Read each paragraph and then choose the letter of the main idea.
By 1066, the English social system was elaborate and stable. There were many strata.3
At the
bottom were serfs or slaves; next cottagers or cottars; then villeins, who farmed as much perhaps
as fifty acres; then thanes, who drew rents in kind from the villeins; then earls, each ruling one of
the six great earldoms that covered the country; and above all, the king.
Adapted from David Howarth, 1066 (New York: Penguin, 1977), 14.
Main Idea:
a. There were six ruling English earldoms in 1066.
b. In 1066, villeins were people who farmed perhaps as many as fifty acres.
c. The English social system in 1066 was stable and had many strata.
d. At the top of the entire English social system in 1066 was the king.
Question 2
Read each paragraph and then choose the letter of the main idea.
The War of 1812 saw the birth of an American icon1
: Uncle Sam. He appears to have arisen in
1813 in Troy, New York, but little more than that is known. The inspiration for Uncle Sam is
sometimes traced to one Samuel Wilson, an army inspector in Troy, but it seems more probable2
that the name was merely derived from the initials U. S. The top-hatted, striped-trousered figure
we associate with the name was popularized in the 1860s in the cartoons of Thomas Nast and
later reinforced by the famous I WANT YOU recruiting posters of the artist James Montgomery
Flagg.
Adapted from Bill Bryson, Made in America (New York: Avon Books, 1994), 65.
Main Idea:
a. Uncle Sam possibly originated in 1813 and was later popularized by Thomas
Nast and James Montgomery Flagg.
b. Americans first saw Uncle Sam in the top-hatted, striped-trousered cartoon
figure created by Thomas Nast in the 1860s.
c. Samuel Wilson, an army inspector in Troy, was definitely the inspiration for the
original Uncle Sam.
d. It is possible that the American icon Uncle Sam was merely derived from the
initials U.S.