¡GED Ahora! | Maria’s GED Blog Site

Here’s another GED Practice Question for you! With the answer explained…

I won’t include the whole GED passage, since it’s pretty long, but all these questions are from the Study Guide Zone, and you can go there to read the whole thing. But the GED test passages aren’t really that long. If you do get a long passage, you’ll want to skim and scan to find the part that the question is talking about.

So, here’s the part of the reading that has to do with this question:

The Second Continental Congress was held May 10, 1775 in Philadelphia. George Washington became the commander of the Americans, mainly because it was felt he would be able to bring the Southern colonies into the fold. This Congress also drew up the Olive Branch petition, a peace offering made to the King of England. The Articles of Confederation were drawn up here; their emphasis on states’ rights proved to be a poor setup for organizing a comprehensive military strategy. This Congress created the Committees of Safety, a system for training community militias. This Congress created a bureaucracy for the purpose of organizing a navy and raising money. Finally, it was here that the colonists formally declared independence.

And here’s the GED practice question:

4. Which aspect of the Articles of Confederation was ineffective?
A: the acceptance of slavery
B: the inclusion of Southern states
C: the emphasis on the power of the federal government
D: the emphasis on states’ rights

The answer is pretty easy if you can find where the text talks about “Articles of Confederation,” right? It says:

The Articles of Confederation were drawn up here; their emphasis on states’ rights proved to be a poor setup for organizing a comprehensive military strategy.

The text says “emphasis on states’ rights” and calls it “poor,” meaning bad. So, the only answer that’s even in the reading is “D.” That’s the right one… but it can be difficult because the way this stuff is written is kind of hard to understand. Like, what does “drawn up” mean? To draw is like to draw a picture, right? Really, “drawn up” means written. I guess you draw letters with a pen or pencil, too, like when Roberto is learning his alphabet, every letter is like a little work of art. So, really it’s saying they wrote the Articles of Confederation.

The really important part, though, is the second part. “Their emphasis on states’ rights proved to be a poor setup for organizing a comprehensive military strategy.” Lots of big words…what’s it really saying? Emphasis… that means to make something important. The Articles of Confederation made the states’ rights important…so more power went to states than to the central government. Not like today! The states don’t seem nearly as important as the U.S. Government. So it seems like things have really changed.

Why? That’s the question. The text says it “proved to be a poor setup…” that means it showed itself to be bad… “for organizing a comprehensive military strategy.” I know what “military” means. That’s like the army, navy, and marines. So… having more rights for states, and less central government, was bad for having a military. Bad for making an army, they mean. I guess I get that. Like, think about it. Having a bunch of different states that are all in charge of themselves is like getting a lot of different countries to get along together. They’re going to disagree about things, and they’re not all going to want to do the same things with their soldiers. So, it’s hard to have an army and fight a war with a bunch of powerful states and no strong, central government. I bet that’s one of the reason why things changed over time.

So, you can find the answer even if you don’t understand everything it’s trying to say… but it’s even better if you can pick it apart and figure out what it means. Good luck studying for your GED!

For more information about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at passged.com.

GED Practice Question, Reading | RSS 2.0 | Comment it , or trackback this post.