Grade 5, Unit 5, 5.6 Government Glossary

What is the definition of 'amendment'?

• a change or addition to the United States constitution

• a type of government document

• a law passed by Congress

• a decision made by the Supreme Court

What was the Articles of Confederation?

What is the Bill of Rights?

• the first ten amendments added to the U.S. Constitution that state the rights and freedoms of the U.S. citizens, such rights include freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of assembly, and the right to protest; soldiers cannot take over a home during war or peace without the homeowner’s permission; and the protection of Americans from unreasonable and unlawful search and seizure of property

• a set of laws that established the three branches of government in the United States

• the document that ended the American Revolutionary War and recognized American independence

• a collection of speeches made by the Founding Fathers during the Constitutional Convention

What is a cabinet in the context of government?

• a small group of people within a government who give advice to the highest leader, such as the president or prime minister. (United States Executive branch, includes the President, Vice President, and heads of 15 executive departments.)

• a type of furniture used to store important government documents.

• a public meeting held by government officials to discuss new laws.

• a group of citizens chosen at random to make decisions for the government.

What are Checks and Balances in the United States Government?

• the ability for the United States Government branches to monitor the other branches so that no one branch has more power over the others, example: making and vetoing new laws

• the process of electing the President every four years

• the system of collecting taxes from citizens

• the method of amending the Constitution

What is an agreement between two sides who have different opinions, in which each side gives up something it had wanted?

• compromise

• argument

• victory

• refusal

What is the name for the members of the law-making legislative branch, which meets at the Capitol in Washington D.C., and is composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives?

• Congress

• Cabinet

• Supreme Court

• Parliament

During the period of the American Revolution, what was the body of delegates who spoke and acted collectively for the people of the colony-states that later became the United States of America, originally created to revise the Articles of Confederation?

• Continental Congress

• House of Burgesses

• Sons of Liberty

• Federalist Society

What is the set of political rules by which a place or organization is governed, or the written document that records it, with the Preamble as the document’s introduction?

• Constitution

• Manifesto

• Treaty

• Ordinance

What is the document that states the Thirteen Colonies declared themselves independent from Great Britain and became its own country?

• Declaration of Independence

• Bill of Rights

• Magna Carta

• Articles of Confederation