GED — All Questions

When an acid and a base are mixed in the right proportions, the products are—

• a.an alcohol and heat
• b.a salt and water✓
• c.two new acids
• d.a metal and a gas

Neutralization pairs the acid's hydrogen ions with the base's hydroxide ions to make water, leaving the remaining ions as a dissolved salt. No metal is produced, although many salts contain a metal ion that was already present. Alcohols come from quite different reactions, and heat is released but is not a product in the chemical sense. And the acidity is consumed rather than doubled.

Stirring sugar into warm water until it disappears is a physical change because—

• a.the sugar keeps its chemical identity✓
• b.the mixture cannot be separated
• c.the water molecules break apart
• d.a new compound has been created

The sugar is dispersed among the water molecules but is still sugar, which is why evaporating the water recovers it unchanged. No new compound formed, and that is exactly what distinguishes this from a chemical change. Water molecules are not broken apart by dissolving anything. And the mixture can be separated, by evaporation or distillation.

Compared with a liquid, the particles of a gas—

• a.spread out to fill their container✓
• b.are locked into a fixed pattern
• c.move more slowly at the same heat
• d.occupy a fixed volume of their own

Gas particles are far apart and move freely, so a gas expands until it meets the walls of whatever holds it. A fixed repeating pattern describes a solid, at the other end of the scale. At the same temperature gas particles move faster than those in a liquid, not slower. And having a definite volume is a property of solids and liquids, not gases.

Ice at 0 °C is heated and begins to melt. While melting continues, the temperature of the ice-water mixture—

• a.falls below 0 °C
• b.rises then falls back
• c.rises steadily
• d.stays at 0 °C✓

Energy added during a change of state goes into breaking the bonds that hold the solid together rather than into faster particle motion, so the thermometer holds steady until the last ice is gone. A steady rise is what happens before melting starts and after it finishes. Falling below freezing would require removing heat. And there is no reason for the temperature to reverse.

An object placed in water floats. This tells you that the object's density is—

• a.less than the density of water✓
• b.unrelated to the density of water
• c.greater than the density of water
• d.equal to the density of water

Floating means the object displaces a weight of water greater than its own, which happens when it is less dense than the fluid. Greater density is what makes something sink. Equal density leaves an object suspended, neither rising nor settling. And the comparison is the whole explanation, so the two densities are anything but unrelated.

A metal spoon left in a pot of hot soup becomes hot along its handle. The heat travels mainly by—

• a.convection
• b.conduction✓
• c.evaporation
• d.radiation

Conduction moves energy through direct contact as fast-moving particles jostle their neighbors along the solid metal. Convection needs a fluid to circulate, which the spoon is not. Radiation would warm the handle without contact and is a minor effect here. And evaporation removes energy from the soup's surface rather than carrying it up the handle.

Copper is used for household wiring because it is—

• a.a good insulator of electricity
• b.lighter than every other metal
• c.a good conductor of electricity✓
• d.unable to carry a magnetic field

Copper's loosely held outer electrons move easily, so current passes with little energy wasted as heat, which is what a wire is for. An insulator is the opposite and is used for the covering, not the core. Copper is not especially light; aluminum is lighter and is sometimes used for that reason. And its magnetic behavior is not why it was chosen.

Three bulbs are wired in a single series loop. If one bulb burns out, the others—

• a.flicker but stay lit
• b.go out as well✓
• c.shine more brightly
• d.stay lit as before

A series circuit offers current only one path, so a break anywhere stops the current everywhere and every bulb goes dark. Staying lit is what happens in a parallel circuit, where each branch is independent. Brightening would require more current, and there is none. And flickering implies an intermittent connection rather than a burnt-out filament.

A 12-volt battery drives a current through a 3-ohm resistor. What is the current?

• a.4 amperes✓
• b.15 amperes
• c.36 amperes
• d.0.25 amperes

Ohm's law gives current as voltage divided by resistance, so 12 V ÷ 3 Ω = 4 A. Multiplying gives 36 and confuses the relationship. Adding gives 15 and mixes units that cannot be added. And dividing resistance by voltage gives 0.25, the reciprocal of the correct result.

Two bar magnets are brought together north pole to north pole. They will—

• a.push each other apart✓
• b.pull each other together
• c.swap their poles
• d.lose their magnetism

Like poles repel, so two north poles pressed toward each other resist, and releasing them lets them fly apart. Attraction happens between a north pole and a south pole. Magnetism can be lost by heating or hammering but not by this. And a magnet's poles do not trade places because another magnet is nearby.

For waves traveling at the same speed, a wave with a higher frequency has—

• a.a greater amplitude
• b.a shorter wavelength✓
• c.a longer wavelength
• d.a lower speed

Speed equals frequency times wavelength, so at fixed speed the two must trade off and more waves per second means each is shorter. A longer wavelength accompanies a lower frequency. Amplitude is the height of the wave and varies independently of frequency. And the speed was given as unchanged.

A ringing bell is sealed in a jar and the air is pumped out. The sound fades away because sound—

• a.needs matter to travel through✓
• b.changes into light in a vacuum
• c.is absorbed by the glass jar
• d.travels faster in empty space

Sound is a mechanical wave: it propagates as particles of a medium push on their neighbors, and with no air left there is nothing to carry it. It does not travel faster in a vacuum; it does not travel at all. The glass was there before the air was removed and did not silence the bell. And sound does not convert into light.

A straw in a glass of water looks bent at the surface. This happens because light—

• a.is absorbed by the clear water
• b.changes direction entering the water✓
• c.bounces off the water's surface
• d.travels in a curved path in water

Light slows and bends as it crosses from water into air, so the rays reaching your eye arrive from a different apparent direction and the straw appears displaced. Bouncing off the surface is reflection, which produces an image on the water rather than a bend in the straw. Clear water absorbs very little visible light. And within the water the light travels in straight lines; only the boundary bends it.

Igneous rock forms when—

• a.heat and pressure reshape an existing rock
• b.flowing water wears away a rock face
• c.molten rock cools and hardens✓
• d.layers of sediment are pressed together

Igneous rock is solidified melt, whether it cools slowly underground into coarse crystals or quickly at the surface into fine ones. Compacted sediment produces sedimentary rock instead. Heat and pressure altering an existing rock without melting it produce metamorphic rock. And water wearing away rock is erosion, which makes sediment rather than rock.

In an undisturbed sequence of sedimentary layers, the oldest layer is normally—

• a.impossible to locate
• b.at the bottom✓
• c.in the middle
• d.at the top

Sediment settles from above, so each new layer rests on older material and the sequence reads oldest upward, a rule geologists call superposition. The topmost layer is the youngest. The middle is intermediate in age rather than oldest. And the age order is entirely readable so long as the layers have not been overturned by later folding.

Most of the world's earthquakes occur—

• a.near the center of the largest continents
• b.in the deepest parts of the ocean basins
• c.where the crust is thickest and oldest
• d.along the boundaries between tectonic plates✓

Plates grind past, pull away from and push under one another at their edges, and the sudden slip that releases the accumulated strain is an earthquake, which is why seismic maps trace out the plate boundaries. Continental interiors are comparatively quiet. Great ocean depth marks trenches, which are themselves plate boundaries, but depth is not the cause. And thick old crust is among the most stable ground there is.

A chain of volcanoes forms above a subduction zone because—

• a.the ocean floor is being lifted upward
• b.the descending plate melts material at depth✓
• c.two plates are pulling apart at the surface
• d.erosion has exposed old volcanic rock

As one plate sinks beneath another it carries water down, lowering the melting point of the rock above it, and the magma that forms rises to build volcanoes in an arc. Plates pulling apart create ridges and rift valleys, a different setting. Uplift of the sea floor produces mountains without necessarily producing magma. And erosion can expose volcanic rock but cannot create an active chain.

In the water cycle, the release of water vapor from the leaves of plants is called—

• a.transpiration✓
• b.condensation
• c.infiltration
• d.precipitation

Transpiration is the movement of water up through a plant and out through its leaves, and over a forest it returns an enormous volume to the air. Condensation is vapor turning back into liquid, which forms clouds. Precipitation is that water falling as rain or snow. And infiltration is water soaking down into the ground.

The passage of a cold front over a region is typically followed by—

• a.cooler air and often brief storms✓
• b.clear skies with no change in air
• c.a long period of steady warming
• d.a rise in humidity that lasts weeks

A cold front is the leading edge of advancing cold air that shoves warm moist air upward, which commonly triggers showers or thunderstorms along the boundary and leaves cooler, drier air behind. Steady warming describes a warm front instead. Some change always accompanies a front, which is what makes it a front. And humidity generally falls after the front passes rather than climbing for weeks.

Carbon dioxide is called a greenhouse gas because it—

• a.traps heat radiating from the Earth✓
• b.blocks sunlight from reaching the ground
• c.reflects heat back out into space
• d.destroys ozone in the upper atmosphere

Carbon dioxide lets visible sunlight through but absorbs the longer-wave infrared the warmed surface radiates, and re-emitting some of it downward keeps the lower atmosphere warmer than it would otherwise be. It does not block incoming sunlight, which is how the surface gets warm in the first place. Ozone destruction is caused by other compounds entirely. And reflecting heat away would cool the planet, the opposite of the effect.

Earth has seasons mainly because—

• a.its axis is tilted as it orbits the Sun✓
• b.its distance from the Sun changes greatly
• c.it spins more slowly in winter months
• d.the Sun's output rises and falls yearly

The tilt means each hemisphere leans toward the Sun for part of the year and away for the rest, changing the angle of the sunlight and the length of the day. Earth's distance from the Sun does vary slightly, but far too little to drive the seasons, and it would give both hemispheres the same season at once. The Sun's output is nearly steady. And the rotation rate does not change with the calendar.

The phases of the Moon are caused by—

• a.clouds in the Earth's atmosphere
• b.the rotation of the Moon on its own axis each month
• c.the changing positions of the Sun, Earth and Moon✓
• d.the Earth's shadow falling across the face of the Moon

Half the Moon is always lit; what changes is how much of that lit half faces us, and that depends on where the Moon is in its orbit relative to the Sun and Earth. Earth's shadow on the Moon is a lunar eclipse, which happens occasionally rather than monthly. Clouds hide the Moon without changing its phase. And the Moon's rotation keeps one face toward Earth and does not produce the cycle.

Ocean tides on Earth are caused mainly by—

• a.prevailing winds over the ocean
• b.the Moon's gravitational pull✓
• c.the Earth's magnetic field
• d.differences in ocean salt content

The Moon's gravity pulls hardest on the water nearest it and least on the far side, raising bulges that sweep around as the Earth rotates; the Sun contributes a smaller share. Winds pile up water in storm surges but do not produce the twice-daily rhythm. The magnetic field does not move water. And salinity differences drive slow deep currents, not tides.

The Sun is best classified as—

• a.a star✓
• b.a galaxy
• c.a comet
• d.a planet

The Sun is a star, a ball of gas generating energy by fusing hydrogen in its core, and it is ordinary except for being close. A planet orbits a star and shines only by reflected light. A comet is a small icy body on a long orbit. And a galaxy contains billions of stars, so the Sun is one member of ours rather than a galaxy itself.

A light-year is a unit of—

• a.brightness
• b.time
• c.distance✓
• d.mass

A light-year is how far light travels in one year, which makes it a measure of distance despite the word year in its name. Time is measured in seconds and years themselves. Brightness is reported as magnitude or luminosity. And mass is given in kilograms or in solar masses.

Which layer of the Earth lies directly beneath the crust?

• a.The atmosphere
• b.The inner core
• c.The outer core
• d.The mantle✓

The mantle is the thick layer of hot rock between the thin crust and the core, and its slow motion is what drags the plates around. The outer core lies beneath the mantle and is liquid metal. The inner core is deeper still and solid. And the atmosphere sits above the crust rather than below it.

A deep canyon with a river running along its floor was most likely shaped by—

• a.a single earthquake event
• b.erosion by running water✓
• c.the eruption of a volcano
• d.the weight of a glacier melting

Running water cuts downward over long spans of time, carrying away rock and deepening its own channel, which is the standard explanation for a river canyon. An earthquake can open a fissure but does not carve a valley with a river in it. Volcanic eruptions build landforms up. And glaciers do carve valleys, but they leave broad U-shaped troughs rather than a narrow canyon cut by a stream.

Coal, oil and natural gas are called fossil fuels because they formed from—

• a.minerals crystallizing out of seawater
• b.volcanic ash settling on the sea floor
• c.rainwater collecting in deep rock layers
• d.the remains of organisms buried long ago✓

Fossil fuels are the altered remains of plants and microscopic marine life buried under sediment and cooked by heat and pressure across millions of years, which is why they are not replaced on any human timescale. Minerals precipitating from seawater form evaporite deposits such as salt. Volcanic ash forms tuff. And water in deep rock is groundwater, not fuel.

Which principle allows a federal court to refuse to enforce a law it finds contrary to the Constitution?

• a.Executive privilege
• b.Judicial review✓
• c.Eminent domain
• d.Popular sovereignty

Judicial review is the power of the courts to measure a statute against the Constitution and decline to apply it if the two conflict; the Supreme Court claimed the power for itself in Marbury v. Madison in 1803. Executive privilege is a President's claim to withhold certain communications, which is about secrecy rather than constitutionality. Eminent domain is the government's power to take private property for public use with compensation. Popular sovereignty is the idea that authority comes from the people, a source of legitimacy rather than a judicial power.

An amendment to the U.S. Constitution takes effect only after it is ratified by—

• a.the President and the Senate
• b.three-fourths of the states✓
• c.a simple majority in Congress
• d.a national vote of the people

Article V sends a proposed amendment to the states, and it becomes part of the Constitution only when three-fourths of them ratify it, whether through their legislatures or through conventions. Congress proposes by two-thirds of both houses, so a simple majority there is not even enough to start the process. There is no national referendum on amendments anywhere in the Constitution. And the President has no role at all: an amendment is not a bill and is never presented for signature.

Congress can pass a bill over the President's veto with a vote of—

• a.three-fourths of each house
• b.a majority of each house
• c.two-thirds of each house✓
• d.two-thirds of the Senate only

Article I, Section 7 requires two-thirds of each chamber to override a veto, which is why a President with a third of either house behind him is hard to defeat. A simple majority is what passed the bill in the first place and was plainly not enough. Three-fourths is the bar for ratifying an amendment, a different and higher threshold. And the House cannot be skipped: both chambers must reach two-thirds.

Which power does the Constitution give to Congress rather than to the President?

• a.Negotiating a treaty
• b.Nominating a federal judge
• c.Pardoning a federal offense
• d.Declaring war on another nation✓

Article I lists the power to declare war among Congress's powers, and it has never belonged to the President, who commands the forces once they are committed. The pardon power for federal offenses is the President's alone under Article II. Treaties are negotiated by the President, with the Senate then giving or withholding consent. And judicial nominations are made by the President, again with the Senate confirming.

Which chamber of Congress votes on whether to confirm the President's nominees to the federal courts?

• a.The House of Representatives
• b.The Electoral College
• c.The Supreme Court
• d.The Senate✓

The Senate holds the advice-and-consent power, so a judicial nominee reaches the bench only after a Senate vote. The House has no part in confirmations; its distinctive powers are originating revenue bills and voting articles of impeachment. The Supreme Court does not choose its own members. And the Electoral College exists only to elect the President and Vice President, then dissolves.

A candidate wins the presidency by receiving—

• a.two-thirds of the electoral votes
• b.the largest share of the popular vote
• c.a majority of the state legislatures
• d.a majority of the electoral votes✓

The Constitution decides the presidency in the Electoral College, and a candidate needs more than half of the electors, not merely more than any rival. Leading the national popular vote is not the legal test, which is why a candidate can win the country and lose the office. Two-thirds is the threshold for a veto override or for proposing an amendment, not for election. And state legislatures appoint electors but cast no vote for President themselves.

The Tenth Amendment provides that powers not given to the federal government are—

• a.surrendered by every level of government
• b.reserved to the states and the people✓
• c.granted to the President in emergencies
• d.held jointly by Congress and the courts

The Tenth Amendment is the textual home of federalism: what the Constitution does not delegate to the United States, and does not forbid to the states, stays with the states or with the people. It does not hand leftover power to Congress and the courts, which are two of the federal bodies the amendment is limiting. It creates no emergency reservoir for the President. And it does not extinguish the powers; it locates them.

If the President neither signs nor vetoes a bill within ten days while Congress is in session, the bill—

• a.becomes law without a signature✓
• b.is treated as though it had been vetoed
• c.returns to the committee that wrote it
• d.must be voted on again

Article I, Section 7 says that a bill not returned within ten days, Sundays excepted, becomes law as if it had been signed, provided Congress is still sitting. Silence counts as a veto only when Congress has adjourned in the meantime, which is the pocket veto and the opposite case. Nothing sends the bill back to committee; it has already passed both chambers. And no second vote is required, because no veto message ever arrived.

Which protection is written into both the Fifth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment?

• a.The right to bear arms
• b.Due process of law✓
• c.Protection against unreasonable searches
• d.Freedom of the press

Both amendments forbid depriving a person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law: the Fifth binds the federal government and the Fourteenth binds the states. Freedom of the press appears only in the First Amendment. The right to bear arms appears only in the Second. And protection against unreasonable searches and seizures is the Fourth Amendment's alone, though the Court has since applied it to the states through the Fourteenth.

Under the Fourth Amendment, police generally need a warrant supported by probable cause in order to—

• a.question a willing witness
• b.search a private home✓
• c.arrest someone for a public crime
• d.write a traffic citation

The home sits at the center of the Fourth Amendment, and entering one to search it normally requires a warrant issued on probable cause. Talking to a witness who agrees to talk involves no search or seizure at all. An arrest for an offense an officer sees in public may be made without a warrant. And a citation for a traffic violation the officer observed is likewise no search of anything.

Which of these is a check that the other branches hold over the federal judiciary?

• a.Judges are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate✓
• b.The President may veto a bill that both houses of Congress passed
• c.Congress may impeach and remove the President
• d.The Court may decide that a statute Congress passed is unconstitutional

Federal judges do not choose themselves: the President nominates and the Senate confirms, which is how the elected branches shape the courts. The veto is the President's check on Congress, running in a different direction entirely. Impeachment of the President is Congress checking the executive. And striking down a statute is the judiciary checking the other two, which is the reverse of what the question asks.

The Nineteenth Amendment, ratified in 1920—

• a.lowered the voting age to eighteen
• b.guaranteed equal protection of the laws
• c.abolished slavery in the United States
• d.barred denying the vote on account of sex✓

The Nineteenth Amendment forbids the United States or any state from denying or abridging the right to vote on account of sex, which is how women secured the ballot nationally. Slavery was abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. The voting age was lowered to eighteen by the Twenty-Sixth Amendment in 1971. And equal protection of the laws comes from the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868.

The main purpose of a party's primary election is to—

• a.choose the officials who run the party organization nationally
• b.choose that party's nominee for the general election✓
• c.settle what the party's platform will say for four years
• d.count each state's electoral votes

A primary is an intra-party contest whose whole function is to decide which candidate carries the party's label into the general election. Electoral votes are counted by Congress long after the general election and have nothing to do with a primary. A party picks the officials who run its national organization through its own committees rather than at the ballot box. And the platform is written at the national convention rather than voted on by primary voters.

Which official heads the executive branch of a city government?

• a.A state legislator
• b.The governor
• c.The county sheriff
• d.The mayor✓

A mayor is the chief executive of a municipality, the local counterpart of a governor or a President. A governor heads a state, a level above the city. A sheriff is a law enforcement officer, usually elected county-wide, and runs one department rather than the city. And a state legislator makes state law and holds no executive office at all.

Who has the power to veto a bill passed by a state legislature?

• a.The President of the United States
• b.The governor of that state✓
• c.The mayor of the largest city
• d.The state supreme court

State constitutions give the governor a veto over bills the legislature has passed, mirroring the President's role at the federal level. A mayor's authority stops at the city limits and never reaches a state bill. A state supreme court may later hold a law invalid, but that is judicial review after enactment, not a veto. And the President has no power over state legislation whatsoever.

To say that the U.S. Congress is bicameral means that—

• a.its members serve two-year terms
• b.it shares power with two other branches
• c.it meets in session twice a year
• d.it is made up of two separate chambers✓

Bicameral describes a legislature built out of two houses, here the House of Representatives and the Senate, each of which must pass a bill before it can become law. The two-year term belongs only to House members, and a term length is not what the word describes. The number of sessions in a year is a matter of the calendar, not of structure. And sharing power with two other branches is separation of powers, a different idea altogether.

The census taken every ten years is used to determine—

• a.which states may hold early primaries
• b.how long a representative's term runs
• c.how many House seats each state gets✓
• d.how many senators each state gets

Apportionment is the constitutional purpose of the census: the count decides how the fixed number of House seats is divided among the states, and states gain or lose representation accordingly. Senate membership is set at two per state by the Constitution and no count can change it. A representative's term is fixed at two years. And the primary calendar is arranged by the parties and the states, with no connection to the census.

The process by which a lawful permanent resident becomes a U.S. citizen is called—

• a.ratification
• b.apportionment
• c.appropriation
• d.naturalization✓

Naturalization is the legal process, set by federal statute, through which someone who was not a citizen at birth becomes one. Apportionment is the division of House seats among the states after a census. Ratification is formal approval of a treaty or a constitutional amendment. And appropriation is Congress setting aside money for a purpose.

The House of Representatives votes to impeach a federal officer. Where is the trial then held?

• a.In the Senate✓
• b.In the Electoral College
• c.In a federal district court
• d.In the Supreme Court

Impeachment and removal are split between the chambers: the House brings the charges and the Senate sits as the court that tries them, with conviction requiring two-thirds. The Supreme Court does not try impeachments, although the Chief Justice presides when the President is the officer charged. A district court hears ordinary federal cases, not impeachments. And the Electoral College has no judicial function of any kind.

The establishment clause of the First Amendment bars the government from—

• a.setting up an official religion✓
• b.requiring children to attend school
• c.allowing prayer in private homes
• d.granting licenses to broadcasters

The clause opens the First Amendment by forbidding any law respecting an establishment of religion, which at its core means the government may not install an official faith. Private worship is protected rather than restricted, so permitting it is not a problem the clause addresses. Broadcast licensing is a regulatory matter with no religious dimension. And compulsory school attendance is a state power that the establishment clause does not reach.

A writ of habeas corpus requires the government to—

• a.justify holding a person in custody✓
• b.pay a defendant's legal expenses
• c.bring a case to trial within a year
• d.reveal the identity of an informant

Habeas corpus is the ancient demand that a jailer produce the prisoner and show lawful cause for the detention, which is why it is called the great writ. Paying a defendant's costs is a separate question handled by other rules. Disclosing an informant may be ordered in the course of a criminal case but has nothing to do with the writ. And the pace of a prosecution is governed by speedy-trial rules, not by habeas corpus.

An interest group differs from a political party mainly because an interest group—

• a.seeks to influence policy without nominating candidates✓
• b.must register every one of its members with the government
• c.is forbidden by law from contacting lawmakers about policy
• d.may take positions on only one issue at a time

A party exists to win offices and therefore nominates candidates under its own label; an interest group pursues particular policies and works on whoever holds office. Contacting lawmakers is precisely what interest groups do, and petitioning the government is protected by the First Amendment. Membership rolls are not filed with the government, though lobbying activity itself is often reported. And nothing limits a group to one issue at a time.