U.S. symbols: match each feature to what it represents

Symbol questions are short, but several answers may sound patriotic. Listen for the main noun: place, feature, title, or meaning. Give the fact that matches that noun, not another fact about the country.

Sort the question before answering

Use two groups. Location and name questions ask for a place or title. Meaning questions ask what a feature stands for or what an old phrase says. Do not mix the groups: a city cannot answer what a flag feature means, and a patriotic idea cannot replace the title of a national work.

For the flag, use two separate cards. The stripes keep a count from the country's founding colonies. The stars can change when the union gains states, so their current pattern describes the union today. Use this check: founding history for the stripes, present membership for the stars. Amendments are counted in the Constitution and do not explain either flag feature.

For the early Latin motto, focus on its simple movement from many parts to one whole. Separate states and many people form one nation. A phrase about trust or a phrase about liberty and justice may be familiar, but neither gives the meaning tested here.

Traps to avoid

• Swapping the two flag counts. The stripes look back to the founding colonies; the stars track the states in the current union.
• Treating amendments as the meaning of a flag feature. Amendments change the Constitution, while the flag’s repeated features represent parts of the nation.
• Replacing the meaning of the early motto with the familiar phrase about trust. That phrase is one of this bank's wrong options; it does not translate the Latin words.
• Choosing a familiar phrase about liberty and justice as the motto's meaning. The tested idea is many parts joining into one nation, not every patriotic idea linked to the country.

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