Text 8431, 195 rader
Skriven 2008-11-28 03:53:00 av Bob Klahn (1:124/311)
Ärende: Civics Quiz
===================
 Ok, onto the civics quiz. Here are the questions I have an
 objection to and why.

 **************************************************************************

  Civics Quiz

Are you more knowledgeable than the average citizen? The average score
for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college
educators scored 55%. Can you do better? Questions were drawn from past
ISI surveys, as well as other nationally recognized exams.

A printable version of the quiz, along with the answers, is available
for download for those who register <request.aspx>.

Note: This quiz does not support WebTV.

 ...

 *6)*   The Bill of Rights explicitly prohibits:

A. prayer in public school
B. discrimination based on race, sex, or religion
C. the ownership of guns by private individuals
D. establishing an official religion for the United States
E. the president from vetoing a line item in a spending bill

 To explicitly prohibit any of the above the Bill of Rights would
 have to use the exact words. D is correct, but because the
 wording is very close, not exact. OTOH, so is A.

 ...

 *9)* Under Our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal
 government. What is one power of the federal government?

A. Make treaties
B. Make zoning laws
C. Maintain prisons
D. Establish standards for doctors and lawyers

 A. Making treaties is specifically discussed, but C is implicit
 in having the right to pass laws, and enforce them, and D,
 though more of a stretch, is implicit in the authority to set
 standards of weights and measures. Measuring the qualifications
 of doctors and lawyers.

 ...

 *13)* Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas would concur that:

A. all moral and political truth is relative to one's time and place
B. moral ideas are best explained as material accidents or byproducts of
evolution
C. values originating in one's conscience cannot be judged by others
D. Christianity is the only true religion and should rule the state
E. certain permanent moral and political truths are accessible to human
reason

 I don't know how anyone can be sure of what they would agree on,
 regardless of what they wrote. Socrates never wrote anything
 AFAIK, his teachings being preserved only in the writings of
 Plato. For Socrates and Plato and Aristotle we have only what we
 know survived, and that handed down from scribe to scribe,
 unless some originals have survived. I'm not sure about Aquinas.

 OTOH, all those above being philosophers, they probably would
 have found a way to disagree.

 And expecting the average citizen to be familiar with all four
 is a bit of a stretch.

 ...

*22)*   What part of the government has the power to declare war?

A. Congress
B. the president
C. the Supreme Court
D. the Joint Chiefs of Staff

 A is correct, but the way the govt has been going to war without
 an explicit declaration for decades now, one must wonder why the
 average citizen should remember that.

 *23)* In October 1962 the United States and the Soviet Union
 came close to war over the issue of Soviet:

A. control of East Berlin
B. missiles in Cuba
C. support of the Ho Chi Minh regime in Viet Nam
D. military support of the Marxist regime in Afghanistan

 B is the right answer, except, did they really come close to
 war? We really cannot know. I doubt even the govt authorities in
 power then really knew. I doubt it was all that close.

 *24)* In the area of United States foreign policy, Congress
 shares power with the:

A. president
B. Supreme Court
C. state governments
D. United Nations

 B. Congress shares power with the president only in that it
 controls the purse, and can declare war. The senate, one branch,
 does have the authority to approve or reject treaties.

 *25)*   Free enterprise or capitalism exists insofar as:

A. experts managing the nation's commerce are appointed by elected
officials
B. individual citizens create, exchange, and control goods and resources
C. charity, philanthropy, and volunteering decrease
D. demand and supply are decided through majority vote
E. government implements policies that favor businesses over consumers

 This one isn't a civics question, but economics. And for that
 it's a matter of definition.

 *26)*   Business profit is:

A. cost minus revenue
B. assets minus liabilities
C. revenue minus expenses
D. selling price of a stock minus its purchase price
E. earnings minus assets

 Again, an economics question, not civics.

 *27)* Free markets typically secure more economic prosperity
 than government's centralized planning because:

A. the price system utilizes more local knowledge of means and ends
B. markets rely upon coercion, whereas government relies upon voluntary
compliance with the law
C. more tax revenue can be generated from free enterprise
D. property rights and contracts are best enforced by the market system
E. government planners are too cautious in spending taxpayers' money

 A. is the answer, but that is very arguable, as to that being
 the only correct answer, vs a lot of possibilities not even
 listed.

 ...

 *29)* A flood-control levee (or National Defense) is considered
 a public good because:

A. citizens value it as much as bread and medicine
B. a resident can benefit from it without directly paying for it
C. government construction contracts increase employment
D. insurance companies cannot afford to replace all houses after a flood
E. government pays for its construction, not citizens

 They wanted B. Every one of those answers could legitimately
 been claimed, as none are the absolute answer, and all have
 elements that might be true. If they had said a public purpose,
 rather than "good", it would be less arguable.

 *30)* Which of the following fiscal policy combinations would a
 government most likely follow to stimulate economic activity
 when the economy is in a severe recession?

A. increasing both taxes and spending
B. increasing taxes and decreasing spending
C. decreasing taxes and increasing spending
D. decreasing both taxes and spending

 C. However, again, an econ question, not civics. And could be
 argued, as one element true but the other questionable.

 *31)* International trade and specialization most often lead to
 which of the following?

A. an increase in a nation's productivity
B. a decrease in a nation's economic growth in the long term
C. an increase in a nation's import tariffs
D. a decrease in a nation's standard of living

 The wanted A. B and D are more likely true, in my evaluation. C
 has been true in the past, in the recent past in the case of
 Japan.

 A is highly arguable.



BOB KLAHN bob.klahn@sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

... "all the world's economists, laid end-to-end, could not reach a conclusion"
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