a triple dog dare

So the citizenship test has been revamped, and as far as I can tell they've just exchanged one set of poorly worded questions for another. The argument, though, is that these are more meaningful poorly worded questions, and, to be fair, some of them aren't even awkward: instead of "How many stripes are on the flag?" they get "Why does the flag have 13 stripes?" Fair enough.

Would-be citizens are only asked 10 of 100 potential questions, and they only have to answer 6 correctly. A mere gentleman's (or woman's) D. The NY Times picked out 10, and since they did not choose number ninety-nine "When do we celebrate Independence Day? or number seventy, "Who was our first president?" there was much protesting by the supposed Eastern elite in their comments section that the questions were far too hard and certainly impossible for a mere immigrant to learn (both questions and answers are provided for study, so I'd say how hard could that be, except a couple of the provided answers look wrong to me).

Now, I teach this stuff, so I have no perspective. I just know it. But do you? Would you take this one legitimate opportunity for anonymous commenting to either see if your citizenship is up to snuff or to put some Americans to shame? C'mon, somebody. Play along! It's the least you could do. And no cheating. I'll post the answers later.

1. How many amendments does the Constitution have?

2. What stops one branch of government from becoming too powerful? (theoretically. stop shaking your head in despair and just answer.)

3. The House of Representatives has how many voting members?

4. There are four amendments to the Constitution about who can vote. Describe one of them. (finds this to be a really stupidly worded question.)

5. What are two rights only for United States citizens?

6. The Federalist Papers supported the passage of the U.S. Constitution. Name one of the writers. (finds this to be a really random question that is supposed to be some big concept but is really just trivia. gets it right anyway)

7. What territory did the United States buy from France in 1803?

8. Who was President during World War I?

9. Name one U.S. territory. (points out that the answer to number 7 was not really a territory in this sense of the word)

10. Why does the flag have 13 stripes?