Lesson 4.2.2.1

4.2.2.1 Context: Modern times, 1945 to the present day (key issues) Quiz: AQA English Literature A, Unit 2

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson 4.2.2.1, Context: Modern times, 1945 to the present day (key issues): 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA English Literature A (7712), Unit 2: Texts in shared contexts, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. Which event in 1945 marks the start of the period covered by Option B?

    • The Russian Revolution
    • The end of the Second World War
    • The signing of the Treaty of Versailles
    • The start of the First World War

  2. Which organisation was founded in 1945 to promote international peace and cooperation?

    • The League of Nations
    • The European Union
    • NATO
    • The United Nations

  3. Which political division defined much of the period after 1945?

    • The Cold War between East and West
    • The Hundred Years War between England and France, fought across the medieval period
    • The Congress of Vienna, which redrew the map of Europe after the defeat of Napoleon
    • The Wars of the Roses between the houses of Lancaster and York in the fifteenth century

  4. What new fear shaped the post-1945 world?

    • Famine across Europe
    • Nuclear war
    • Piracy at sea
    • Plague

  5. Which process saw many colonies gain independence after 1945?

    • Urbanisation
    • Industrialisation
    • Enclosure
    • Decolonisation

  6. In which year did India gain independence from Britain?

    • 1947
    • 1914
    • 1989
    • 1963

  7. What social change of the 1960s is associated with second-wave feminism?

    • Women's demands for equal rights and freedoms
    • The abolition of the monarchy
    • The end of television broadcasting
    • The founding of the League of Nations

  8. When did the Berlin Wall go up?

    • 1945
    • 1961
    • 1975
    • 1989

  9. Which event in 1989 symbolised the end of the Cold War division of Europe?

    • The Yalta Conference
    • The fall of the Berlin Wall
    • The launch of Sputnik
    • The Cuban Missile Crisis

  10. Which 1948 event brought many Caribbean migrants to Britain?

    • The Gunpowder Plot, the failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605
    • The Suez Crisis, the 1956 confrontation over the canal that ended British influence in Egypt
    • The Battle of Britain, the aerial campaign fought over southern England in the summer of 1940
    • The arrival of the Windrush

  11. Which British institution was founded in 1948?

    • The National Health Service
    • The BBC
    • The Royal Navy's submarine service
    • The Football League

  12. Which term describes the post-war growth of the welfare state in Britain?

    • Mercantilism
    • Feudalism
    • Laissez-faire
    • Welfare state

  13. Which movement of the 1950s and 1960s in the USA fought racial segregation?

    • The Civil Rights Movement
    • The Luddite Movement
    • The Prohibition Movement
    • The Suffragette Movement

  14. Which 1955 event sparked the Montgomery bus boycott?

    • The end of the Korean War, which was marked by an armistice agreement signed in 1953
    • Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat
    • The Battle of Montgomery, the military engagement fought in Alabama during the Civil War
    • The launch of Apollo 11, the mission that carried the first humans to the surface of the Moon

  15. Which concept describes a society's increasing economic and cultural connection across the globe after 1980?

    • Mercantilism
    • Globalisation
    • Enclosure
    • Feudal obligation

  16. Which 1979 event brought Margaret Thatcher to power in Britain?

    • The Winter of Discontent's end by royal decree
    • The general election
    • The miners' strike
    • The Falklands War

  17. Which list of issues does the specification identify as areas to explore in Modern times?

    • Wars and their legacy, identity, morality and social structures
    • Only military tactics, such as the design of fortifications and the use of artillery in sieges
    • Only religious doctrine, such as the teachings of the church on sin, grace and salvation
    • Only agricultural methods, such as crop rotation, drainage and the enclosure of farmland

  18. Which 1962 crisis brought the USA and USSR closest to nuclear war?

    • The Cuban Missile Crisis
    • The Suez Crisis
    • The Korean Armistice
    • The Yom Kippur War

  19. Which term describes the removal of rights or identity through state oppression, a theme in post-war fiction?

    • Monarchism, the belief that a single hereditary ruler should hold supreme power in the state
    • Liberalism, the political philosophy that stresses individual liberty and limited government
    • Totalitarianism
    • Federalism, the system in which power is shared between a central government and regions

  20. Evaluate: why is the post-1945 context important for reading Option B texts?

    • It means the texts all share a single style, with the same structure and voice throughout
    • It proves all the authors were politicians who wrote their novels to support their parties
    • It shows the texts were written before 1945, in the years before the war had ended
    • It shapes the texts' concerns with identity, power and social change

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