Pirate Democracy (Reading)

Click the link below for the reading passage:

Pirate Democracy

1) All of the following are true EXCEPT:

A) Without some form of government, pirate ships would not have worked well.
B) Pirates preferred not to allow one individual to have too much power.
C) Pirates had democratic societies before the Americans.
D) Pirates learned about democracy from working on plantations.


2) According to paragraph 3, why did pirates adopt the government that they did?

A) Pirates captains often wielded absolute authority and abused their men.
B) Slaves and indentured servants had experienced democracy first hand and wanted to spread it.
C) They preferred dictatorships to other forms of government.
D) Many of the pirates had been oppressed in the past and did not want that to happen to them again.

3) In paragraph 4, line 1, the word "evolved" is closest in meaning to:

A) powerful
B) revolutionary
C) advanced
D) uncertain

4) From paragraph 4, the sentence, "The captain, who only ruled absolutely in times of battle, was the executive branch; the quartermaster, who arbitrated disagreements and doled out punishments, was the judiciary; and the entire crew served as the legislature, voting on matters of importance, such as when to attack other vessels and when to elect a new captain," can be restated as:

A) Controlling the battles, the captain was the most powerful person on the ship, followed by the quartermaster, who dealt with punishment, and the crew, who voted.
B) The crew voted on certain issues and the quartermaster enforced the law, but the captain was in charge during fights.
C) The captain could be compared to the highest section of a democratic government, while the quartermaster and the crew represented the legal system and the source of the ships laws respectively.
D) Different members of a pirate ship represented the parts of a democratic government and the crew voted on important issues to prevent the quartermaster and captain from holding too much power.


5) In paragraph 5, line 3, the word "deposed" is closest in meaning to:

A) dethroned
B) unbiased
C) debilitated
D) destabilized


6) From paragraph 7, what can be inferred about the relationship between pirates and the American colonies?

A) Pirates directly influenced the American democratic structures.
B) Pirates spent a significant amount of time in American ports.
C) The Americans preferred to trade with pirates rather than Europeans.
D) Pirates helped the early American economy indirectly.


7) Choose three sentences that best summarize the passage:

A) Pirates developed governments based on American democracy.

B) Pirates had an egalitarian system for retiring injured pirates.

C) Captain Howell Davis respected his crew's decision to remove him from his position.

D) Pirates were likely helped the new American colonies survive.

E) Most pirates preferred democratic governments because they had had problems with authority in the past.

F) Without democracy, pirate ships would have been unmanageable and disorderly.