Practice the U.S. Citizenship Test

• Republic
• Constitution-based federal republic
• Representative democracy

• (U.S.) Constitution

• Forms the government
• Defines powers of government
• Defines the parts of government
• Protects the rights of the people

• Self-government
• Popular sovereignty
• Consent of the governed
• People should govern themselves
• (Example of) social contract

• Amendments
• The amendment process

• (The basic) rights of Americans
• (The basic) rights of people living in the United States

• Twenty-seven (27)

• It says America is free from British control.
• It says all people are created equal.
• It identifies inherent rights.
• It identifies individual freedoms.

• Declaration of Independence

• Equality
• Liberty
• Social contract
• Natural rights
• Limited government
• Self-government

• Declaration of Independence

• Capitalism
• Free market economy

• Everyone must follow the law.
• Leaders must obey the law.
• Government must obey the law.
• No one is above the law.

• Declaration of Independence
• Articles of Confederation
• Federalist Papers
• Anti-Federalist Papers
• Virginia Declaration of Rights
• Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
• Mayflower Compact
• Iroquois Great Law of Peace

• So one part does not become too powerful
• Checks and balances
• Separation of powers

• Legislative, executive, and judicial
• Congress, president, and the courts

• Executive branch

• (U.S.) Congress
• (U.S. or national) legislature
• Legislative branch

• Senate and House (of Representatives)

• Writes laws
• Declares war
• Makes the federal budget

• One hundred (100)

• Six (6) years

• Answers will vary. [District of Columbia residents and residents of U.S. territories should answer that D.C. (or the territory where the applicant lives) has no U.S. senators.]

• Four hundred thirty-five (435)

• Two (2) years

• To more closely follow public opinion

• Two (2)

• Equal representation (for small states)
• The Great Compromise (Connecticut Compromise)

• Answers will vary. [Residents of territories with nonvoting Delegates or Resident Commissioners may provide the name of that Delegate or Commissioner. Also acceptable is any statement that the territory has no (voting) representatives in Congress.]

• Visit uscis.gov/citizenship/testupdates for the name of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

• Citizens of their state
• People of their state

• Citizens from their state

• Citizens in their (congressional) district
• Citizens in their district
• People from their (congressional) district
• People in their district

• Citizens from their (congressional) district

• (Because of) the state’s population
• (Because) they have more people
• (Because) some states have more people

• Four (4) years

• (Because of) the 22nd Amendment
• To keep the president from becoming too powerful

• Visit uscis.gov/citizenship/testupdates for the name of the President of the United States.

• Visit uscis.gov/citizenship/testupdates for the name of the Vice President of the United States.

• The Vice President (of the United States)

• Signs bills into law
• Vetoes bills
• Enforces laws
• Commander in Chief (of the military)
• Chief diplomat
• Appoints federal judges

• The President (of the United States)

• The President (of the United States)

• The President (of the United States)

• The President (of the United States)

• President (of the United States)
• Cabinet
• Federal departments and agencies

• Advises the President (of the United States)

• Attorney General
• Secretary of Agriculture
• Secretary of Commerce
• Secretary of Education
• Secretary of Energy
• Secretary of Health and Human Services
• Secretary of Homeland Security
• Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
• Secretary of the Interior
• Secretary of Labor
• Secretary of State
• Secretary of Transportation
• Secretary of the Treasury
• Secretary of Veterans Affairs
• Secretary of War (Defense)
• Vice-President
• Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
• Administrator of the Small Business Administration
• Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
• Director of the Office of Management and Budget
• Director of National Intelligence
• United States Trade Representative

• It decides who is elected president.
• It provides a compromise between the popular election of the president and congressional selection.

• Supreme Court
• Federal Courts

• Reviews laws
• Explains laws
• Resolves disputes (disagreements) about the law
• Decides if a law goes against the (U.S.) Constitution

• Supreme Court

• Nine (9)

• Five (5)

• (For) life
• Lifetime appointment
• (Until) retirement

• To be independent (of politics)
• To limit outside (political) influence

• Visit uscis.gov/citizenship/testupdates for the name of the Chief Justice of the United States.

• Print paper money
• Mint coins
• Declare war
• Create an army
• Make treaties
• Set foreign policy

• Provide schooling and education
• Provide protection (police)
• Provide safety (fire departments)
• Give a driver’s license
• Approve zoning and land use

• (It states that the) powers not given to the federal government belong to the states or to the people.

• Answers will vary. [District of Columbia residents should answer that D.C. does not have a governor.]

• Answers will vary. [District of Columbia residents should answer that D.C. is not a state and does not have a capital. Residents of U.S. territories should name the capital of the territory.]

• Citizens eighteen (18) and older (can vote).
• You don’t have to pay (a poll tax) to vote.
• Any citizen can vote. (Women and men can vote.)
• A male citizen of any race (can vote).

• Citizens
• Citizens of the United States
• U.S. citizens

• Freedom of expression
• Freedom of speech
• Freedom of assembly
• Freedom to petition the government
• Freedom of religion
• The right to bear arms

• The United States
• The flag

• Give up loyalty to other countries
• Defend the (U.S.) Constitution
• Obey the laws of the United States
• Serve in the military (if needed)
• Serve (help, do important work for) the nation (if needed)
• Be loyal to the United States

• Be born in the United States, under the conditions set by the 14th Amendment
• Naturalize
• Derive citizenship (under conditions set by Congress)

• Vote
• Run for office
• Join a political party
• Help with a campaign
• Join a civic group
• Join a community group
• Give an elected official your opinion (on an issue)
• Contact elected officials
• Support or oppose an issue or policy
• Write to a newspaper

• Vote
• Pay taxes
• Obey the law
• Serve in the military
• Run for office
• Work for local, state, or federal government

• Required by law
• All people pay to fund the federal government
• Required by the (U.S.) Constitution (16th Amendment)
• Civic duty

• Required by law
• Civic duty
• Makes the draft fair, if needed

• Freedom
• Political liberty
• Religious freedom
• Economic opportunity
• Escape persecution

• American Indians
• Native Americans

• Africans
• People from Africa

• American Revolution
• The (American) Revolutionary War
• War for (American) Independence

• High taxes
• Taxation without representation
• British soldiers stayed in Americans’ houses (boarding, quartering)
• They did not have self-government
• Boston Massacre
• Boston Tea Party (Tea Act)
• Stamp Act
• Sugar Act
• Townshend Acts
• Intolerable (Coercive) Acts

• (Thomas) Jefferson

• July 4, 1776

• (Battle of) Bunker Hill
• Declaration of Independence
• Washington Crossing the Delaware (Battle of Trenton)
• (Battle of) Saratoga
• Valley Forge (Encampment)
• (Battle of) Yorktown (British surrender at Yorktown)

• New Hampshire
• Massachusetts
• Rhode Island
• Connecticut
• New York
• New Jersey
• Pennsylvania
• Delaware
• Maryland
• Virginia
• North Carolina
• South Carolina
• Georgia

• (U.S.) Constitution

• (James) Madison
• (Alexander) Hamilton
• (John) Jay
• Publius

• They helped people understand the (U.S.) Constitution.
• They supported passing the (U.S.) Constitution.

• Founded the first free public libraries
• First Postmaster General of the United States
• Helped write the Declaration of Independence
• Inventor
• U.S. diplomat

• “Father of Our Country”
• First president of the United States
• General of the Continental Army
• President of the Constitutional Convention

• Writer of the Declaration of Independence
• Third president of the United States
• Doubled the size of the United States (Louisiana Purchase)
• First Secretary of State
• Founded the University of Virginia
• Writer of the Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom

• “Father of the Constitution”
• Fourth president of the United States
• President during the War of 1812
• One of the writers of the Federalist Papers

• First Secretary of the Treasury
• One of the writers of the Federalist Papers
• Helped establish the First Bank of the United States
• Aide to General George Washington
• Member of the Continental Congress

• Louisiana Territory
• Louisiana

• War of 1812
• Mexican-American War
• Civil War
• Spanish-American War

• The Civil War

• (Battle of) Fort Sumter
• Emancipation Proclamation
• (Battle of) Vicksburg
• (Battle of) Gettysburg
• Sherman’s March
• (Surrender at) Appomattox
• (Battle of) Antietam/Sharpsburg
• Lincoln was assassinated.

• Freed the slaves (Emancipation Proclamation)
• Saved (or preserved) the Union
• Led the United States during the Civil War
• 16th president of the United States
• Delivered the Gettysburg Address

• Freed the slaves
• Freed slaves in the Confederacy
• Freed slaves in the Confederate states
• Freed slaves in most Southern states

• The Civil War

• 14th Amendment

• After the Civil War
• During Reconstruction
• (With the) 15th Amendment
• 1870

• Susan B. Anthony
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton
• Sojourner Truth
• Harriet Tubman
• Lucretia Mott
• Lucy Stone

• World War I
• World War II
• Korean War
• Vietnam War
• (Persian) Gulf War

• Because Germany attacked U.S. (civilian) ships
• To support the Allied Powers (England, France, Italy, and Russia)
• To oppose the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria)

• 1920
• After World War I
• (With the) 19th Amendment

• Longest economic recession in modern history

• The Great Crash (1929)
• Stock market crash of 1929

• (Franklin) Roosevelt

• (Bombing of) Pearl Harbor
• Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor
• To support the Allied Powers (England, France, and Russia)
• To oppose the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan)

• General during World War II
• President at the end of (during) the Korean War
• 34th president of the United States
• Signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 (Created the Interstate System)

• Soviet Union
• USSR
• Russia

• Communism
• Nuclear war

• To stop the spread of communism

• To stop the spread of communism

• Fought to end racial discrimination

• Fought for civil rights
• Worked for equality for all Americans
• Worked to ensure that people would “not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character”

• To force the Iraqi military from Kuwait

• Terrorists attacked the United States
• Terrorists took over two planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York City
• Terrorists took over a plane and crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia
• Terrorists took over a plane originally aimed at Washington, D.C., and crashed in a field in Pennsylvania

• (Global) War on Terror
• War in Afghanistan
• War in Iraq

• Apache
• Blackfeet
• Cayuga
• Cherokee
• Cheyenne
• Chippewa
• Choctaw
• Creek
• Crow
• Hopi
• Huron
• Inupiat
• Lakota
• Mohawk
• Mohegan
• Navajo
• Oneida
• Onondaga
• Pueblo
• Seminole
• Seneca
• Shawnee
• Sioux
• Teton
• Tuscarora

For a complete list of tribes, please visit bia.gov.

• Light bulb
• Automobile (cars, internal combustion engine)
• Skyscrapers
• Airplane
• Assembly line
• Landing on the moon
• Integrated circuit (IC)

• Washington, D.C.

• New York (Harbor)
• Liberty Island [Also acceptable are New Jersey, near New York City, and on the Hudson (River).]

• (Because there were) 13 original colonies
• (Because the stripes) represent the original colonies

• (Because there is) one star for each state
• (Because) each star represents a state
• (Because there are) 50 states

• The Star-Spangled Banner

• Out of many, one
• We all become one

• A holiday to celebrate U.S. independence (from Britain)
• The country’s birthday

• New Year’s Day
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
• Presidents Day (Washington’s Birthday)
• Memorial Day
• Juneteenth
• Independence Day
• Labor Day
• Columbus Day
• Veterans Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• Christmas Day

• A holiday to honor soldiers who died in military service

• A holiday to honor people in the (U.S.) military
• A holiday to honor people who have served (in the U.S. military)