Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System Practice Test U.S. History High School Student Name School Name District Name [Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System Logo (MCAS)] This is a practice test. Your responses to practice test questions must be recorded on your Practice Test Answer Document. Mark only one answer for each multiple-choice question. If you are not sure of the answer, choose the answer you think is best. HOW TO ANSWER OPEN-RESPONSE QUESTIONS * Read the question carefully. * Answer all parts of the question. * Be as thorough and accurate as you can. * Support your answers. U.S. History Directions This practice test contains three multiple-choice questions and one open-response question. Mark your answers to these questions in the spaces provided on page 5 of your Practice Test Answer Document. In this section, you will consider Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. First, you will answer three multiple-choice questions. Then you will answer two parts of an open-response question about the Gettysburg Address. The Gettysburg Address (1863) Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate-we can not consecrate-we can not hallow-this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 1 Why did President Lincoln travel to Gettysburg to deliver an address in 1863? A. to establish headquarters for the Union army B. to dedicate a cemetery for deceased soldiers C. to honor families of confederate volunteers D. to raise money for the abolitionist cause 2 The Battle of Gettysburg was an important event in the Civil War mainly for which of the following reasons? A. Great Britain refused to support the Confederacy after the Union victory. B. The Union victory was the first time the North used African American soldiers in combat. C. The Confederacy never attempted another major invasion of the North after the Union victory. D. Congress immediately ratified the Thirteenth Amendment upon hearing of the Union victory. 3 To which of the following events was President Lincoln referring when he stated, "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation . . ."? A. the Boston Tea Party B. the Battle of Yorktown C. the signing of the Declaration of Independence D. the ratifying of the Constitution of the United States Write your answer to open-response question 4 in the space provided on page 5 of your Practice Test Answer Document. 4 In the Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln refers to the nation as having "a new birth of freedom." a. Explain what President Lincoln meant when he called for "a new birth of freedom." You may support your answer with information from the Gettysburg Address and your knowledge of American history. b. Explain why Lincoln believed a unified nation should be preserved. You may support your answer with information from the Gettysburg Address and your knowledge of American history. Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System High School U.S. History Practice Test Answer Document School Name: District Name: Last Name of Student: First Name of Student: Marking Instructions * Use a No. 2 pencil only. * Do not use ink, ballpoint, or felt tip pens. * Make solid marks that fill the circles completely. * Erase cleanly any marks you wish to change. * Make no stray marks on this form. * Do not fold, tear, or mutilate this form. U. S. History 1. A B C D 2. A B C D 3. A B C D 4.