Arkansas Civics Exam Study Guide PDF

Arkansas Civics Exam Study Guide Principles of American Democracy 1. What is the supreme law of the land? Answer: The Constitution 2. What does the Constitution do? Answer: Set up and define the government and protect the basic rights of Americans 3. The idea of self-government is in...

Arkansas Civics Exam Study Guide Principles of American Democracy 1. What is the supreme law of the land? Answer: The Constitution 2. What does the Constitution do? Answer: Set up and define the government and protect the basic rights of Americans 3. The idea of self-government is in the first three words of the Constitution. What are these words? Answer: We the People 4. What is an amendment? Answer: A change or addition to the Constitution 5. What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution? Answer: The Bill of Rights 6. Which of the following are rights or freedoms from the First Amendment? [Mark all that apply.] Answers: Speech Press Religion Petition the government Assembly 7. How many amendments does the Constitution have? Answer: 27 8. What did the Declaration of Independence do? Answer: Declare our independence from Great Britain 9. What are the rights declared in the Declaration of Independence? [Mark all that apply.] Answers: Life Liberty Pursuit of happiness 10. What is freedom of religion? Answer: A person can practice any religion, or no religion 11. What is the economic system in the United States? Answer: A capitalist (or market) economy 12. What is the “rule of law”? Answer: The idea that everyone, including leaders, must obey the law System of Government 13. Which of the following are branches of the government? [Mark all that apply.] Answers: Legislative Executive Judicial 14. What stops one branch of government from becoming too powerful? Answer: Checks and balances 15. Who is in charge of the executive branch? Answer: The President 16. Who makes federal laws? Answer: Congress 231113 1  Arkansas Civics Exam Study Guide 17. What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress? [Mark all that apply.] Answers: The Senate The House of Representatives 18. How many U.S. Senators are there? Answer: 100 19. We elect a U.S. Senator for how many years? Answer: 6 20. Who is one of your state’s U.S. Senators now? Possible Answers: John Boozman Tom Cotton 21. The House of Representatives has how many voting members? Answer: 435 22. We elect a U.S. Representative for how many years? Answer: 2 23. Select one U.S. Representative from Arkansas. Possible Answers: Steve Womack French Hill Rick Crawford Bruce Westerman 24. Who does a U.S. Senator represent? Answer: All the people of the state from which he or she is elected 25. Why do some states have more Representatives than other states? Answer: Because some states have more people than other states 26. We elect a President for how many years? Answer: 4 27. In what month do we vote for President? Answer: November 28. What is the name of the President of the United States now? Answer: Joe Biden 29. What is the name of the Vice President of the United States now? Answer: Kamala Harris 30. If the President can no longer serve, who becomes President? Answer: The Vice President 31. If both the President and the Vice President can no longer serve, who becomes President? Answer: The Speaker of the House 32. Who is the Commander in Chief of the military? Answer: The President 33. Who signs bills to become laws? Answer: The President 34. Who vetoes bills? Answer: The President 35. What does the President’s Cabinet do? Answer: Advise the President 36. What are two Cabinet-level positions? Possible Answers: Vice President Secretary of State 231113 2  Arkansas Civics Exam Study Guide Secretary of the Treasury Secretary of Energy Secretary of Defense Secretary of Education Attorney General Secretary of Homeland Security Secretary of the Interior Administration of the EPA Secretary of Agriculture Director of National Intelligence Secretary of Commerce Director of the Central Intelligence Secretary of Labor Agency Secretary of Transportation Chief of Staff 37. What does the judicial branch do? [Mark all that apply.] Answers: Review laws Resolve disputes Decide if a law goes against the Constitution 38. What is the highest court in the United States? Answer: The Supreme Court 39. How many justices are on the Supreme Court? Answer: 9 40. Who is the Chief Justice of the United States now? Answer: John Roberts 41. Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government? Possible Answers: To print money To create an army To declare war To make treaties 42. Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the states. What is one power of the states? Possible Answers: To provide schooling and education To provide safety and protection (i.e., fire and police) To give a driver’s license To approve zoning and land use 43. Who is the Governor of your state now? Answer: Sarah Huckabee Sanders 44. What is the capital of your state? Answer: Little Rock 45. What are the two major political parties in the United States? Answers: Democratic Republican 46. What is the political party of the President now? Answer: Democrat 47. What is the name of the Speaker of the House of Representatives now? Answer: Mike Johnson Rights and Responsibilities 48. There are four amendments to the Constitution about who can vote. Which of the following statements about voting rights is not correct? Possible Answer: Anyone who has lived here for at least 18 years can vote. 49. What is one responsibility that is only for United States citizens? Possible Answer: Serve on a jury 231113 3  Arkansas Civics Exam Study Guide 50. Name one right only for United States citizens. Possible Answer: Vote in a federal election 51. What are two rights of everyone living in the United States? Possible Answers: Freedom of religion Freedom to petition the government 52. What do we show loyalty to when we say the Pledge of Allegiance? Answer: The flag (representing the United States) 53. What is not a promise that you make when you become a United States citizen? Possible Answer: To speak only English 54. How old do citizens have to be to vote for President? Answer: 18 55. What are two ways that Americans can participate in their democracy? Possible Answers: Vote Help with a campaign Contact Senators and Representatives Run for office Support or oppose an issue or policy Join a civic group 56. When is the last day you can send in federal income tax forms? Answer: April 15 57. When must all men register for the Selective Service? Answer: At age 18 American History: Colonial Period and Independence 58. What is not a reason colonists came to America? Possible Answer: Better retirement benefits 59. Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived? Answer: Native Americans/American Indians 60. What group of people was taken to America and sold as slaves? Answer: Africans 61. Which is not a reason the colonists fought the British? Possible Answer: Because of restricted access to the Mississippi River 62. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? Answer: Thomas Jefferson 63. When was the Declaration of Independence adopted? Answer: July 4, 1776 64. There were 13 original states. Name three. Possible Answers: New Hampshire Delaware Massachusetts Maryland Rhode Island Virginia Connecticut North Carolina New York South Carolina New Jersey Georgia Pennsylvania 231113 4  Arkansas Civics Exam Study Guide 65. What happened at the Constitutional Convention? Answer: The Constitution was written. 66. When was the Constitution written? Answer: 1787 67. The Federalist Papers supported the passage of the U.S. Constitution. Name one of the writers. Possible Answers: James Madison John Jay Alexander Hamilton 68. What is not something Benjamin Franklin is famous for? Possible Answer: Saying “Give me liberty or give me death.” 69. Who is the “Father of Our Country?” Answer: George Washington 70. Who was the first President? Answer: George Washington American History: 1800s 71. What territory did the United States buy from France in 1803? Answer: The Louisiana Territory 72. Name one war fought by the United States in the 1800s. Possible Answer: The Civil War 73. Name the U.S. war between the North and the South. Answer: The Civil War 74. Which was not a factor leading to the Civil War? Possible Answer: Environmental concerns 75. Which of the following is not an important thing that Abraham Lincoln did? Possible Answer: Fought in the Revolutionary War 76. What did the Emancipation Proclamation do? Answer: Freed the slaves in the Confederate states 77. What did Susan B. Anthony do? Answer: Fought for women’s rights Recent American History and Other Important Historical Information 78. Name one war fought by the United States in the 1900s. Possible Answer: World War II 79. Who was President during World War I? Answer: Woodrow Wilson 80. Who was President during the Great Depression and World War II? Answer: Franklin Roosevelt 81. Who did the United States fight in World War II? [Mark all that apply.] Answers: Japan Germany 82. Before he was President, Eisenhower was a general. What war was he in? Answer: World War II 83. During the Cold War, what was the main concern of the United States? Answer: Communism 231113 5  Arkansas Civics Exam Study Guide and the Soviet Union 84. What movement tried to end racial discrimination? Answer: Civil rights movement 85. What did Martin Luther King, Jr. do? Answer: Fought for civil rights 86. What major event happened on September 11, 2001? Answer: Terrorists attacked the United States 87. Which of the following is an American Indian tribe in the United States? Possible Answer: Cherokee Choctaw Navajo Apache Quapaw Iroquois Seminole Shawnee Geography 88. What is the longest river in the United States? Answer: Mississippi 89. What ocean is on the West Coast of the United States? Answer: Pacific Ocean 90. What ocean is on the East Coast of the United States? Answer: Atlantic Ocean 91. Which of the following is not a U.S. territory? Possible Answer: Great Britain 92. Which of the following states does not border Canada? Possible Answer: Kansas 93. Which of the following states does not border Mexico? Possible Answer: Florida 94. What is the capital of the United States? Answer: Washington, D.C. 95. Where is the Statue of Liberty? Answer: New York Symbols 96. Why does the flag have 13 stripes? Answer: Because there were 13 original colonies 97. Why does the flag have 50 stars? Answer: Because there is one star for each state. 98. What is the name of the national anthem? Answer: The Star-Spangled Banner Holidays 99. When do we celebrate Independence Day? Answer: July 4 100. Which of the following is not a U.S. holiday? Possible Answer: Halloween 231113 6