Now it’s time to review for some more of the questions that you may encounter when you take the civics test for United States citizenship. You’ll only have to be able to answer six of the ten in order to pass, but you might as well study everything you can so you can be prepared for whatever curveball the USCIS officer may throw at you.
Remember that all of these questions are directly taken from the USC IS’ study guide.
“What is one reason that the colonists came to America?”
A trick to remembering the answer to this one is to be somewhat familiar with the history of Europe as it was emerging from the medieval period. Europe, particularly England, was a rather repressive society with a state religion that did not allow for any off-shoots, so people who felt oppressed ended up leaving for a place where there was no government so that they could establish one of their own. Fortunately for them, the colonies were just recently discovered. The short answer to this question is that the colonists sought religious freedom.
“There were 13 original states. Name three.”
Now this one is somewhat tough because it requires simple and rote memorization, but then again, you will only need to remember three of the 13. Here they are in order of admission to the United States: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island. One way to help you remember the original colonies is to remember that they are all on the east coast.
“What territory did the United States buy from France in 1803?”
The answer to this question is of course the Louisiana Purchase. This was the first major land purchase that the United States made in its early history. The Louisiana Purchase was a huge acquisition, stretching from the Western banks of the Mississippi river all the way north to Montana. Almost the entirety of the Great Plains is contained within this one territory and it was the beginning of the American concept of Manifest Destiny, or the desire to stretch from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.
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