Study guide for Citizenship Exam released today

Please complete the following sequence by adding the last item:

a.  a green circle;
b.  an orange diamond;
c.  a purple square; and
d.  ?

OK, this one I did have to google.

Red Triangle

It's the sequence of colors and shapes on the British currency to help the visually impaired. That's a good trivia one.

Many political systems work that way. Lots of Americans still vote for the party line in the US as well. Even though technically they are voting for an individual, some Americans just vote for everyone in the Democratic column, or the Republican column, without knowing anything about who they are voting for. This is one of the reasons people complain when ballots aren't readable. People sometimes vote the way they hadn't intended if a candidate's name is in the "wrong" position on the ballot; that is, it's hard to tell which party they belong to. I have seen people do this when I've gone to vote in the US: Walk up to the election worker, ask "Which column is the Democratic column?" and be told "first column on the left" or wherever it is.

 Not so much in presidential elections, maybe, but Americans vote by party when voting for the legislature, judgeships, and in local elections. Either way, it's important to know what you are voting for--whether it's a party or a person.

I know it seems like it's the same thing but it's not.  You are actually voting for the party.  The party who has the most MP's is the governing party-and the leader of that party is the Prime Minister.  So the only people actually voting for Tony Blair are the people in his constituency.  And while people are voting for their chosen candidate for MP, they're really voting for the party they want to be in power.  
So while in hte states, people may vote that way out of preference.  Here it is the actual system.  

OK, this one I did have to google.

Red Triangle

It's the sequence of colors and shapes on the British currency to help the visually impaired. That's a good trivia one.

Really?  I'm going to go look.   

It is? what? where? I only have coins in my purse so I can't check!!

front side, on the left hand field, slightly below the hologram. Why this is more clear to the visually impaired is beyond me, but that's the justification.

I have never, ever read in any book or heard anyone teach that the Mayflower was the first ship American to the colonies.  So where exactly have you heard that myth before?

Statements can be held to be true through omission. I sincerely doubt that only a small percentage of Americans has any idea that the Mayflower was not the first ship. Look at this page from PBS.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus/web03/segment1.html

The text reads:

Freedom in America has meant many things: freedom of speech; freedom from unfair, autocratic government; freedom to strive after personal dreams. But in the eyes of many, the fundamental American freedom has been the right to worship or not worship in any way a person chooses. It was supposed to have been that way from the beginning, Thomas Jefferson  believed. He wrote: "Our forefathers left their native land to seek on these shores a residence for civil and religious freedom."
Back in seventeenth century England, religious freedom didn't exist. You had to belong to the Church of England or suffer persecution. King James I, speaking about religious dissenters, said, "I will make them conform themselves, or else I will harry them out of the land."
In 1620, 102 brave souls clambered aboard a little ship—named the Mayflower—and began their sail westward to the new world . Some of them called themselves "Pilgrims," because they were on a religious journey; they hoped to build a new society in America more perfect than any on earth."



It wouldn't be at all clear that others had already landed. The web page then goes on to say>

"Did you know:

n December 1620, the Mayflower was in Cape Cod harbor. Before the Pilgrims disembarked for good in Plymouth, Mistress Susanna White gave birth on board the ship to the first English baby born in New England, a boy she named Peregrine."



The key phrase here is "New England." Other English babies had already been born in the colonies.

The point here is that there's a mythos of New England primacy, which is functioning to erase the actual history of Virginia's primacy. This was done after the Civil War, victor's justice, victor's history, to pretend that the South had no part in the forming of the nation.

I'm broke.  So I can't look.  But weirdly I'm a cashier.  I look at money every day.  And I never noticed.  And I can't think that anyone knows this, because to be honest, most people can't even recognize the difference between an  old and a new fiver.  I'm going to look on Monday.

Red Triangle

Superb!

Even with googling, it's a toughie!

With the very slight nit-pick that it's an *English* system, not a British one. 

I'm starting to get depressed Garry.  Ask me something I would know. 

Many political systems work that way. Lots of Americans still vote for the party line in the US as well. Even though technically they are voting for an individual, some Americans just vote for everyone in the Democratic column, or the Republican column, without knowing anything about who they are voting for.

 Not so much in presidential elections, maybe, but Americans vote by party when voting for the legislature, judgeships, and in local elections.  Either way, it's important to know what you are voting for--whether it's a party or a person.

Americans tend to vote for party by custom, but not procedurally to invest the party. It's the latter that happens here. When Thatcher resigned, there was not a new election. The Tory party officials decided that John Major, as head of the Conservative party, would be the prime minister. This was allowed because the populace votes for a party, not an individual.

Americans, often don't vote for a party: hence Schwarzenegger in California, or Bloomsberg in NYC: Republicans in heavily Democratic regions.

n December 1620, the Mayflower was in Cape Cod harbor. Before the Pilgrims disembarked for good in Plymouth, Mistress Susanna White gave birth on board the ship to the first English baby born in New England, a boy she named Peregrine."

And WHAT London tube station is named after the place from which the Mayflower departed?  

eh?  EH?

Even with googling, it's a toughie!

With the very slight nit-pick that it's an *English* system, not a British one. 

You're right. Mea Culpa. The Scottish and Irish currency is different. What made it hard to google was that it was called a rhombus, rather than a diamond!

And WHAT London tube station is named after the place from which the Mayflower departed? 

eh?  EH?

Surely THAT isn't one of the questions?!! It must be one of those new stations on thw DLR or something.

I'm starting to get depressed Garry.  Ask me something I would know. 

The obverse of which coin depicts our national icon, Britania?

The obverse of which coin depicts our national icon, Britania?

Fifty pee?