2023 Civic Test

Question: What is the supreme law of the land?

Answer: The Constitution

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Question: What does the Constitution do?

Answer: sets up the government

defines the government

protects basic rights of Americans

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Question: The idea of self-government is in the first three words of the Constitution. What are these words?

Answer: We the People

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Question: What is an amendment?

Answer: a change (to the Constitution)

an addition (to the Constitution)

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Question: What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution?

Answer: The Bill of Rights

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Question: What is one right or freedom from the First Amendment?

Answer: speech, religion, assembly, press, petition the groverment

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Question: How many amendments does the Constitution have?

Answer: twenty-seven (27)

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Question: What did the Declaration of Independence do?

Answer: said that the United States is free (from Great Britain)

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Question: What are two rights in the Declaration of Independence?

Answer: Life

Liberty

Pursue of happiness

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Question: What is freedom of religion?

Answer: You can practice any religion, or not practice any religion

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Question: What is the economic system in the United States?

Answer: capitalist economy

market economy

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Question: What is the “Rule of Law”?

Answer: Everyone must follow the law.

Leaders must obey the law.

Government must obey the law.

No one is above the law.

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Question: Name one branch or part of the government.

Answer: Congress, legislative,

president, executive,

the courts, or judicial

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Question: What stops one branch of government from becoming too powerful?

Answer: Checks and balances,

Separation of powers

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Question: Who is in charge of the executive branch?

Answer: The President

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Question: Who makes federal laws?

Answer: Congress

Senate and House (of Representatives)

(U.S. or national) legislature

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Question: What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress?

Answer: The Senate (or upper house) and The House (or House of Representatives)

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Question: How many U.S. Senators are there?

Answer: One hundred (100)

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Question: We elect a U.S. Senator for how many years?

Answer: Six (6)

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Question: Who is one of your state’s U.S. Senators now?

Answer: Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham

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Question: The House of Representatives has how many voting members?

Answer: Four hundred thirty-five (435)

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Question: We elect a U.S. Representative for how many years?

Answer: Two (2)

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Question: Name your U.S. Representative.

Answer: James Clyburn - 6th District

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Question: Who does a U.S. Senator represent?

Answer: All the people of the state he or she is elected from

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Question: Why do some states have more Representatives than other states?

Answer: Because of the state’s population

because they have more people

because some states have more people

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Question: We elect a President for how many years?

Answer: Four (4)

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Question: In what mouth do we vote for President?

Answer: November

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Question: What is the name of the President of the United States now?

Answer: Joe Biden

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Question: What is the name of the Vice President of the United States now?

Answer: Kamala Harris

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Question: If the President can no longer serve, who becomes President?

Answer: The Vice President

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Question: If both the President and the Vice President can no longer serve, who becomes President?

Answer: The Speaker of the House

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Question: Who is the Commander in Chief of the military?

Answer: The President

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Question: Who signs bills to become laws?

Answer: The President

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Question: Who vetoes bills?

Answer: The President

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Question: What does the President’s Cabinet do?

Answer: Advises the President

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Question: What are two Cabinet-level positions?

Answer: Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Transportation, Vice President, Secretary of Education, Secretary of Commerce,

Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Energy, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Secretary of Homeland Security, Attorney General, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of the State

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Question: What does the judicial branch do?

Answer: Reviews laws

Explains laws

Resolves disputes (disagreements)

Decides if a law goes against the Constitution

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Question: What is the highest court in the United States?

Answer: The Supreme Court

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Question: How many justices are on the Supreme Court?

Answer: Nine (9)

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Question: Who is the Chief Justice of the United States now?

Answer: John Roberts

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Question: Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government?

Answer: To print money, to declare war, to create an army, to make treaties

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Question: Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the states. What is one power of the states?

Answer: Provide schooling and education, provide protection- police, provide safety -fire department, give drivers license, approve zoning and land use

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Question: Who is the Governor of your state now?

Answer: Henry McMaster

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Question: What is the capital of your state?

Answer: Columbia

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Question: What are the two major political parties in the United States?

Answer: Democratic and Republican

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Question: What is the political party of the President now?

Answer: Democratic (party)

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Question: What is the name of the Speaker of the House of Representatives now?

Answer: Kevin McCarthy

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Question: There are four amendments to the Constitution about who can vote. Describe one of them.

Answer: Citizens eighteen (18) or older can vote, you don’t have to pay (a poll tax) to vote, any citizen can vote (men or women can vote), a male citizen with any race can vote

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Question: What is one responsibility that is only for United States citizens?

Answer: Serve on a Jury, vote in a federal election

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Question: Name one right only for United States citizens.

Answer: vote in a federal election

run for federal office

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Question: What are two rights of everyone living in the United States?

Answer: Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, Freedom of religion, freedom to petition the government, the right to bear arms

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Question: What do we show loyalty to when we say the Pledge of Allegiance?

Answer: The United States , the flag

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Question: What is one promise you make when you become a United States citizen?

Answer: Be loyal to the United States, obey the laws of the United States, defend the Constitution and laws of the United States

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Question: How old do citizens have to be to vote for President?

Answer: Eighteen (18) or older

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Question: What are two ways that Americans can participate in their democracy?

Answer: Vote, write to a newspaper, join a political party, help with a campaign, join a civic group, give an elected official your opinion on an issue, call senators and representatives, run for office, publicly support or oppose an issue or policy

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Question: When is the last day you can send in federal income tax forms?

Answer: April 15

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Question: When must all men register for the Selective Service?

Answer: at age eighteen, Between eighteen (18) and twenty-six (26)

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Question: What is one reason colonists came to America?

Answer: freedom

political liberty

religious freedom

economic opportunity

practice their religion

escape persecution

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Question: Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived?

Answer: Native Americans

American Indians

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Question: What group of people was taken to America and sold as slaves?

Answer: Africans, People from Africa

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Question: Why did the colonists fight the British?

Answer: Because of high taxes (taxation without representation)

Because the British army stayed in their houses (boarding, quartering)

Because they didn’t have self-government

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Question: Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?

Answer: Thomas Jefferson

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Question: When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?

Answer: July 4, 1776

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Question: There we 13 original states. Name three.

Answer: South Carolina, North Carolina and Maryland

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Question: What happened at the Constitutional Convention?

Answer: The Constitution was written.

The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution.

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Question: When was the Constitution written?

Answer: 1787

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Question: The Federalist Papers supported the passage of the U.S. Constitution. Name one of the writers.

Answer: James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Publius

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Question: What is one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for?

Answer: U.S. diplomat

oldest member of the Constitutional Convention

first Postmaster General of the United States

writer of “Poor Richard’s Almanac”

started the first free libraries

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Question: Who is the “Father of Our Country”?

Answer: George Washington

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Question: Who was the first President?

Answer: George Washington

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Question: What territory did the United States buy from France in 1803?

Answer: The Louisiana Territory

Louisiana

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Question: Name one war fought by the United States in the 1800s.

Answer: War of 1812, Mexican-American War, Civil War, Spanish-American War

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Question: Name the U.S. war between the North and the South.

Answer: the Civil War or the War between the States

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Question: Name one problem that led to the Civil War.

Answer: slavery

economic reasons

states’ rights

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Question: What was one important thing that Abraham Lincoln did?

Answer: Freed the slaves (emancipation proclamation), saved (or preserved) the union, led the united states during the civil war

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Question: What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?

Answer: freed the slaves

freed slaves in the Confederacy

freed slaves in the Confederate states

freed slaves in most Southern states

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Question: What did Susan B. Anthony do?

Answer: fought for women’s rights

fought for civil rights

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Question: Name one was fought by the United States in the 1900s

Answer: World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War,

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Question: Who was President during World War I?

Answer: Woodrow Wilson

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Question: Who was President during the Great Depression and World War II?

Answer: Franklin Roosevelt

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Question: Who did the United States fight in World War II?

Answer: Japan, Germany, and Italy

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Question: Before he was President, Eisenhower was a general. What war was he in?

Answer: World War II

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Question: During the Cold War, what was the main concern of the United States?

Answer: Communism

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Question: What movement tried to end racial discrimination?

Answer: civil rights movement

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Question: What did Martin Luther King, Jr. do?

Answer: fought for civil rights

worked for equality for all Americans

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Question: What major event happened on September 11, 2001, in the United States?

Answer: Terrorists attacked the United States

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Question: Name one American Indian tribe in the United States.

Answer: Cherokee, Apache, Inuit, Iroquois, Teton

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Question: Name one of the two longest rivers in the United States.

Answer: Mississippi River, Missouri River

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Question: What ocean is on the West Coast of the United States?

Answer: Pacific Ocean

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Question: What ocean is on the East Coast of the United States?

Answer: Atlantic Ocean

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Question: Name one U.S. territory.

Answer: Puerto Rico

U.S. Virgin Islands

American Samoa

Northern Mariana Islands

Guam

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Question: Name one state that borders Canada.

Answer: New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Penn, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, or Montana

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Question: Name one state that borders Mexico.

Answer: Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico

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Question: What is the capital of the United States?

Answer: Washington D.C.

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Question: Where is the Statue of Liberty?

Answer: New York (Harbor)

Liberty Island

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Question: Why does the flag have 13 stripes?

Answer: Because there were 13 original colonies

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Question: Why does the flag have 50 stars?

Answer: Because there are 50 states

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Question: What is the name of the national anthem?

Answer: The Star-Spangled Banner

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Question: When do we celebrate Independence Day?

Answer: July 4

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Question: Name two national U.S. holidays.

Answer: Thanksgiving and Christmas (New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day)

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