Want To Be A U.S. Citizen? Study Hard

(CBS)  This column was written by The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.

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So you want to become a citizen of the United States? Well, you better study hard. The old test for immigrants who want to become naturalized citizens had questions like, "What color are the stars on the flag?" (white) and "How many stripes are there?" (13, for the original 13 colonies).

These questions have been replaced by new ones. For instance, "What is an inalienable right?" Well, unless you know much about English common law or the philosopher John Locke, you might have trouble with that one.

I spent part of Sunday afternoon asking an interesting cross section of American citizens those questions. And believe me, many struggled. Name one right or freedom of the First Amendment? Some got speech and the press, while others looked at me with that "I didn't know there was going to be a quiz" face that was once so common in high school.

Quite honestly, if all of us were required to successfully pass this test by midnight, I don't think most of us could.

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Harry's daily commentary can be heard on many CBS Radio News affiliates across the country.

[nottellin1]

This is such a load of garbage. Ewwww, this is going to be such a challenge. Next this you know the ACLU will be claiming racism, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah. The applicant has to answer 10 questions about the US and its history and answer 6 out of 10 correctly. I recall 60% as pretty much failing on tests that I have taken in the US. Most of the questions are subjective like, %u201Cwhat did Martin Luther King Jr. do?" With %u201Cfought for civil rights and worked for equality for all Americans%u201D. Seems kind of ambiguous to me, plus they tested the questions in ESL classes. Finding that questions like, %u201C"What is the rule of law? and "Who was the president during World War I" would be difficult for most Americans. %u201CWe%u2019re doomed as doomed can be, you know%u201D!