Mixed: documents and charts, with questions like the test’s

Example 1

1. Start with the line above the passage. It tells you who wrote it and when: Madison, a Federalist, in 1787, while the Constitution was being argued over.
2. Read the passage slowly, a phrase at a time, and put the hard words into plain ones. “Extend the sphere” means make the area larger. “Parties and interests” means groups that want different things. To “invade” rights here means to attack them.
3. Now say it back in one plain sentence: make the republic larger, and it will hold so many different groups that it is less likely a majority will join together against the rights of others.
4. Check each choice against that sentence, not against what you remember. A choice that says a republic must be small is Brutus, the other side. A choice about taxes or a bill of rights may be true of the debate, but it is not what this passage says.

Answer: A large republic, with many different groups, protects rights better than a small one.

Example 2

1. Read the title and the column headings first. Here there are two things to compare for each state: seats in the House and seats in the Senate.
2. Look down each column. The House numbers are very different, from 52 down to 1. The Senate numbers are all the same: 2.
3. Connect it to what you know. Seats in the House follow population; every state has two senators. That is the Great Compromise of 1787, from Chapter 3.
4. Now test each choice against the numbers. A conclusion must be supported by the table itself. “Wyoming has as many senators as New York” is in the table. “Wyoming has as many representatives as New York” is not: 1 is not 26. A choice that says the Senate system is unfair is an opinion, which no table can prove.

Answer: In the Senate, Wyoming has the same number of votes as New York, though in the House New York has 26 times as many seats.