Worked examples
Two examples
Example 1
- Picture the six goals in the order the Preamble gives them: a more perfect Union, Justice, domestic Tranquility, the common defence, the general Welfare, and the Blessings of Liberty.
- Ask what the example is protecting against. Here it is an attack from another country.
- Protecting the whole country from attack is “provide for the common defence.” (“Defence” is the old spelling of “defense.”)
- It is not “insure domestic Tranquility.” Domestic means inside the country: that goal is about peace and order at home, such as stopping a riot. An attack from abroad belongs to the common defence.
Answer: To “provide for the common defence”
Example 2
- Remember the first three articles by the life of a law: Congress makes it (Article I), the president carries it out (Article II), the courts decide what it means (Article III).
- Ask who the rule is about. It is about judges, so it belongs with the courts.
- The courts are Article III. It creates the Supreme Court, lets Congress create lower courts, and says judges serve “during good Behaviour,” which in practice means for life.
Answer: Article III
Where this is taught: Civics, Chapter 5: The seven articles · Civics, Chapter 5: The Preamble · Civics, Chapter 5: How the Constitution is laid out
In your Kaplan book: Unit 3, Chapter 3, Lesson 2: Constitutional Government · Map of the Terrain, topic 14: Founding documents II: Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, the Federalist debate
The drill
Ten questions
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.