35 - ] Model SAT Tests - Test Thirty Five

35 - ] Model SAT Tests

Test Thirty Five

Read the passage below , and then answer the questions that follow the passage . The correct response may be stated outright or merely suggested in the passage .

The following passage is excerpted from a text on Native American history , Here , the author describes how certain major Indian nations related to the European powers during 1700s .

            By the end of the seventeenth century the coastal tribes along most of the Atlantic seaboard had been destroyed , dispersed , or subjected directly to European control . Yet the interior tribes - particularly those who had grouped themselves into confederations - remained powers ( and were usually styled nations ) who dealt with Europeans on a rough plane of equality . Throughout the eighteenth century , the Creeks , Choctaws , Chickasaws , Cherokees , and Iroquois , as well as the tribes of the Old Northwest , alternately made war and peace with the various European powers , entered into treaties of alliance and friendship , and sometimes made cessions of territory as a result of defeat in war . As the imperial power of France and Great Britain expanded into the interior , those powerful Indian nations were forced to seek new orientations in their policy . For each Indian nation the reorientations was different , yet each was powerfully affected by the growth of European settlements , population , and military power . The history of the reorientation of Iroquois policy toward the Europeans may serve as an example of the process that all the interior nations experienced in the eighteenth century .

            The stability that had marked the Iroquois Confederacy’s generally pro-British position was shattered with the overthrow of James II in 1688 , the colonial uprisings that followed in Massachusetts , New York , and Maryland , and the commencement of King William’s War against Louis XIV of France . The increasing French threat to English hegemony in the interior of North America was signalized by French-led or French inspired attacks on the Iroquois and on outlying colonial settlements in New York and New England . The high point of the Iroquois response was the spectacular raid of August 5 , 1689 , in which the Iroquois virtually wiped out the French village of Lachine , just outside Montreal . A counter-raid by the French on the English village of Schenectady in March , 1690 , instilled an appropriate measure of fear among the English and their Iroquois allies .

            The Iroquois position at the end of the war , which was formalized by treaties made during the summer of 1701 with the British and the French , and which was maintained throughout most of the eighteenth century , was one of “aggressive neutrality” between the two competing European powers . Under the new system the Iroquois initiated a peace policy toward the “far Indians,” tightened their control over the nearby tribes , and induced both English and French to support their neutrality toward the European powers by appropriate gifts and concessions .

            By holding the balance of power in the sparsely settled borderlands between English and French settlements , and by their willingness to use their power against one or the other nation if not appropriately treated , the Iroquois played the game of European power politics with effectiveness . The system broke down , however , after the French became convinced that the Iroquois were compromising the system in favor of the English and launched a full-scale attempt to establish French physical and juridical presence in the Ohio Valley , the heart of the borderlands long claimed by the Iroquois . As a consequence of the ensuing Great War for Empire , in which Iroquois neutrality was dissolved and European influence moved closer , the play-off system lost its efficacy and a system of direct bargaining supplanted it .

1 . The author’s primary purpose in this passage is to   

(A) denounce the imperialistic policies of the French

(B) disprove the charges of barbarism made against the Indian nations

(C) expose the French government’s exploration of the Iroquois balance of power

(D) describe and assess the effect of European military power on the policy of an Indian nation

(E) show the inability of the Iroquois to engage in European-style diplomacy

2 . Which of the following best captures the meaning of the underlined word “styled” in paragraph one     

(A) Arranged

(B) Designated

(C) Brought into conformity with

(D) Dismissed as

(E) Made fashionable

3 . In writing that certain of the interior tribes “dealt with Europeans on a rough plane of equality”  ( lines 4 and 5 ) , the author    

(A) agrees that the Europeans treated the Indians with unnecessary roughness

(B) concedes that the Indians were demonstrably superior to the Europeans

(C) acknowledges that European-Indian relations were not those of absolute equals

(D) emphasizes that the Europeans wished to treat the Indians equitably

(E) suggests that the coastal tribes lacked essential diplomatic skills

4 . The author most likely has chosen to discuss the experience of the Iroquois because he regards it as     

(A) singular (B) colorful (C) representative (D) ephemeral (E) obscure

5 . It can be inferred from the passage that the author’s attitude toward the Iroquois leadership can best be described as one of     

(A) suspicion of their motives

(B) respect for their competence

(C) indifference to their fate

(D) dislike of their savagery

(E) pride in their heritage

6 . With which of the following statements would the author be LEAST likely to agree ?   

(A) The Iroquois were able to respond effectively to French acts of aggression

(B) James II’s removal from the throne caused dissension to break out among the colonies. (C) The French begrudged the British their alleged high standing among the Iroquois .

(D) Iroquois negotiations involved playing one side against the other .

(E) The Iroquois ceased to hold the balance of power early in the eighteenth century .

7 . The author attributes such success as the Iroquois policy of aggressive neutrality had to     

(A) the readiness of the Iroquois to fight either side

(B) the Iroquois’ ties of loyalty to the British

(C) French physical presence in the borderlands

 (D) the confusion of the European forces

(E) European reliance on formal treaties

8 . The underlined word “compromising” in paragraph four means      

(A) humiliating (B) jeopardizing (C) revealing (D) yielding (E)  conceding

9 . The final three paragraphs of the passage provide    

(A) an instance of a state of relationships described earlier

(B) a modification of a thesis presented earlier

(C) a refutation of an argument made earlier

(D) a summary of the situation referred to earlier

(E) an allusion to the state of events depicted earlier