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First, for Open, Competitive Examinations for Testing the Fitness of Applicants

question 40

Multiple Choice

First, for open, competitive examinations for testing the fitness of applicants for the public service now classified or to be classified hereunder. Such examinations shall be practical in their character, and so far as may be shall relate to those matters which will fairly test the relative capacity and fitness of the persons examined to discharge the duties of the service into which they seek to be appointed.
Second, that all the offices, places, and employments so arranged or to be arranged in classes shall be filled by selections according to grade from among those graded highest as the results of such competitive examinations.
Third, appointments to the public service aforesaid in the departments at Washington shall be apportioned among the several States and Territories and the District of Columbia upon the basis of population as ascertained at the last preceding census….
--Pendleton Act, 1883
-Which of the following was system created by the Pendleton Act designed to address?

Definitions:

Chemical Elements

Substances that cannot be broken down into simpler substances by chemical means, consisting of atoms with the same number of protons.

Helixes

Three-dimensional spirals, like those found in DNA structures or certain proteins, characterized by a uniform shape that twists around a central axis.

Thymine

A nitrogenous base found in DNA, pairing with adenine in the structure of the DNA molecule.

Cytosine

Cytosine is one of the four main bases found in DNA and RNA, pairing with guanine in the genetic code.