Sample of Previous Midterm Exam Questions

Social Problems‑-SYG 2010

1. Which of the following is true worker dislocation and unemployment?

A. “Displaced workers” are workers who have been forced by large companies to move to a different geographic area.

B. Growth in the teenage labor market has been one trend that reduces the unemployment rate.

*C. One disturbing trend during recent economic downturns has been that the long-term unemployed are increasingly likely to be between thirty and fifty-five years old.

D. Maquiladoras have been a source of jobs for Americans, although these jobs tend to be low paying

2. Which of the following is true regarding the distribution of income and wealth in the world today?

A. The U.S. has a lower poverty rate than Canada, France, or the United Kingdom.

B. The United States has a less equal distribution of income than Kenya, Peru, Brazil, and Panama.

*C. Trends in the past century have produced higher inequality in the U.S.

D. Trends in the past century have produced higher inequality in Britain.

3. Compared to the 1970s, the poverty rate in the 1990s was:

*A. Higher

B. Slightly lower

C. Much lower (less than half)

D. About the same

4. Which of the following is true regarding American Indians? [6-201]

*A. Land belonging to American Indians is still being managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

B. Reservation Indians are better off than their non-reservation (urban) counterparts because of generous government benefits given to reservations

C. American Indians were offered citizenship in the U.S. after the revolutionary war, but most tribes turned the offer down and continue to do so today because they want to be independent

D. American Indians have been helped by the recent focus of the Bureau of Indian Affairs on economic development of reservations

5. Which of the following is true according to research on the effects of school integration:

A. Researchers generally agree that school integration has achieved its goals.

B. Research suggests that because of white flight, school integration has increased racial isolation in the United States.

C. blacks attending integrated schools are no more likely to socialize with whites outside of school than blacks attending segregated schools.

*D. black students attending integrated schools are more likely than blacks attending segregated schools to later attend predominantly white colleges and live in integrated neighborhoods as adults.

6. According to the lecture in class, which of the following is true of political action committees?

A. PACs almost exclusively represent corporations

B. PACs are not required to report their expenditures

C. There are no laws against members of Congress accepting bribes from PACs.

*D. PACs tend to favor incumbents (running for reelection) over challengers