This Land Is Your Land: The Citizenship Quiz

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About This Quiz

For people who never leave their native countries, citizenship is simple as pie -- you simply have to be born. But being a citizen entails a lot more than just living in a nation. Test your knowledge about what it means to be a citizen.

As far as the United Nations is concerned, a child born on an airplane is a citizen of:

the country in whose airspace the birth took place

the country where the plane is registered

the country where the plane was headed

Correct Answer

Wrong Answer

Under UN rules, a child born on an airplane is recognized as an official citizen of the country to which that plane is registered.

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In Australia and the United States, people's names can't include what?

numbers

ampersands

anything you'd have to push the shift key to write

Correct Answer

Wrong Answer

In both the United States and Australia, citizens aren't allowed to have numbers in their name. Just ask the Aussie parents who tried to name their child 4Real.

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In the United States, first preference for immigration is given to what kind of relative of a U.S. citizen?

spouses

adult unmarried children

married children

Correct Answer

Wrong Answer

Unmarried adult children of U.S. citizens are given first preference for immigration to the U.S.

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In which nation was Earth's 6 billionth citizen born on Oct. 12, 1999?

Zimbabwe

Brazil

Bosnia

Correct Answer

Wrong Answer

Fatima Nevic, the estimated 6 billionth citizen in the world, was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Oct. 12, 1999.

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Until 2011, first three digits in an American citizen's social security number were issued based on what?

zip code or state code

month of birth

nothing, they're random

Correct Answer

Wrong Answer

Until 2011, the first three numbers in a social security number (the area number) were based on the zip code or state code where the person lives or was born.

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Passports didn't become a common requirement among nations of the world until after what year?

1812

1915

1950

Correct Answer

Wrong Answer

While passports have been used in some form for centuries, it wasn't until an executive order was signed in the United States in 1915 requiring all U.S. citizens leaving the country to have a passport that they began to be codified around the world.

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After which war did Canada pass an act that made residents Canadian citizens rather than British citizens?

French-Indian War

World War I

World War II

Correct Answer

Wrong Answer

In 1946, after World War II, Canada passed a citizenship act that recognized residents as Canadian citizens, not British.

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Where do international waters begin?

along a nation's coast

where the continental shelf ends

12 miles off a nation's coast

Correct Answer

Wrong Answer

International waters begin 12 miles off the coast of a nation. It's here that jurisdiction becomes murky.

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In which country do Easter Island's residents claim citizenship?

Greece

Chile

Malaysia

Correct Answer

Wrong Answer

Easter Island's residents are citizens of Chile.

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In what year did the U.S. government force citizenship onto all native-born American Indians?

1914

1924

1972

Correct Answer

Wrong Answer

In 1924, the U.S. government granted blanket citizenship to all native-born American Indians in recognition of Native Americans' service in World War I.

FINISH QUIZ

You Got:

/10

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