Deck 14: Urban Life

Question 1

What percentage of the U.S. population lives in an urban area?

A)41 percent
B)61 percent
C)81 percent
D)99 percent

Answer 1

C

Question 2

If you were to study the decentralization of the urban population leading to rapid, unplanned, and low-density development at the edge of expanding urban areas, you would be investigating

A)urban sprawl.
B)the rural rebound.
C)urban expansion.
D)megalopolis.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

After World War II, the search for new housing, economic prosperity, and the greater physical mobility brought on by cars combined to push more and more people outward from the central cities into

A)coastal communities.
B)suburbs.
C)small towns.
D)rural villages.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

In the United States, the industrial metropolis reached its peak population by the end of the

A)1890s.
B)1920s.
C)1940s.
D)1960s.

Question 5

When the United States declared independence in 1776, what percentage of the population lived in cities?

A)5 percent
B)15 percent
C)25 percent
D)35 percent

Question 6

The movement of businesses from the central city to centers some distance from the old downtowns has created

A)the "new downtown."
B)edge cities.
C)rural villages.
D)urban sprawl.

Question 7

Flying south from Boston on a clear night and looking down on an unbroken carpet of lights, showing settlements all the way to Virginia, would reveal the existence of

A)the rural rebound.
B)a megalopolis.
C)the outer beltway.
D)an exurbia.

Question 8

The postindustrial economy, which emerged during the final decades of the twentieth century and was marked by service work and computer technology, had the effect of

A)centralizing population in cities.
B)decentralizing population away from central cities.
C)dramatically decreasing the share of population in urban areas.
D)holding steady the share of population in urban areas.

Question 9

The public began to link industrial cities with social problems by about

A)1980.
B)1960.
C)1940.
D)1900.

Question 10

The era of the "industrial metropolis" in the United States lasted from

A)1776 to about 1800.
B)1800 until about 1860.
C)1860 until about 1950.
D)1950 to the present.

Question 11

Tara lives in the Dallas suburbs and commutes downtown to work every day. Like the typical suburbanite living near a major metropolitan area, Tara spends at least thirty minutes

A)running errands.
B)eating out.
C)driving to work.
D)telecommuting.

Question 12

William Julius Wilson has observed that in the Washington Park area of Chicago during the early 1950s, most African American adults were working and supporting their families. By the 1990s, he reports, what share of these residents was unemployed?

A)one-fourth
B)one-third
C)one-half
D)two-thirds

Question 13

The term "metropolis" is derived from the Greek, meaning

A)"immigration."
B)"mother city."
C)"urban center."
D)"community."

Question 14

In 1949, in response to the decline of many central-city neighborhoods, the federal government passed the Urban Housing Act, which created the policy of

A)urban taxation.
B)urban renewal.
C)urban sprawl.
D)urban public schooling.

Question 15

In 1900, more than one-third of New Yorkers lived in small apartments with few or no windows and shared bathrooms. These apartments were called

A)ghettos.
B)flop houses.
C)tenements.
D)co-ops.

Question 16

In 2012, the poverty rate was highest in which of the following areas of the country?

A)suburbs
B)central cities
C)rural areas
D)the heartland

Question 17

Jacob Riis was

A)an early photojournalist who raised awareness of urban problems.
B)a union leader who helped organized the meat-packers.
C)a New York mayor who fought for better water quality.
D)an early teacher who campaigned for tax-funded public education.

Question 18

Urban areas beyond the political boundaries of cities are referred to as

A)suburbs.
B)small towns.
C)planned communities.
D)rural villages.

Question 19

During the post-industrial revival that began in the 1980s, service sector jobs increased in cities like New York. A second factor that helped cities recover was

A)increased immigration from Latin America and Asia.
B)the movement of industrial factory jobs to suburban areas.
C)that publishing companies moved from the East Coast to the West Coast.
D)there was no recession during the 1980s.

Question 20

In the mid-1970s, New York City, like many other cities in industrial regions, faced

A)a fiscal crisis.
B)a population boom caused mostly by immigration.
C)an economic boom caused by a surging economy.
D)a period of stability after decades of rapid growth.

Question 21

What policy created high-density apartment buildings to house the poor?

A)pedestrian malls
B)public housing
C)urban sprawl
D)urban decentralization

Question 22

What is the term for settlements, common in poor nations, where people have constructed makeshift homes from whatever materials they can find, and where most people do not have even clean water and sewerage?

A)ghettos
B)shantytowns
C)tenements
D)edge cities

Question 23

Oscar Newman studied public housing and concluded that crime was much more common in

A)high-income buildings.
B)high-rise buildings.
C)older buildings.
D)buildings near subway stops.

Question 24

If you were a critic of urban renewal, you would say that it had failed because it

A)pushed out low-income people who needed housing the most.
B)did little to improve "urban blight."
C)failed to attract the interest of private developers.
D)created urban sprawl.

Question 25

Which of the following statements is correct?

A)Almost all homeless people have a full-time job.
B)Half of all homeless people have a full-time job.
C)About 20 percent of homeless people have at least a part-time job.
D)Almost no homeless people work for income.

Question 26

In the late 1980s, Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton examined large cities across the United States and documented the existence of a pattern they called

A)hypersegregation.
B)central isolation.
C)overcrowding.
D)urban sprawl.

Question 27

Most of the world's largest cities are now in

A)the United States.
B)economically developing nations.
C)Europe.
D)high-income countries.

Question 28

Compared to the rate of population increase for the world as a whole, the rate of population increase for the world's urban areas

A)is declining rapidly.
B)is declining slowly.
C)is remaining steady.
D)is increasing twice as fast.

Question 29

When low-income families move in to Section 8 housing, they

A)must agree to rehabilitate the house in return for a low-interest mortgage.
B)pay 30-40 percent of their adjusted gross income for rent, and the government pays the rest.
C)live rent-free for the first five years, with the money they would have paid for rent going into a savings program to cover future housing costs.
D)must pay half the market value of the housing in one lump sum.

Question 30

Which of the following terms refers to a program that combines low-income housing with on-site social services?

A)supportive housing
B)Housing and Urban Development
C)public housing
D)group homes

Question 31

Which of the following sociologists developed the theory of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft?

A)Karl Marx
B)Emile Durkheim
C)Ferdinand Tönnies
D)Louis Wirth

Question 32

Homelessness is primarily found in which setting?

A)rural areas
B)urban areas
C)edge cities
D)suburban areas

Question 33

In 1950, eight of the ten largest U.S. cities were in the Northeast and Midwest-a region often called the

A)Sunbelt.
B)Snowbelt.
C)Industrialization Zone.
D)Beltway Corridor.

Question 34

In 2012, seven of the ten largest cities in terms of population were in the South and West-a region often called the

A)Sunbelt.
B)Snowbelt.
C)Great Plains.
D)Bible Belt.

Question 35

The description of the Smokey Mountain section of Manila in the Philippines leads us to conclude that

A)many social problems found in the United States are far worse in poor countries.
B)other countries have solved many of the social problems we face here at home.
C)most social problems have more than one solution.
D)many social problems in the United States are getting worse.

Question 36

Living in large industrial cities, people interact on the basis of self interest. This type of social organization reflects what Tönnies referred to as

A)Gesellschaft.
B)Gemeinschaft.
C)organic solidarity.
D)a primary group.

Question 37

Today, the Sunbelt is home to what percentage of the U.S. population?

A)30 percent
B)40 percent
C)50 percent
D)60 percent

Question 38

Although there is no precise tally of homeless people, most estimates suggest that about how many people in the United States are homeless for some period of time during any given year?

A)5,000
B)50,000
C)500,000
D)1.5 million

Question 39

Who distinguished between mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity when he tried to explain rural living giving way to life in the industrial metropolis?

A)Emile Durkheim
B)Ferdinand Tönnies
C)Max Weber
D)Karl Marx

Question 40

In recent decades, high-rise public housing

A)has expanded to every city in the United States.
B)has fallen out of favor, with some projects even being torn down.
C)has been constructed mostly in the suburbs.
D)has been converted to upscale shopping malls.

Question 41

Within which of the following types of social organization did Tönnies claim that the typical person pays only passing attention to the welfare of the community, but mostly "looks out for number one?"

A)Gemeinschaft
B)Gesellschaft
C)mechanical solidarity
D)organic solidarity

Question 42

Explain what we learn about urban life from Ferdinand Tönnies, Emile Durkheim, Louis Wirth, and Georg Simmel. Based on what you have learned, can you envision ways to make our cities better?

Question 43

What were the goals of urban renewal following World War II? Who would consider urban renewal a success? Who would consider it a failure? Why?

Question 44

Explain how urban decentralization and the expansion of suburbs in the United States led to a fiscal crisis of large cities by the 1970s.

Question 45

Which term refers to a type of social solidarity based on specialization and mutual interdependence?

A)Gemeinschaft
B)mechanical solidarity
C)organic solidarity
D)Gesellschaft

Question 46

From which political point of view do people explain problems like street violence and poverty in terms of family breakdown?

A)liberal
B)conservative
C)radical left
D)radical right

Question 47

Which early U.S. sociologist defined the city as a settlement with a large, dense, socially diverse population?

A)Emile Durkheim
B)Ferdinand Tönnies
C)Louis Wirth
D)Claude Fischer

Question 48

Bill agrees with the statement that in a historical perspective, urban life has improved. As a conservative, he believes this improvement is due to

A)economic forces.
B)government policy.
C)a positive human nature.
D)religious work ethic.

Question 49

Emile Durkheim described the social ties commonly found in traditional, rural areas as

A)Gemeinschaft.
B)mechanical solidarity.
C)Gesellschaft.
D)organic solidarity.

Question 50

Elizabeth believes that cities suffer from the effects of social inequality, requiring reform efforts led by our government. Her political viewpoint would be described as

A)liberal
B)conservative
C)radical left
D)radical right

Question 51

What do conservatives, liberals, and radicals see as the problems of today's cities? What policies does each point of view define as a solution to these problems? Which positions comes closest to your own?

Question 52

Which German sociologist explained that people living in cities experience intense stimulation and often respond by "tuning out" some of the world around them?

A)Ferdinand Tönnies
B)Georg Simmel
C)Karl Marx
D)Herbert Spencer

Question 53

Provide a brief history of the development of cities in the United States. How did cities change over time?

Question 54

The application of social-conflict theory to cities focuses on

A)how cities influence people's daily living and health.
B)how the economy and politics shape the city and urban life.
C)how high density living generates urbanism, a distinctive form of social life.
D)the development of urban livers' often detached, cosmopolitan attitude.

Question 55

According to which political point of view are cities in crisis due to our society giving free reign to market forces?

A)liberal
B)conservative
C)radical left
D)radical right