GED Practice Quiz

Directions:

Choose the one best answer to each question. When you have finished the quiz, click on Submit Answers to receive feedback and results. You may also choose to e-mail your results to your instructor.

Question 1 refers to the following information.

An American president has ten days excluding Sundays to either veto a bill or sign it into law. But if legislation comes before him fewer than ten days before Congress adjourns, he may exercise a pocket veto. That is, the president "pockets" the legislation so that Congress goes home without the bill being signed and without having a chance to override a formal veto.


1	When may the president exercise a pocket veto?
		A)	when legislation comes before him fewer than ten days before Congress adjourns
		B)	when he needs more than ten days to decide whether to veto a bill
		C)	when he doesn’t want to give Congress the opportunity to override a formal veto
		D)	when he wants Congress to adjourn earlier
		E)	when he needs the bill to be signed quickly

Questions 2 and 3 refer to the following information.

In 1986 leaders of Britain and France signed an agreement to link their countries by a 31-mile tunnel under the English Channel. The completed tunnel can carry 25 million people each year. Two rail tunnels, joined to a service tunnel, can carry autos, buses, and large trucks under the Channel in 30 minutes. The rail link speeds travelers from London to Paris in 3 hours and 15 minutes. Before the tunnel was completed, travel time by train and ferry was 6½ hours. The time needed to transport goods from the English Midlands to the manufacturing region of the Ruhr Basin in West Germany has been reduced from 4½ to 2½ days.


2	According to the passage, how did the completion of the Channel affect the travel time between London and Paris?
		A)	Travel time between London and Paris increased.
		B)	Travel time between London and Paris decreased.
		C)	Travel time between London and Paris stayed the same.
		D)	Travel time went from 4½ days to 2½ days.
		E)	Travel time was reduced by ½.


3	Which of the following probably stood to benefit the most from the Channel tunnel once it was completed?
		A)	the Western European economies
		B)	the French shipping industry
		C)	England’s national defense
		D)	German railroads
		E)	the environment

Question 4 refers to the following graph.


4	Which two countries have the most similar percentages of their labor forces in agriculture?
		A)	United States and Mexico
		B)	Ivory Coast and Niger
		C)	Thailand and the Philippines
		D)	Guatemala and Niger
		E)	Guatemala and Thailand

Questions 5 and 6 refer to the following information.

The spirit of laissez-faire and the belief in rugged individualism dominated early American thinking. Nowhere was this more evident than in the settling of the frontier. How the public domain was used was up to the individual settler. And look at the results.

Much of New England’s soil was too thin and stony for crops. It had a surface fertility, however, so it was cleared, put under the plow, and soon depleted. In the Piedmont region of the south, land too steep for cultivation was distributed to settlers who planted in tobacco and cotton. The harvest was eroded soil. In the semi-arid Plains, lands subject to drought and raked by dust storms were given to homesteaders. The farming was so bad that 15 million of those acres were soon abandoned.

In these and many other cases, the unplanned nature of settlement impoverished both the soil and the people who tried to live on it.


5	Which of the following statements represents a conclusion by the author?
		A)	Individual settlers often determined how to use the land.
		B)	The lack of planned land use led to poor soil and poor settlers.
		C)	Much of New England’s soil was too thin and stony for crops.
		D)	Fifteen million acres of homesteaded land were abandoned.
		E)	Settlers in the Piedmont region planted tobacco and cotton.


6	Which of the following events was probably a result of the problems described in the article?
		A)	In 1931 a national land-use planning committee was organized in the Department of Agriculture.
		B)	After the Revolutionary War, 233 million acres were turned over to Congress by the original states that had claims to the western lands.
		C)	The Land Ordinance of 1795 provided that public land be sold at auction for one dollar an acre.
		D)	The Indian Removal Act allowed the federal government to seize Native American lands as long as some compensation was paid.
		E)	The Missouri Compromise of 1820 admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state.

Question 7 refers to the following cartoon.

© Tribune Media Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with permission.


7	How does this cartoonist feel about the tobacco industry?
		A)	Big Tobacco executives should be arrested, not gun manufacturers.
		B)	Neither Big Tobacco nor the gun manufacturers are guilty of any wrongdoing.
		C)	The tobacco industry should be held liable for all tobacco-related deaths.
		D)	The tobacco industry doesn’t harm its consumers.
		E)	Gun manufacturers shouldn’t be held liable for shooting deaths.

Question 8 refers to the following graph.


8	According to the graph, what will happen when soap is sold for 60 cents a bar?
		A)	Suppliers will raise the price.
		B)	Demand will increase.
		C)	The quantity demanded will equal the quantity supplied.
		D)	Demand will exceed supply, causing a shortage of 350 bars.
		E)	Supply will exceed demand by almost 350 bars.

Questions 9 and 10 refer to the following set of graphs.


9	According to the graphs, where does the city get most of its income?
		A)	taxes
		B)	other agencies
		C)	sales of utilities
		D)	sales of services
		E)	sales of personal property


10	Which of the following actions would the city most likely take if the relationship between its projected income and expenses holds true?
		A)	discontinue services to other agencies
		B)	raise taxes
		C)	hire more police and fire fighters
		D)	raise the pay of city employees
		E)	eliminate public works

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