SAMPLE QUESTIONS FOR SOC 304 FINAL EXAM
Fall 2007
THE MIDDLE EAST
1. ________ is the holy book of
the Islamic faith.
a. The Koran b. The Torah c. The Bible d. The Old Testament
2. During the 1920s in the Middle
East, the British set up a network of ____________, nations
with partial independence but dependent on Britain economically and
militarily and led by rulers
chosen by the British.
a. dependencies b. colonies
c. client states d. underdeveloped states
3. For Khalid, a man from Saudi
Arabia, following the tenets of his Muslim faith will require all
of the following EXCEPT:
a. giving at least 2.5% of his income to help the poor.
b. praying five times every day.
c. a belief that he should follow the teachings of Buddha.
d. making a pilgrimage to the House of God in Mecca.
4. ____________ is a political
party that advocated expulsion of all Arabs from Israel.
a. Likud b. Labor c. Zionism d. Kach
5. Anwar is a Muslim who lives in
a Middle Eastern nation. Anwar believes that his Imam is able
to intercede on his behalf with Allah. This belief is evidence that
Anwar is a:
a. caliph. b. Shiite. c. Sunni. d. Jihad.
6. One shared characteristic of
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is:
a. belief in the divinity of Jesus.
b. belief in one God.
c. belief in the Trinity.
d. belief in animism.
7. ___________ is defined as
dying for one's religious beliefs.
a. Jihad b. Shiism c. Intercession d. Martyrdom
8. __________ combines equal
rights for all with institutionalized dominance of the Jewish majority.
a. Ethnic democracy b. Parliamentary democracy
c. Parliamentary coalitions d. Zionism
9. Oil production for export to
the core is the most important role in the world economy of:
a. the Middle East. b. Thailand. c. Japan. d. China.
10. In the ____________, 4,000
Kurdish towns, villages and settlements in Iraq were razed to the
ground and many of their inhabitants were relocated to so-called
collective towns constructed by
the government.
a. Anfal campaign of 1988 b. Gulf War
c. Iran-Iraq War d. Intifada
11. John lived in a society in
the year 1500 with the most advanced architecture and medical care
in the world. John was a merchant who traveled thousands of miles per
year on sailing ships
using the world's most advanced navigational techniques to buy and sell
goods using checks and
sophisticated accounting techniques. John would have lived in:
a. Portugal. b. the Islamic empire. c. Japan d. Thailand
12. Saul, a Jew living in Western
Europe in the late 1800s, had been discriminated against
repeatedly in his home country of France because of his faith. After
the Dreyfus Affair, he sold
his business and moved his family to Palestine, where he bought a farm.
This is an example of all
of the following EXCEPT:
a. Zionism. b. anti-Semitism. c. Ashkenazi. d. Sephardim.
13. The first large societies in
the Middle East were based on:
a. wet rice cultivation. b. the Islamic religion.
c. large river valleys. d. the Buddhist religion.
14. ____________ is religious and
political guidance by a divinely ordained leader, an
authoritative teacher in all religious matters, who is endowed with
full immunity from sin and error.
a. The Imamate b. The Caliph c. Buddhism d. Shinto
15. ___________ is the geographic
crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe.
a. Thailand b. The Middle East c. Japan d. China
16. All of the following allowed
Europe to surpass the Islamic Empire and China economically,
politically and militarily by the 1800s EXCEPT:
a. industrialization. b. Christianity.
c. imperialism. d. capitalism.
17. Ali is a Palestinian who
lives in the West Bank. His family has lived in a refugee camp for
the last forty years, and Ali has spent his entire life in the refugee
camp. In the current situation
of conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, all of the
following are likely to be true
about Ali's life EXCEPT:
a. Ali's family lives in very poor sanitary conditions, including
lacking adequate water supplies.
b. Ali has a job with the Palestinian Authority government.
c. Ali's family has a much lower income than do returning Palestinian
families.
d. Ali knows someone who has been killed or wounded in the reignited
Intifada.
18. The Gulf War was caused by
all of the following EXCEPT:
a. conflict over oil production quotas.
b. conflict between Sunni Iraq and Shiite Kuwait.
c. conflict over the repayment of Iraq's debts to Kuwait.
d. conflict between Iraq and Kuwait over the division of oil output
from the Neutral Zone.
19. _____________ is hatred and
persecution of Jews.
a. Anti-Semitism b. Zionism c. Anti-Israelism d. Genocide
20. ___________ is the movement
to create a Jewish nation outside Europe.
a. Zionism b. Genocide c. Scapegoating d. Israelism
21. Many institutions of modern
capitalism, including banks, checks, and accounting, were
developed by:
a. the Thai King.
b. the Chinese
Empire.
c. the Islamic
Empire.
d. the British
Empire.
22. The Sunni-Shiite division in
Islam resulted from:
a. the war between
Iran and Iraq.
b. the dispute over
the succession to Muhammad as the leader of
Islam.
c. the rivalry
between the Ottomans and the Europeans.
d. the conflict
between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
23. The most important role of
the Middle East in the world economy is:
a. agricultural
exports from Israel to the core.
b. high technology
exports from Israel to the core.
c. exports of
weapons to the core.
d. exports of oil
to the core.
24. Overland travel in the Middle
East is very difficult because of:
a. a lack of water.
b. the rainforest.
c. the mountainous
terrain. d. the tropical climate.
25. In the Middle East before the
rise of the Islamic Empire, invaders:
a. exploited
existing societies for tribute.
b. converted
indigenous populations to Christianity.
c. converted
indigenous populations to Buddhism.
d. dispersed the
Arab population of Palestine to Europe, Africa
and Asia, allowing the Jews to move into the area.
26. The economy of the Islamic
Empire focused on:
a. wet rice
cultivation. b. bauxite mining.
c. long distance
trade. d. corn cultivation.
27. The European nation converted
to Islam by earlier Islamic empires that took over the empire
in the 1400s is:
a. the Portuguese.
b. the Ottoman Turks.
c. the Egyptians.
d. the Iraqis.
28. The sayings, teachings, and
practice of Muhammad are called the:
a. Bible. b.
Hadith. c. Koran. d. Torah.
29. _________ is giving not less
than 2.5% of one's income to the community to help the poor in
the Islamic faith.
a. Titheing b. Alms
giving c. Tribute d. Taxation
30. _________ followed the choice
of caliph via election by the Mecca community.
a. Sunnis b.
Shiites c. Iranians d. Ottomans
31. _______ is defined as sacred
struggle, striving of the individual to carry out God's will, and
holy war against the enemies of Islam.
a. Sangha b. Jihad
c. Martyrdom d. Zionism
32. __________ used the Ottoman
Empire as a front to rule most of the Middle East and to keep
Russia from expanding into the region.
a. France b. Japan
c. Iran d. Great Britain
.
33. The British government after
World War I had civil servants in London draw up boundaries
for the new nations of the Middle East, and then chose the leaders for
these new nations based on
their willingness to protect British oil interests in the region. This
is an example of:
a. globalization.
b. neocolonialism.
c. client states.
d. Zionism.
34. By the 1950s and 1960s, the
Middle East was the center of the world ____________ industry.
a. textile b.
athletic shoe c. oil d. bauxite
35. One place that Jewish leaders
contemplated locating the new Jewish state in the late 1800s
was:
a. Argentina. b.
Brazil. c. Egypt. d. Thailand.
36. The leaders of the other Arab
nations in the Middle East have supported the Palestinians in
their struggle with Israel, fought several wars with Israel, and
imposed an oil embargo on the
U.S. because of its support for Israel in the 1973 War. This is an
example of:
a. colonialism. b.
neocolonialism.
c. Israeli-Arab
conflicts. d. the peace process.
37. ________ Jews strictly
observe the rules and social practices of Judaism and live in their own
separate neighborhoods within cities.
a. Orthodox b.
Conservative c. Reform d. Ashkenazi
38. The Iran-Iraq War was caused
by all of the following EXCEPT:
a. longstanding
territorial disputes.
b. conflicts
between the two nations over oil production from
their jointly controlled Neutral Zone.
c. the Shah of
Iran's support for Kurdish rebels in Iraq.
d. the Sunni vs.
Shiite split in Islam.
39. U.S. political leaders
initially supported Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War, but later began
selling
weapons to Iran. These U.S. efforts to support both sides helped to
lengthen the war and allowed
the two sides to continue fighting with each other for a decade. This
is an example of:
a. bamboo diplomacy.
b. colonialism.
c. U.S. efforts to
maintain both nations as counterbalances to
each others' power in the political instability of the Middle
East.
d. U.S. efforts to
promote globalization in the region to create
new investment opportunities for U.S.-based transnational
corporations.
40. __________ killings are
murders of women by relatives because their behavior has brought
dishonor on the family, resulting in very light sentences to those who
had committed the killings.
a. Honor b. Islamic
c. Zionist d. Gender
41. The video "The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict" showed all of the following EXCEPT:
a. the chaotic and violent nature of everyday life in Israel.
b. the use of Israeli-only roads in Palestinian areas.
c. the difficulties of separating Israeli and Palestinian areas as part of the peace process.
d. how the movement of Jewish settlers into the West Bank provides a model for successfully resolving the conflict via the extension of ethnic democracy.
42. ___________ used ___________ as a front to rule most of the Middle East between the 1800s and World War I.
a. Germany; France b. The Ottoman Empire; Great Britain
c. France; Saudi Arabia d. Great Britain; the Ottoman Empire
43. Ali is a Palestinian who lives in the West Bank. He joined the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1980. He fought against the Israeli Army in Lebanon for several years, then moved to Tunisia with other PLO members after the Israeli invasion. He returned to the West Bank four years ago. He is now a high-ranking member of the Palestinian Authority government In the current situation of conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, all of the following are likely to be true about Ali's life EXCEPT:
a. Ali and his family oppose the efforts to "separate" Israel and Palestine proposed by the Likud government.
b. Ali is a partner with a Jewish businessman in a casino in the West Bank.
c. Ali's family has a much higher income than do Palestinian families who remained in the West Bank since the Israelis captured the area in 1967.
d. Ali opposed the 1993 Oslo Agreement.
44. The Marsh Arabs live in:
a. Egypt. b. Palestine. c. Iraq. d. Saudi Arabia.
45. The Anfal Campaign was:
a. the effort by Iraq to disrupt Iranian oil shipments during the Iran-Iraq War by sinking oil tankers.
b. the effort by Iran to disrupt Iraqi oil shipments during the Iran-Iraq War by sinking oil tankers.
c. the destruction of 4,000 Kurdish towns, villages and settlements by the Iraqi army.
d. the policy of maintaining no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq by the U.S. and British air forces.
46. The Balfour Declaration:
a. was signed in 1993 in Oslo as the basis for the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
b. pledged British support for the Zionist movement.
c. declared war between Israel and the Palestinians in 1948.
d. divided the Neutral Zone and its oil between Iraq and Kuwait.
47. Kibbutzim are defined as:
a. Jews who strictly observe the rules and social practices of Judaism.
b. Jewish in their traditions, history and faith, but modify their religious practices to conform to the demands of modern life and thought.
c. collective-ownership communities with self-contained, communal-living arrangements.
d. the movement to create a Jewish nation outside Europe.
48. The Middle East's most important role in the world economy is exporting:
a. oil. b. automobiles. c. water. d. timber.
49. During the first half of the 1900s, British efforts to control the Middle East included all of the following EXCEPT:
a. supporting Jewish migration from Europe to Palestine.
b. creating client states.
c. forming alliances with terrorist organizations to maintain their access to the region's oil
d. drawing artificial boundaries between the nations of the region.
50. John and his family were expelled from Palestine by the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago and moved to Iraq. During the 1800s, some of John's descendants moved to Spain and still live there today. John and his family and descendants were examples of all of the following EXCEPT:
a. Kurds. b. Sephardim. c. Jewish. d. Ashkenazi.
51. The Hidden Imam is the belief that:
a. Sunni religious leaders are divinely ordained and endowed with full immunity from sin and error.
b. religious leaders can intercede between Allah and human beings.
c. Shiite religious leaders are divinely ordained and endowed with full immunity from sin and error.
d. the 12th Imam is alive, present in this world, but invisible and would return at the end of time to pronounce the Day of Judgement.
52. The most important outcome of the Iran-Iraq War was that:
a. Iran captured the Neutral Zone created by British colonialism.
b. Iraq captured the Neutral Zone created by British colonialism.
c. the border between the two nations was unchanged and millions of soldiers and civilians were dead on both sides.
d. Operation Desert Storm freed Kuwait.
53. John lives in Jerusalem in a neighborhood populated only by people who share his religious beliefs. John's ancestors once lived in Syria, but they moved to Jerusalem in the early 1900s. John could be any of the following EXCEPT:
a. Sephardim. b. an Orthodox Jew. c. Ashkenazi. d. Muslim.
54. In the Iranian Revolution of 1979, __________ forced the Shah of Iran to leave Iran.
a. Sunni religious leaders b. Saddam Hussein c. the U.S. government d. Shiite religious leaders
55. The _________ is the holy book of the Islamic faith.
a. Koran b. Torah c. Old Testament d. New Testament
56. Overall, the Middle East region is:
a. racially and ethnically diverse. b. made up mostly of nations with large oil reserves.
c. a relatively wealthy region. d. ruled by democratically elected governments in most nations.
57. The staff of a U.S. Embassy was held hostage during:
a. the Gulf War. b. the Intifada. c. the Iranian Revolution. d. the Suez Crisis.
58. ________, because of the role of Imams and their ability to intercede between people and Allah, have a more elaborate religious hierarchy than do ___________.
a. Orthodox Jews; Reform Jews b. Sunnis; Shiites c. Shiites; Sunnis d. Ashkenazi; Sephardim
59. One impact of labor emigration on Muslim families in recent years has been:
a. an improvement in the status of women. b. a decline in the status of women.
c. the need to adjust to the return of long-absent fathers. d. honor killings.
60. The Sunni-Shiite split in the Islamic faith was due to:
a. the fact that Muhammad left no clear instructions about who was to succeed him as leader.
b. conflict between different ethnic and cultural groups in Iran and Iraq.
c. conflict between the poor and disenfranchised who made up Muhammad's first followers and the elite leaders of Mecca.
d. the rise of the Ottoman Turks.
61. U.S. government strategies in the Middle East since 1979 have included all of the following EXCEPT:
a. promoting peace between Israel and Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians.
b. support for Osama bin Laden.
c. allying with Libya to keep an unpopular authoritarian regime in power.
d. the Reagan Iran-Contra Affair.
62. __________ is suspected of providing support for the World Trade Center bombing in 1993.
a. Iran b. Afghanistan c. Libya d. Iraq
63. __________ holds that tensions or unresolved disputes between two nations will widen as neighboring nations are drawn inevitably into the dispute, even without taking sides.
a. Jihad b. Domino theory c. Conflict theory d. Islamic fundamentalism
64. Blame for the poverty of most Iranians and the wasting of oil revenues before the Iranian Revolution of 1979 was placed on the Shah and ___________, his main supporter.
a. the Soviet Union b. Great Britain c. the U.S. d. Saddam Hussein
65. __________ is defined as a future wherein political and social development and progress appropriate for the realities of the twentieth century are firmly rooted in Islamic history and values.
a. Islamic fundamentalism b. The Taliban c. Islamic modernization d. the Anfal campaign
66. __________ is defined by some Islamic groups as striving of the individual to carry out God's will.
a. Hadith b. Jihad c. Koran d. Alms giving
67. One of the pillars of Islam is:
a. fasting during the daylight hours of the month of Ramadan.
b. prayer five times daily facing in the direction of Islamabad, the holy city.
c. giving not less than half of one's income to the community to help the poor.
d. belief in multiple gods.
68. Reasons why there is a significant amount of opposition to the U.S. in the Middle East from many of the region's residents include all of the following EXCEPT:
a. U.S. support for Israel.
b. theft of oil wealth by elites who do not follow the precepts of Islam because they have sold out to the West.
c. U.S. failure to finish the Gulf War and remove Saddam Hussein from power.
d. the high degree of poverty in the region.
69. Eli's family was Jewish and lived in Russia in the 1800s. The Russian czars (emperors) repeatedly blamed Jewish Russians for the nation's economic problems, and many Russians responded with efforts to wipe out the nation's Jewish population. Eli's family later migrated to England and still lives there today. This is an example of all of the following EXCEPT:
a. scapegoating. b. Ashkenazi. c. pogroms. d. Zionism.
ASIA AND CHINA
1. ________ was the largest economy in the world from 5,000 years ago until the 1800s.
a. The Islamic Empire b. China
c. Thailand d. The Ottoman Empire
2. The addition of ___________ to the imperial rivalry in Asia was the main difference from Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.
A. the U.S. and Holland b. the U.S. and Japan
C. Russia and Japan d. Russia and India
3. Natural characteristics of China include all of the following EXCEPT:
a. large land area.
b. large climate and ecosystem diversity.
c. large areas of mountain and desert that cannot support many people.
d. agriculture concentrated along the coast.
4. The Chinese government considers ________ opposing its rule as "terrorists" and is seeking support from the U.S. and the West as part of the "war on terrorism."
a. Taiwan b. national minority groups
c. Japan d. the Communist Party
5. The ____________ was instituted in 1979 and was intended to halt population growth.
A. Great Leap Forward b. Cultural Revolution
c. One-Child Policy d. Internal Migration Policy
6. The historical imperial system in China relied on:
a. thought reform to maintain political control.
B. patron-client relations.
C. bureaucratic control.
D. the Islamic faith to maintain social control.
7. The ______ Party retreated to Taiwan and still claimed to be the true Chinese government.
A. Communist b. Imperial
c. Warlord d. Nationalist
8. _________ are a symbol of being a wealthy, industrial country, and the Chinese government wants to join the club of core nations.
A. Thought reforms b. Urban inequalities
c. Dams d. Toy factories
9. In China, almost all children:
a. are male.
B. graduate from college.
C. are not immunized against childhood diseases.
D. live in two-parent homes
10. ___________ threatens the legitimacy of the Communist Party.
A. Air pollution
b. The Three Gorges Dam
c. Geopolitical conflict with the U.S.
d. increasing inequality and social stratification
11. The fastest growing economies in the world since the 1960s are located in:
a. the core. b. Africa. c. Southeast Asia. d. Latin America.
12. One similarity between European colonialism in Africa and in Asia was:
a. boundaries between European colonies in both regions were created by European government officials.
b. Great Britain, France, and Russia were the major European imperial rivals in both regions.
c. the European imperial powers exported slaves from both regions to Latin America to work on mines and plantations.
d. indigenous elites were utilized to rule European colonies in both regions.
13. One natural characteristic of China is:
a. agriculture is mainly in large river valleys.
b. very little variation in climate between different regions of the country.
c. large areas of rainforest that cannot support many people.
d. frequent droughts that make it difficult to grow enough food to feed the country's large population.
14. One reason China became vulnerable to European imperialism was:
a. the lack of a large navy.
b. famines that killed millions of Chinese and made the country economically and militarily weak.
c. communist government policies that led to Chinese economic weakness.
d. the importation of Japanese social institutions that weakened the Chinese empire politically and economically.
15. In imperial China, male dominance in sexuality was exemplified by:
a. foot-binding. b. monogamy for men.
c. sexual suppression. d. a strong norm against premarital sex.
16. After the Communist Revolution in China, all of the following are true about the role of gender EXCEPT:
a. many women have moved into nontraditional occupations.
b. traditional ideas about the value of sons were replaced with new ideas about equality between men and women.
c. in the official ideology, women are equal to men and are entitled to equal rights and opportunities at work and at home.
d. women are often paid less than men.
17. During the dispute over the U.S. spy plane, from the Chinese perspective:
a. the U.S. is seeking to make Taiwan a U.S. colony.
b. the U.S. is seeking revenge for China's support of Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
c. the U.S. backed down and apologized.
d. the U.S. is seeking revenge for China's intervention during the Korean War.
18. Large scale famines took place in China during:
a. the Cultural Revolution. b. the One-Child Policy.
c. the flooding of the Yangtze River. d. the Great Leap Forward.
19. The Chinese government considers national minority groups that are seeking independence to be:
a. renegade provinces. b. victims of European imperialism.
c. terrorists. d. victims of Japanese imperialism.
20. The first major policy put in place by the Communist government in China was:
a. the One-Child Policy. b. taking land away from landlords.
c. the Proletarian Cultural Revolution. d. the Great Leap Forward.
21. The student movement led demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in China sought:
a. the elimination of the death penalty.
b. democracy in China.
c. the return of Taiwan to China.
d. the decollectivization of agriculture.
22. The video on the Three Gorges Dam showed all of the following EXCEPT:
a. the tremendous destruction caused by flooding of the Yangtze River.
b. the destruction of very old villages and longstanding ways of life by the dam and its reservoir.
c. the Communist government's willingness to pay an incredibly high price for the dam, since it does not worry about capitalist ideas of profitability.
d. the role of the Yangtze River after the completion of the dam and reservoir for allowing ocean-going ships to travel hundreds of miles upstream into central China.
23. The colonial powers promoted __________ to weaken China.
a. invasions by neighboring nations b. opium addiction
c. bureaucratic control d. the Nationalist Party
24. Marketization and privatization in the Chinese economy are leading to all of the following EXCEPT:
a. a growing number of poor and homeless people.
b. extremely rapid economic growth.
c. massive foreign investment in search of low cost labor.
d. high profits for government owned firms.
25. Sam was the son of a poor farming family who, because of his success on a competitive examination, became a top government bureaucrat in his country's empire and eventually a wealthy man. Sam would have lived in:
a. Japan. b. China. c. Great Britain. d. Egypt.
26. ___________ are those who handled small and, later, big business tasks in the colonial empires of European nations.
a. Mandarins b. Clans c. Middleman minorities d. Evolved ones
27. The ___________ was designed to allow China to modernize in agriculture, industry, science and technology, and national defense.
a. Four Modernizations campaign b. Proletarian Cultural Revolution
c. Great Leap Forward d. Democratic Centralism campaign
ANSWER KEY
THE MIDDLE EAST
1. A
2. C
3. C
4. D
5. B
6. B
7. D
8. A
9. A
10. A
11. B
12. D
13. C
14. A
15. B
16. B
17. B
18. B
19. A
20. A
21. C
22. B
23. D
24. A
25. A
26. C
27. B
28. B
29. B
30. A
31. B
32. D
33. C
34. C
35. A
36. C
37. A
38. B
39. C
40. A
41. D
42. D
43. D
44. C
45. C
46. B
47. C
48. A
49. C
50. A
51. D
52. C
53. C
54. D
55. A
56. A
57. C
58. C
59. C
60. A
61. C
62. D
63. B
64. C
65. C
66. B
67. A
68. C
69. D
ASIA AND CHINA
1. B
2. c
3. d
4. b
5. c
6. c
7. d
8. c
9. d
10. D
11. c
12. d
13. A
14. A
15. A
16. B
17. C
18. D
19. C
20. B
21. B
22. C
23. B
24. D
25. B
26. C
27. A