AP U.S. Government and Politics · Past multiple choice · Question 12
Senators in a political cartoon
Interpret the cartoonist's point about senators on their way to the Capitol.
Lessons this question tests
1 Read the question
The question is College Board's: sample question 12 in AP U.S. Government and Politics Course and Exam Description. It starts on page 183 of the PDF.
Open Question 12 (PDF, page 183)
2 Pick your answer
3 Check the explanation
Why the answer is C open once you have picked
The senators in the cartoon wear jumpsuits covered in corporate logos, the way race car drivers wear the logos of their sponsors. One carries a briefcase labeled with a bank's name. A sponsor's logo means the sponsor paid, so the cartoonist is saying senators are bought and backed by the companies that fund them.
That makes C the best interpretation: members of Congress take political contributions from many special interests, and the cartoon suggests those donors own a piece of them.
Each choice
- A. Wealth is not what the logos show. The names are of companies that paid for the sponsorship, not of the senators' own riches.
- B. Every logo is a large corporation, so the cartoon shows business donors, not a wide spread of constituents' interests.
- C (correct). Corporate logos worn like sponsor patches stand for the contributions senators take from many interest groups.
- D. The logos show who pays, not what the senators know. Reading them as job titles or fields of expertise misses the sponsorship joke.
Question and answer key: College Board. The title and summary are ours, and so is the explanation.