GED Social Studies Practice Test 2: Documents, Maps and Graphs

Madison argues that people are not angels, so government is needed, and since those who govern are not angels either, government itself needs controls. He rejects the idea that good rulers alone would be enough.

"Common defence" means protecting the nation as a whole from attack, which is the purpose of the armed forces. "Insure domestic Tranquility" refers to keeping peace and order inside the country.

Popular sovereignty is the idea that government's authority comes from the people and serves them. Federalism is the division of power between national and state governments, which the phrase does not mention.

The dashed line from Ashford to Brookville is three times as long as the scale bar, and the scale bar stands for 50 miles, so the distance is about 3 × 50 = 150 miles. A ruler or the edge of a sheet of paper makes this kind of comparison easy.

The increases are $1.35 (1938-1968), $1.75 (1968-1981), $1.80 (1981-1997) and $2.10 (1997-2009). The longest time span, 1938-1968, actually had the smallest dollar increase of the four.

What a wage can buy depends on prices as well as on the dollar amount. If prices rose faster than the wage, $7.25 could buy less than $1.60 did, so you need inflation data. The number of workers or hours worked says nothing about what one hour's pay buys.

Under the Electoral College, each state's electoral votes usually go to the candidate who wins that state, so a candidate can win enough states to reach a majority of electoral votes while receiving fewer votes overall. The House chooses the President only if no candidate wins a majority of electoral votes.

"The best possible use" is a judgment that people can reasonably disagree about and that cannot be proven. The size of the park, the date of the vote and the funding sources can all be checked against records.

The excerpt limits freedom to people held in areas "in rebellion against the United States," meaning the Confederacy. It did not apply to loyal border states; slavery was ended throughout the country by the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865.

The Fourth Amendment protects people against unreasonable searches and seizures and sets out the requirements for warrants. The Fifth Amendment deals with rights such as not being forced to testify against oneself.

Higher interest rates make borrowing more expensive, so people and businesses usually borrow and spend less, which helps slow inflation. That is why the Federal Reserve raises rates when prices are rising too fast, not to speed them up.

Divide the population by the area: 12,000,000 ÷ 60,000 = 200 people per square mile. Dividing the area by the population gives 0.005, which is the wrong way around.

Industrialization created large numbers of jobs in city factories, which drew workers from farms and millions of immigrants. Immigration was very high in this period, not falling, and factories were expanding rather than closing.

In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Court had allowed racial segregation as long as facilities were "separate but equal." Brown held that separate schools are inherently unequal. Brown itself relied on judicial review, so it did not reject that principle.

The Great Compromise created a House of Representatives with seats based on population and a Senate with two senators from each state. A single house of either type would have satisfied only one side.