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About This Drill
AP U.S. History — Period 9 (1980–Present) — Drill 18 is a Multiple Choice practice drill covering Period 9: 1980–Present. It contains 5 original questions created by Brian Stewart, a Barron's test prep author with over 20 years of tutoring experience.
This AP U.S. History Period 9 drill is based on Ronald Reagan's First Inaugural Address (1981). Questions analyze Reagan's central argument about government, his rhetorical strategy, the political traditions he was repudiating, and the context of the conservative political revolution of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Passage
The following is adapted from President Ronald Reagan's First Inaugural Address, delivered on January 20, 1981.
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society's ills can be corrected by an ever-larger government. It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion of government into our lives that has grown beyond our consent. It is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We're not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. It is not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work — work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. I intend to curb the size and influence of the federal establishment.
Questions in This Drill
- Reagan's declaration that 'government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem' most directly represented a repudiation of which of the following political traditions?
- Reagan's claim that American 'troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion of government' was most directly a response to which of the following conditions of the late 1970s?
- Reagan's statement 'I intend to curb the size and influence of the federal establishment' most directly foreshadowed which of the following policy initiatives of his presidency?
- The ideological shift represented by Reagan's Inaugural Address was most directly built upon which of the following earlier conservative intellectual and political developments?
- Reagan's assertion that the United States was 'too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams' most directly countered which of the following narratives about America in 1981?