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SAT II U.S. History

一些备考SAT2 US.History要点，喜望对大家有帮助
Introduction to the SAT II
The SAT II Subject Tests are created and administered by the College Board and the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the two organizations responsible for producing the dreaded SAT I (which most people call the SAT). The SAT II Subject Tests were created to act as complements to the SAT I. Whereas the SAT I tests your critical thinking skills by asking math and verbal questions, the SAT II Subject Tests examine your knowledge of a particular subject, such as Writing, U.S. History, Physics, or Biology. The SAT I takes three hours; the Subject Tests take only one hour.
In our opinion, the SAT II Subject Tests are better tests than the SAT I because they cover a definitive topic rather than ambiguous critical thinking skills that are difficult to define. However, just because the SAT II Subject Tests do a better job of testing your knowledge of a useful subject doesn’t mean the tests are necessarily easier or demand less studying. A “better” test isn’t necessarily better for you in terms of how easy it will be.
The Good
[list][*]Because SAT II Subject tests cover actual topics like U.S. History or Biology, you can study for them effectively. If you don’t know a topic in U.S. History, such as the factors leading to the Louisiana Purchase, you can look it up and learn it. The SAT II tests are straightforward tests, which means that if you know your stuff, you will do well on them.[*]Often, the classes you’ve taken in school have already prepared you well for the test. If you’ve taken a U.S. history course, then you’ve probably already covered most of the topics that are tested on the SAT II U.S. History test. All you need to do well on the test is to get some refreshing and refocusing, which this book provides.[*]In studying for the History, Biology, or Chemistry SAT II tests, you really are learning History, Biology, and Chemistry. In other words, you are learning valuable, interesting knowledge. If learning is something you enjoy, you might actually find the process of studying for an SAT II test worthwhile and gratifying. It’s hard to say the same about studying for the SAT I.[/list]
The Bad
[list][*]Because SAT II subject tests quiz you on specific knowledge, “beating” or “outsmarting” an SAT II test is much harder than outsmarting the SAT I. For the SAT I, you can use all sorts of tricks or strategies to figure out an answer. There are far fewer strategies to help you on the SAT II. Don’t get us wrong: having test-taking skills [i]will[/i] help you on an SAT II, but knowing the subject will help you much, much more. In other words, to do well on the SAT II, you can’t just rely on your quick thinking and intelligence. You need to study![*]Introduction to the SAT II U.S. History
Imagine two children, Eloise and Bartholomew, racing in the forest. Who will win—Eloise, who never stumbles because she knows the placement of every tree and all the twists and turns and hiding spots, or Bartholomew, who keeps falling down and tripping over roots because he doesn’t pay any attention to the landscape? The answer is obvious. Even if Bartholomew is a little faster and more athletic, Eloise will win because she knows how to navigate the landscape and use it to her advantage.
This example of a race in the forest illustrates a point: in the metaphor, the forest is the structure of the SAT II, and the competition is taking the test. In this chapter we’re going to describe the “landscape” of the SAT II U.S. History: what topics the questions cover, what the questions look like, and how the questions are organized. In the next chapter, we’ll show you the strategies that will allow you to navigate and use the landscape to get the best score you can.
[*]Strategies for Taking the SAT II U.S. History
A machine, not a person, will score your SAT II U.S. History Test. The tabulating machine sees only the filled-in ovals on your answer sheet and does not care how you came to these answers; it just impassively notes whether your answers are correct. So whether you knew the correct answer right away or just took a lucky guess, the machine will award you one point. It doesn’t award extra points if you’ve spent a really long time getting the right answer. It doesn’t award points if you managed to get a tricky questsion right. Think of this scoring system as a message to you from the ETS: “We care only about your answers, and not about any of the thought behind them.”
So you should give ETS right answers, as many as possible, using whatever means possible. It’s obvious that the SAT II U.S. History Test allows you to show off your knowledge of U.S. history, but the test gives you the same opportunity to show off your foxlike cunning by figuring out what strategies will allow you to best display that knowledge.

[*]America Before the Europeans
Trends and Themes of the Era
[list][*]Humans first came to the Americas over a land bridge connecting Asia to Alaska more than 15,000 years ago, during the last ice age.[*]Over time, these nomadic hunting groups dispersed across the continent.[*]As the groups founded permanent settlements and learned to farm, they formed tribes with distinct cultural and social practices.[*]Tribes adapted their ways of life to the geographical regions in which they lived.[/list]
The Colonial Period
Trends and Themes of the Era
[list][*]Spain dominated the early years of European exploration of the New World, with France a distant second. England did not get seriously involved in the New World until nearly a century after Columbus landed.[*]After England defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588, the balance of power in the New World (and in Europe) shifted. After initial hardship in the colonies, English settlements showed the New World could bring profit and offered religious freedom. A quick buildup of colonial settlements began along the east coast of North America and continued through the seventeeth and eighteenth centuries.[*]Under its mercantilist economic policy, England created laws ensuring that its colonies existed primarily to enrich the mother country. England did not enforce these laws too strictly, employing a policy of “salutary neglect,” for fear of alienating the colonists and thereby helping France’s interests in the New World.[*]After the 1763 French and Indian War, England no longer worried about France as a threat, but faced huge war debts. England believed the colonies should bear the brunt of the debt because the war was for their benefit. England ended salutary neglect to the colonist’s dismay and anger.[/list]
Revolution and Constitution
Trends and Themes of the Era
[list][*]Increased British taxation of the colonies after the French and Indian war led to tension. Colonists felt they were being taxed without representation in government. The British felt the colonists were getting the benefits of English citizenship without paying the taxes required.[*]The colonies resisted British taxation and other legislation. The British responded by implementing stricter taxes and reprisals, which the colonists opposed more fiercely and violently. During this period, colonial resistance efforts became increasingly unified.[*]Colonists felt the British were denying them their natural rights, as described by John Locke and other Enlightenment thinkers. As revolution became more likely, many colonists hoped to implement a government independent of the British crown and based on Enlightenment ideals.[*]After the Revolution, the states reacted against their experience with the strong central government of Parliament by creating a loose federation under the Articles of Confederation. When this loose federation proved too weak, the colonists wrote the Constitution, which outlined a strong central government that, through the system of checks and balances, was still limited in scope. The Constitution represented a desire for a strong but limited government that was dedicated to preserving individual and state freedoms.[*]Two debates during the writing and ratification of the Constitution highlighted issues that would generate conflicts in the newly formed United States: (1) the separate interests of northern and southern states, and the role of slavery; (2) the proper balance between states’ rights and federal power.[/list]
A New Nation
Trends and Themes of the Era
[list][*]The U.S. government began to build and define itself under George Washington’s leadership.[*]The debates over ratification of the Constitution spawned the development of two separate political parties. New England Federalists supported a loose interpretation of the Constitution and a strong central government. Southern Republicans supported a strict interpretation of the Constitution and a more limited central government. Enmity between the two parties deepened, until the events of the War of 1812 finally eliminated the Federalists as a significant political party.[*]The U.S. made a concerted effort to stay out of European entanglements and maintain neutrality during its effort to build its national infrastructure. Often, though, the U.S. was caught in a tug-of-war between Britain and France. Eventually, British aggression and America’s desire to increase its territory and prove itself as an international force led to the War of 1812.[*]After the war, the U.S. enjoyed a period of optimism and general cooperation under a single political party: the Republicans. In this period, the U.S. asserted its dominance in the Western Hemisphere through the Monroe Doctrine.[*]Westward expansion began in earnest after the Louisiana Purchase. The sectional tensions created by expansion, made apparent in the Missouri Compromise, illustrated the increasing role slavery and regionalism would play in the politics of the nineteenth century.[*]Through various rulings, the Supreme Court established itself as a body able to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional and supportive of Federalist policies.[/list]The Age of Jackson
Trends and Themes of the Era
[list][*]Cracks based on regional differences began to appear in the Republican Party, resulting in a split into two parties: Democratic and Republican.[*]Coupled with lowered voting restrictions, the two-party system ushered in a newly democratic age, marked by greater choice in representation and increased voter turnout. Andrew Jackson, the first candidate from the West to win the presidency, appealed to the “common man.” Politics were increasingly swayed by the public, rather than by the elites.[*]The Nullification Crisis revealed deep regional differences in economic needs and attitudes about states’ rights versus federal power. The Nullification Crisis introduced the possibility of state secession from the Union.[*]Jackson turned the presidency into a vastly more powerful office, using the presidential veto to assert his political and legislative will and more deeply embedding the government in party politics.[/list]
Cultural Trends: 1781–Mid-1800s
During the first half of the nineteenth century, Americans worked hard to carve out a national identity in religion and culture, as well as in politics. This chapter covers the trends of the first 60 years of the United States, which is why we don’t include a trends and themes list.
Westward Expansion and Sectional Strife
Trends and Themes of the Era
[list][*]In the first half of the nineteenth century, the United States and its citizens were moved by a belief in manifest destiny, which held that it was the right and fate of the United States to cover the continent.[*]Technology, specifically in the form of the railroad, dramatically accelerated expansion.[*]Expansion intensified the sectional tension between the North and South by bringing to the forefront the issue of the extension of slavery into the West. Brief compromises relieved the tension from time to time, but no compromise was able to resolve the fundamental differences between the North and South.[/list]
Civil War and Reconstruction
Trends and Themes of the Era
[list][*]After Lincoln’s election, sectional differences over slavery and the question of states’ rights versus federal power erupted in the Civil War.[*]After the war, Lincoln favored a mild Reconstruction of the South, though Congress was dominated by Radical Republicans who favored a harsher reconstruction plan in order to punish the South for secession and for slavery. After Lincoln’s assassination, Congress overwhelmed Andrew Johnson, who had taken over as president, and instituted punitive Reconstruction policies.[*]Blacks in the South, freed during the Civil War, gained considerable rights during radical Reconstruction. Through both legal and illegal means, Southerners fought against the granting of these rights. After the failure of radical Reconstruction, Southerners used the Supreme Court’s [i]Plessy v. Ferguson[/i] decision to institutionalize segregation and the discrimination of blacks.(未完）[/list]


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感谢分享！~做的不错~！

好东西呀，谢了，我11月考

啊好厲害~~~~

我也11月考......谢谢谢谢