Read the following selection, then answer the multiple-choice questions based on the content of the passage. Use the concepts and skills you have learned from your textbook in any way that you feel will aid in your comprehension of the material.

Question

The Persian Gulf War

In August 1990, with Iraqi forces poised near the Saudi Arabian border (please refer to Map 1), the Bush administration dispatched 180,000 troops to protect the Saudi kingdom. The crisis took a dramatic turn in November 1990 when Bush doubled the number of American troops deployed in the Persian Gulf. Iraqi forces in Kuwait had climbed to 430,000 and coalition forces had to increase if Iraq was to be ejected from Kuwait by force. The president went to the United Nations for a resolution permitting the use of force against Iraq if it did not with- draw by January 15, 1991. After a heated debate, Congress also gave the president authority to wage war.
The 545,000-strong Iraqi army, the world’s fourth largest, was equipped with antiship Exocet missiles, top-of-the-line Soviet T-72 tanks, and long-range artillery capable of firing nerve gas. Hussein tried to bring Israel into the war by launching
Scud missiles at Israeli cities, a strategy thwarted when the United States sent Patriot antimissile missiles to Israel. A month of bombing gave the coalition forces air supremacy and destroyed thousands of Iraqi tanks and artillery pieces, supply routes and communications lines, and command-and-control bunkers, and limited Iraq’s ability to produce nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. Iraqi troop morale suffered so badly during the bombing that an estimated 30 percent of Baghdad’s forces deserted before the ground campaign even started.
The allied ground campaign relied on deception, mobility, and overwhelming air superiority to defeat a larger Iraqi army. The allied strategy was to mislead the Iraqis into believing that the allied attack would occur along the Kuwaiti coastline and Kuwait’s border with Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf,
U. S. commander of the coalition forces, shifted more than 300,000 U.S., British, and French troops into western Saudi Arabia, allowing them to strike deeply in Iraq and trap Iraqi forces deep in southern Iraq and Kuwait. Only 100 hours after the ground war started, the war ended.

1. It can be inferred from the passage that the Saudi Arabian government
a. tried to keep the United States from entering the war.
b. asked for assistance from the United States government.
c. remained neutral throughout the war.

2. During the Persian Gulf War, the leader of the Iraqi forces was
a. Schwarzkopf.
b. Bush.
c. Hussein.

3. It is implied in the selection that the United States Congress
a. was eager to go to war.
b. was reluctant to go to war.
c. remained neutral in regard to war.

4. As used in the passage, thwarted most nearly means
a. defeated.
b. victorious.
c. encouraged.

5. By reading Map 1, one can see that Iraq
a. is south of Saudi Arabia.
b. west of Syria.
c. north of Saudi Arabia.

Answer 1

1. b.
2. c.
3. b.
4. a.
5. c.