20 multiple-choice (MCQ / objective) questions from this chapter, in every exam-style shape used in the paper. Every question comes with an explanation along with the answer, so you remember why the option is correct, not just which one it is.
1 Direct Questions
Direct Questions
- 1 markThis chapter deals with the histories of the native peoples of which two regions?
(A) South America and New Zealand(B) Canada and Ireland(C) Africa and South Asia(D) America and Australia - 1 markThe oldest artefact found in America, an arrow-point, is how old?
(A) 5,000 years(B) 10,000 years(C) 11,000 years(D) 30,000 years - 1 markWho announced the 1832 judgment that the Cherokees were ‘a distinct community, occupying its own territory in which the laws of Georgia had no force’?
(A) President Thomas Jefferson(B) Governor of Georgia(C) President Andrew Jackson(D) US Chief Justice John Marshall - 1 markThe Australian government’s own term for the land of Australia, terra nullius, means
(A) land belonging to nobody(B) land held in common(C) land of the south(D) land under the crown
2 Assertion-Reason
Assertion-Reason
- 1 markAssertion (A): The native peoples of North America did not build kingdoms and empires like those of Central and South America.
Reason (R): They did not attempt extensive agriculture and did not produce a surplus.
(A) A and R are both true, and R correctly explains A(B) A and R are both true, but R does not explain A(C) A is true, but R is false(D) A is false, but R is true - 1 markAssertion (A): President Andrew Jackson enforced Chief Justice Marshall’s 1832 judgment protecting Cherokee land.
Reason (R): Jackson ordered the US army to evict the Cherokees and drive them to the Great American Desert, and over a quarter of the 15,000 people forced to go died on the way.
(A) A and R are both true, and R correctly explains A(B) A and R are both true, but R does not explain A(C) A is true, but R is false(D) A is false, but R is true
3 Match the Following
Match the Following
- 1 markMatch List I with List II.
List I: (i) America (ii) Canada (iii) Australia (iv) New Zealand
List II: (a) Named by Tasman of Holland in 1642 (b) From kanata, heard by Jacques Cartier in 1535 (c) From the travels of Amerigo Vespucci (d) Sixteenth-century name for land in the Great Southern Ocean
(A) i-c, ii-b, iii-d, iv-a(B) i-b, ii-c, iii-a, iv-d(C) i-c, ii-d, iii-b, iv-a(D) i-d, ii-b, iii-c, iv-a - 1 markMatch List I with List II.
List I: (i) aborigine (ii) First Nations peoples (iii) Amerindian (iv) ‘Red Indian’
List II: (a) Native peoples of North and South America and the Caribbean (b) Organised native groups recognised by the Canadian government (c) The brown-complexioned people whose land Columbus mistook for India (d) Native people of Australia
(A) i-a, ii-d, iii-b, iv-c(B) i-d, ii-a, iii-c, iv-b(C) i-b, ii-d, iii-a, iv-c(D) i-d, ii-b, iii-a, iv-c
4 Statement-Based Questions
Statement-Based Questions
- 1 markConsider the following statements.
Statement I: The natives of North America felt no need to ‘own’ the land.
Statement II: They were content with the food and shelter the land gave them, and goods were obtained not by buying them but as gifts.
(A) Both statements are true, and Statement II explains Statement I(B) Both statements are true, but Statement II does not explain Statement I(C) Statement I is true, Statement II is false(D) Statement I is false, Statement II is true - 1 markConsider the following statements.
Statement I: The US constitution guaranteed an individual’s right to property, which the state could not override.
Statement II: This right, and the right to vote for Congress and the President, were available to every inhabitant of the USA.
(A) Both statements are true, and Statement II explains Statement I(B) Both statements are true, but Statement II does not explain Statement I(C) Statement I is true, Statement II is false(D) Statement I is false, Statement II is true
5 Chronological Ordering
Chronological Ordering
- 1 markArrange the following events in chronological order.
1. British found the colony of Virginia
2. John Cabot reaches Newfoundland
3. British found Plymouth in Massachusetts
4. Jacques Cartier travels down the St Lawrence river
(A) 2-4-1-3(B) 4-2-1-3(C) 2-1-4-3(D) 2-4-3-1 - 1 markArrange the following in chronological order.
1. American Civil War
2. Louisiana purchased from France
3. ‘End’ of the American frontier
4. Justice Marshall’s judgement on the Cherokees
(A) 4-2-1-3(B) 2-1-4-3(C) 2-4-3-1(D) 2-4-1-3
6 Fill in the Blanks
Fill in the Blanks
- 1 markFrom the 1960s, the native peoples were encouraged to write their own histories or to dictate them, which is called ______.
(A) oral history(B) folk memory(C) anthropology(D) ethnography - 1 markThe western ______ of the USA was a shifting one, and as it moved, the natives also were forced to move back.
(A) prairie(B) boundary(C) reservation(D) frontier
7 Odd One Out
Odd One Out
- 1 markThree of these place names are given in the chapter as names derived from native words. Which one is not?
(A) Saskatchewan(B) Wollongong(C) Parramatta(D) Plymouth - 1 markWhich of the following is not a term the chapter lists for native peoples?
(A) First Nations peoples(B) indigenous people(C) Conquistadores(D) Amerind
8 Passage-Based Questions
Passage-Based Questions
Passage
“At sunset on the day before America [that is, before the Europeans reached there and gave the continent this name], diversity lay at every hand. People spoke in more than a hundred tongues. They lived by every possible combination of hunting, fishing, gathering, gardening, and farming open to them. The quality of soils and the effort required to open and tend them determined some of their choices of how to live. Cultural and social biases determined others. Surpluses of fish or grain or garden plants or meats helped create powerful, tiered societies here but not there. Some cultures had endured for millennia…”
(William Macleish, The Day before America)
(William Macleish, The Day before America)
- 1 markAccording to the passage, how many tongues did the people of America speak?
(A) Exactly two hundred(B) Fewer than twenty(C) About fifty(D) More than a hundred
Passage
“How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If you do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can one buy them? Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine-needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and every humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people… So, when the Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us… The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors.”
(Chief Seattle’s reply to the President of the USA, 1854)
(Chief Seattle’s reply to the President of the USA, 1854)
- 1 markWhat is the Chief’s central objection to the President’s request?
(A) The price offered is too low(B) The land is sacred, so the idea of buying or selling it is strange to his people(C) His people wish to move further west(D) Another tribe already owns the land
9 True / False
True / False
- 1 markConsider the following statements.
(i) Of all the native peoples, the Cherokees made the most effort to learn English and to understand the American way of life.
(ii) Because of this effort, Georgia allowed them the full rights of citizens.
(A) Both are true(B) Only (i) is true(C) Only (ii) is true(D) Both are false - 1 markConsider the following statements.
(i) In the late eighteenth century there were between 350 and 750 native communities in Australia, each with its own language.
(ii) All of those languages have since died out.
(A) Both are true(B) Only (i) is true(C) Only (ii) is true(D) Both are false
Answer Key and Explanations
Direct Questions
- (D) The chapter opens by saying it recounts some aspects of the histories of the native peoples of America and Australia. The Spanish and Portuguese colonisation of South America belongs to Theme 8.
- (C) The arrow-point is 11,000 years old. The earliest inhabitants crossed from Asia over 30,000 years ago, moved south during the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago, and the population began to grow about 5,000 years ago.
- (D) The judgment came from the US Chief Justice, John Marshall. President Andrew Jackson refused to honour it and sent the army to evict the Cherokees.
- (A) Because the land was said to belong to nobody, no treaty was needed to take it. This is why Australia, unlike the USA, Canada and New Zealand, had no treaties with its native peoples.
Assertion-Reason
- (A) Both statements are true, and R gives exactly the reason the chapter itself gives for A: with no surplus there was no economic basis on which kingdoms could be built.
- (D) The assertion is wrong: Jackson refused to honour the judgment, even though he had a reputation for fighting economic and political privilege. The reason is a true statement, and it records what he did instead.
Match the Following
- (A) America came from Vespucci’s published travels, Canada from the Huron-Iroquois word kanata, Australia from austral, the Latin for south, and New Zealand from the Dutch zee, meaning sea.
- (D) Aborigine (Latin ab, from, and origine, the beginning) is the native people of Australia; First Nations peoples are the organised native groups recognised by the Canadian government; Amerindian is used for the native peoples of North and South America and the Caribbean; and ‘Red Indian’ was the name for the brown-complexioned people whose land Columbus mistook for India.
Statement-Based Questions
- (A) Both are correct, and the second gives the reason for the first. Formal alliances, friendships and the exchange of gifts were an important feature of their tradition.
- (C) The first statement is correct. The second is wrong, because both the democratic rights and the right to property were for white men alone.
Chronological Ordering
- (A) Cabot reached Newfoundland in 1497, Cartier travelled the St Lawrence in 1534, Virginia was founded in 1607 and Plymouth in 1620.
- (D) The Louisiana Purchase was in 1803, Marshall’s judgment in 1832, the Civil War in 1861-65 and the ‘end’ of the frontier in 1892.
Fill in the Blanks
- (A) Writing their own histories, or dictating them, is called oral history. Anthropology, introduced in North America from the 1840s to study the differences between ‘primitive’ and ‘civilised’ communities, is a different thing.
- (D) The word is the chapter’s own. In 1892 the USA’s continental expansion was complete and no frontier remained to pull settlers west.
Odd One Out
- (D) Plymouth in Massachusetts was founded by the British in 1620; the chapter does not give it as a native name. Wollongong and Parramatta are Australian and Saskatchewan is Canadian.
- (C) Conquistadores were the Spanish soldiers whom the Hopis saw coming across the desert in armour, like turtles across the land.
Passage-Based Questions
- (D) The passage says people spoke in more than a hundred tongues, which is the writer’s way of showing how much diversity there was before the Europeans arrived.
- (B) He asks how one can buy or sell the sky and the warmth of the land, and says every part of the earth is sacred to his people.
True / False
- (B) Statement (i) is true. Statement (ii) is false, because Georgia’s officials argued that the Cherokees were governed by state laws yet could not enjoy the rights of citizens.
- (B) Statement (i) is true. Statement (ii) is false, because 200 of those languages are spoken even today.
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