What Do You Need To Know To Pass The British Citizenship Test?
Today we test your knowledge of the UK and have a go at some British citizenship test questions. We take a few minutes to test your knowledge with example questions from the test. Then we go through what the answers are so you can see how well you did! So come on, take the test with me and see if you could become a British citizen!
The United Kingdom has been around for a long time. The people, culture and even geography of the union have grown into a hotchpotch of history. And more recently, if you want to become a British citizen, you need to learn that history and pass a test. Even if you don’t want to become a citizen, the test is really interesting, anyway!
So in this English lesson we are going to practice listening to English, while we learn some historic facts about Britain, its culture and geography. As always, along the way, you will get to hear lots of English vocabulary and phrases being used in everyday English conversation to help you listen and learn.
I hope you enjoy this lesson and please check out my other English lessons here on YouTube and Spotify.
Most Unusual Words:
- Peers: People who are the same age or have the same social position.
- Citizenship: Being a member of a country, with rights and duties.
- Monarch: A king or queen, the head of a monarchy.
- Fancy: To like or want something, or think that something is nice.
- Corroboration: Additional support or proof for an idea or fact.
- Hotchpotch: A mixture of different things.
- Century: A period of 100 years.
- Conqueror: Someone who takes control of a place by force.
- Preserve: To save something or keep it the same.
- Exhibition: A public show of art, products, or skills.
Most common 2 word phrases:
| Phrase | Count |
|---|---|
| Sample Questions | 3 |
| Give You | 2 |
| These Questions | 2 |
| Channel Islands | 2 |
| Gives You | 2 |
| Test Yourself | 2 |
| Listening To | 2 |
| Help You | 2 |
Listen To The Audio Lesson Now
The mp3 audio and pdf transcript for this lesson is now part of the Adept English back catalogue . You can still download and listen to this lesson as part of one of our podcast bundles.Transcript: Lets Pass The British Citizenship Test
Hi there. Today let's do something a bit different. I was reading an article in The Independent - that's a British newspaper - fairly recently, and they were talking about the British Citizenship Test. Have you ever wanted to become a British Citizen? Well, you may not, but the test is really interesting.
Hello, I’m Hilary, and you’re listening to Adept English. We will help you to speak English fluently. All you have to do is listen. So start listening now and find out how it works.
The British Citizenship Test
So on this test, you have to score 75% correct answers to pass. And I was having a look at the sample questions. Some of them are easy, some of them are really quite difficult. So I thought I'd have a look at the sample questions for the test in the podcast, and it will give you some good general knowledge about the UK.
And you can test yourself on these questions. And as ever, I'll be giving you some lovely general English language learning vocabulary as well. What could be better?
Don't forget - our 500 Most Common Words Course will help you to start speaking English
Before I start that just a reminder of one of our courses, our most popular course on our website, the Most Common 500 Words Course. This is a brilliant course for someone wanting to improve their English vocabulary enough to start speaking English. It's one thing listening to English and understanding it, but there is another step to speaking and this course can really help you. It's amazing what you can say with just 500 words.
Boost Your Learning With Adept English
And this course gives you lots of corroboration, lots of repeats of those common words so that you really learn them and you know them inside out. You'll have enough words with these 500 words to start making simple sentences and make your meaning clear. That's available on our website at adeptenglish.com.
Back to the British Citizenship Test - Part 1
Right, down to business. Let's explore this British Citizenship Test - some sample questions. Obviously, if you took the test, your questions would be different, but this gives you an idea of the types of things that they might ask.
Now there are 24 questions. So what I'm going to do is cover 12 of them in this podcast and leave the other 12 for the next podcast and I'll cover them there. This is really good stuff because there's lots of general knowledge about the UK covered in these questions.
So why not test yourself? I'll run through the questions first of all. And then I'll go through the answers with a bit of an explanation. OK.
Question 1
- Which of the following is part of the UK?
- A St Helena
- B Wales
- C Channel Islands or
- D Canada
Give you those answers again.
- Which of the following is part of the UK?
- A St Helena
- B Wales
- C The Channel Islands
- D Canada
Just one, answer there.
Question 2
- Which charity works to preserve important buildings?
- A The Red Cross
- B The NSPCC
- C Age UK
- D The National Trust
Again?
- Which charity works to preserve important buildings?
- A The Red Cross
- B The NSPCC
- C Age UK or
- D The National Trust.
Question 3
- What created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland?
- A The Great Union
- B The Great Governments
- C The Act of Union
- D The Act for the Governments
- What created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland?
- A The Great Union
- B The Great Governments
- C The Act of Union or
- D The Act for the Governments
Question 4
- Which of these UK landmarks is in Wales?
- A Giant's Causeway
- B Loch Lomond
- C Snowdonia or
- D The Lake District
- Which of these UK landmarks is in Wales?
- A Giant's Causeway
- B Loch Lomond
- C Snowdonia or
- D The Lake District.
Question 5
- Which flower is associated with England?
- A a shamrock
- B a rose
- C a daffodil and
- D a thistle
- Which flower is associated with England?
- A shamrock
- B rose
- C daffodil or
- D thistle
Question 6
- Who built the tower of London?
- A Oliver Cromwell
- B Henry VII
- C William The Conqueror or
- D Henry VIII
So again?
- Who built the Tower of London? Very famous monument in London.
- A Oliver Cromwell
- B Henry VII
- C William the Conqueror, or
- D Henry VIII
Question 7
- When did the first Christian communities appear in Britain?
- A second and third century,
- B third and fourth century
- C fourth and fifth century
- D first and second century
I think that one's quite difficult.
- When did the first Christian communities appear in Britain?
- A second and third century
- B third and fourth century
- C fourth and fifth century
- D first and second century
Question 8
- When is St David's Day?
- A 17th March
- B 23rd April
- C 30th November or
- D 1st March
Again?
- When is St David's Day?
- A 17th March
- B 23rd April
- C 30th November or
- D 1st March
Question 9
- What is the capital of England? I fancy you might know this!
- A Edinburgh
- B London
- C Belfast or
- D Cardiff
So....
- A Edinburgh
- B London
- C Belfast or
- D Cardiff
Question 10
- Who appoints life peers. That's P E E R S.
- A The Prime Minister
- B the Monarch
- C The Shadow Cabinet or
- D The Speaker
Again?
- Who appoints life peers?
- A The Prime Minister
- B The Monarch
- C The Shadow Cabinet or
- D The Speaker
Question 11
- What palace was a cast iron and plate glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England to house The Great Exhibition of 1851?
- A The Great Palace
- B Crystal Palace
- C Gold Palace
- D Dream Palace
So....
- What palace was erected in 1851 to house The Great Exhibition?
- A The Great Palace
- B Crystal Palace
- C Gold Palace
- D Dream Palace
Question 12
- Last question now. What did the Chartists campaign for?
- A The right to vote for 18 year olds
- B The right to vote for women
- C The right to vote for 21 year olds or
- D The right to vote for the working class
Once again?
- What did the Chartists campaign for? Certainly it was a, a right to vote, but which group?
- A The right to vote for 18 year olds
- B The right to vote for women
- C The right to vote for 21 year olds or
- D The right to vote for the working class
OK. That's the end of the test. So how did you do? How did you find that? Let's run through those answers with a bit of an explanation?
OK. So back to...
Listening Lessons
Question 1 answer
- Which of the following is part of the UK? The answers were...
- A St Helena
- B Wales
- C The Channel Islands or
- D Canada
Bit of a trick question. So B - the right answer is Wales here. That is definitely part of the UK.
St Helena - that's answer A, is an island in the South Atlantic. It's where Napoleon was exiled before he was sent to Elba. And St Helena is a British overseas territory, so that might have confused it, but it's not part of the UK.
The Channel Islands, surprisingly are also not part of the UK. So these little islands sit between France and England. Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney and Sark - not part of the UK, but apparently the UK is responsible for their defence and their international relations. So a bit of a weird relationship, but not part of the UK.
And D Canada? Well, Canada definitely isn't part of the UK, but again, confusingly, our Queen Elizabeth is their queen. I don't what Justin Trudeau thinks of that, but they do have our monarch as their figurehead.
Question 2 answer
- Which charity works to preserve important buildings?
- A The Red Cross
- B The NSPCC
- C Age UK
- D The National Trust
Well, D is the right answer. The National Trust preserves our important historic buildings. The Red Cross is a charity which delivers health and social care and disaster aid across the world. NSPCC stands for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. So that's a children's society. And Age UK looks after the elderly, another charity.
📷
A photograph of the houses of UK Parliment. The British Citizenship Test is a comprehensive way to test your knowledge of the UK and its culture.
Question 3 answer
- What created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland? Well, the answer here is C, The Act of Union. And this act joined the countries of England and Scotland in 1707. Not sure how happy the Scottish still are about this, but that's history.
Question 4 answer
- Which of these UK landmarks is in Wales? Well, the answer here is C, Snowdonia. Beautiful national park in the north of Wales with lots of mountains. A Giant's Causeway - well, that's in Northern Ireland, County Antrim. Rather an amazing landscape of columns, stone columns. B Loch Lomond. Well, the clue's in 'Loch', L O C H - is the Scottish name for a lake. So Loch Lomond is in Scotland. 'The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond' is a song. And D the Lake District is in the Northern part of England. Very beautiful as well. If you can find a day without rain, that is.
Question 5 answer
- Which flower is associated with England? So this is a national flower. So the answer, you may know this - is B rose. So it's a rose because of the association with the Wars of the Roses. So this is back in the 1400s, and there was a war between the House of Lancaster and the House of York and the Lancastrians won. So our symbol is the red rose of the House of Lancaster, as opposed to the white rose of the House of York. Henry VII adopted this red rose as the symbol for England. And if you follow English rugby, you'll have seen this symbol.
The shamrock - that's answer A - is associated with Ireland, Ireland's national flower. C, the daffodil is the Welsh national flower, and the thistle is the Scottish national flower.
Question 6 answer
- Who built the Tower of London? Well, The answer, C is William the Conqueror, but I think you could dispute this! William the Conqueror certainly started the Tower of London, but actually it's been added to throughout history. Henry III expanded the walls and Henry VIII actually built the Queen's House within the Tower of London. So it's one of those questions where the more you know, the more likely you might be to get it wrong! But William the Conqueror was the one who started the Tower of London.
Question 7 answer
- When did the first Christian communities appear in Britain? Well, apparently it's answer B third and fourth centuries. I have absolutely no idea about the answer to that and I think most people living in the UK wouldn't know that either!
Question 8 answer
- When is St David's Day? So we're into patron saints and flags and flowers for each of the four countries of the UK. So St David's Day, the answer is D, the 1st March. St David is the patron saint of Wales. This goes with the daffodil. So they wear a daffodil on the 1st March, assuming they're out, that is!
17th March is St Patrick's Day, so this is the Northern Irish patron saint. 23rd April is St George's Day, the English patron Saint and the 30th November is St Andrew's Day. That's the Scottish patron saint. So the answer here, 1st of March for St David.
Question 9 answer
- What is the capital of England? Well, I would rather hope someone taking a citizenship test would perhaps know this one, but answer B, London. So Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland. Belfast is the capital of Ireland and Cardiff is the capital of Wales. Worth learning that!
Question 10 answer
- Who appoints life peers? So this is part of the Honours System. If you are appointed a peer, you will have a title. You might be Lord or Baron or Baroness somebody or other. And the answer here is the Monarch. So it's the reigning king or queen who appoints life peers. Actually, they don't choose them. It's the Prime Minister who chooses them, who chooses who to reward with a peerage, but it's the queen or king that actually appoints them.
Question 11 answer
- What palace was a cast iron and plate glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England to house The Great Exhibition of 1851?
So the answer here is B, Crystal Palace. You may not know the history here, but when you run through the answers, Crystal Palace is the only one anyone's ever heard of. So, uh, you might know it for that reason. It's also an English football team, which you've perhaps heard of, Crystal Palace. Last one?
Download The Podcast Audio & Transcript
Question 12 answer
- What did the Chartists campaign for? So we know it's the right to vote for a particular group, but which group? Well, the answer is D - the right to vote for the working class. So the Chartists campaigned for all men, not just those with titles and with money to have the right to vote. Crazy that it was any other way!
Later on it was the campaign for the women's vote. That was the suffragettes. This is another question on the Chartists that many British citizens probably wouldn't know.
Use this podcast for your general knowledge and your vocabulary
OK. So how many did you get right? Did you get 75%? I think some of those questions are much harder than others and would challenge people who know quite a bit about British history, perhaps.
So 75% is 8 out 12. That's what you would need to get. But hopefully me talking through that and giving you the answers will furnish you with some interesting general knowledge about the UK, and of course, some lovely vocabulary.
Goodbye
I'll cover another 12 British citizenship questions in the next podcast. So you can look forward to that!
Enough for now. Have a lovely day. Speak to you again soon. Goodbye.
Thank you so much for listening. Please help me tell others about this podcast by reviewing or rating it. And, please share it on social media. You can find more listening lessons and a free English course at adeptenglish.com
