product rises and falls with business cycles, the general trend shown by the graph is for the gross domestic product to rise over the long term.
GED Social Studies Answer 9
C. The Industrial Revolution started in Great Britain and spread to Europe, but by 1900 the United States was the leading industrialized nation.
This summary statement has all the major details from the paragraph—the start of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, its spread to Europe, and the lead taken by the United States. The other choices either focus too narrowly on a couple of details or are too broad to be an effective summary
[ KEEP STUDYING: What’s tested on the Social Studies GED Test Section? ]
