I Pledge Allegiance

From the NYT:

Federal immigration authorities yesterday unveiled 100 new questions immigrants will have to study to pass a civics test to become naturalized American citizens.

That got me thinking. How many natural-born Americans could pass the test?

From 2006 using the old test in downtown Roanoke:

QUESTION #1: What do the stars on the flag represent?

Michelle McGee said, “The freedom… the freedom of… uhhhh.”

Melissa Richards answered, “Stars represent colonies. I don’t know.”

And after a few minutes of thinking, Bethany Gramm said, “Isn’t that the amount of the states?

There we go. Finally. Old Glory’s 50 stars do represent the 50 states of the Union.

Let’s stick with numbers for our second question.

QUESTION #2: How many senators are there?

Daniel Colton of Roanoke said, “50.” Carol Conway, also from Roanoke, said, “There’s two from each state. So that would be 102 or 104.”

Roanoker Anne Perrin came in a little lower, saying, “Uhhh. 45?”

Dina Daniels from Boones Mill didn’t even give it a guess. “I have no idea.” Shirley Wright did have a guess, although it was a little high, saying, “125… maybe.”

And the right answer is, given to us by Matt Wiram from Roanoke, is 100. There are two senators from each state.

And from Jay Leno several years back:

Think you can answer these questions? Test yourself here. Good luck with #19. That should be the only one you miss!