Worked examples
Two examples
Example 1
Which thinker argued that every person is born with natural rights to life, liberty, and property, and that government exists to protect them?
- Find the key words: natural rights, and life, liberty, and property.
- Those are John Locke’s key words. He said people form a government to protect their rights, by the consent of the governed, and may replace a government that attacks those rights.
- Hobbes also described an agreement between people and government, but in his version people give their power to a strong ruler for safety. He did not say government exists to protect natural rights.
Answer: John Locke
Example 2
Which thinker would most likely say: “If the same people make the laws, carry them out, and judge the cases, no one is free”?
- Ask what the sentence is about. It names three jobs of government: making laws, carrying them out, and judging cases.
- It warns against one group holding all three. The idea that those powers should be divided is the separation of powers.
- The separation of powers is Montesquieu’s idea, from The Spirit of the Laws (1748). It became the design of the Constitution’s three branches.
Answer: Montesquieu
Where this is taught: Civics, Chapter 1: The thinkers · Civics Diagnostic, Part 1
In your Kaplan book: Unit 3, Chapter 3, Lesson 1: Historic Basis for U.S. System · Map of the Terrain, topic 12: The ideas behind the Constitution
The drill
Ten questions
How many:
Tap your answer to each one. A few questions ask you to choose words from a drop-down instead, the way the GED test does. Then press Check my answers at the bottom.Circle your answer to each one; where there are brackets, circle the choice that fits. The answer key, with the reasoning, is on the last page.