Comprehension/Vocab
The Preamble lists several reasons for writing the Constitution, including establishing justice, securing liberty, and these two goals related to safety and public well-being.
What are providing for the common defense and promoting the general welfare?
A group of citizens gathering in front of city hall to peacefully protest a new municipal law is exercising rights guaranteed under this specific amendment.
What is Amendment I?
Both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution begin with one of these.
What is a preamble?
In the sentence "He had a right to vote for the candidate he believed in," this word means something to which one is morally or legally entitled.
What is right?
According to its Preamble, the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution primarily for this protective reason.
What is to protect the people against the abuse of power by the government?
Officers pulling over a car and taking a passenger's cell phone to read their private texts without permission violates this specific amendment.
What is Amendment IV?
The Bill of Rights uses enumeration, which is a ________ to make the text easier to understand by organizing it into this layout.
What is a numbered list?
In the sentence "The subject for today's discussion is the history of fingerprinting," "subject" carries this definition.
What is the topic or theme of a conversation or research?
Before the Bill of Rights can officially become law, it has to be approved by ____ of state legislatures.
The answer is a FRACTION.
three-fourths
Charging a citizen $5,000 and impounding their car for a minor parking ticket violates Amendment VIII because it imposes this.
What is an excessive fine (or cruel and unusual punishment)?
The practical organizational feature used throughout the Bill of Rights to help readers quickly navigate to a specific set of rights.
What are headings?
Correct the comma placement in this sentence: "Delaware Pennsylvania New Jersey and Georgia were the first states to ratify the Constitution.
"Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Georgia were the first states to ratify the Constitution."
If you participate in a peaceful protest, you ______ the right to have freedom of speech?
What is exercise?
Amendment IX states that listing specific rights in the Constitution does not mean other rights retained by the people are denied, which was included because Congress was aware of this possibility.
What is the possibility that some important rights may have been overlooked?
Rather than listing individual state rights or government branches, the primary purpose of the opening line of the Preamble is to explain that the Constitution was established by these people.
Who are the people of the United States?
The Bill of Rights was written to ensure that nothing _______ upon a citizen's rights.
What is infringed?
This means "stated in writing" or "set down as a rule".
What is prescribed?
Amendment VI guarantees that any person arrested for a crime has the right to receive this crucial piece of information upon arrest.
What is the right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation (what crime they are charged with)?
This sentence structure rule is violated in "No male, nor no female, nor child and nor animal shall be unprotected by the law," but fixed in "No male, nor female, nor child, nor animal..."
What is parallel structure or parallelism?
The comma placed right before the coordinating conjunction ("and") in a series of three or more items—as seen in lists of Constitutional goals or states—is known by this term.
What is the serial comma (or Oxford comma)?
Read the following scenario and provide both parts of the answer:
"A woman is tried for a crime, found innocent by a jury, but the prosecutor decides to re-arrest her and try her again for the same crime the following month."
Which constitutional guarantee is being violated?
Which Amendment protects citizens against this practice (double jeopardy)?
1. What is protection against being tried twice for the same crime (Double Jeopardy / Due Process)?
2. What is Amendment V (the 5th Amendment)?