[bvw]

Ditto!

If taxes equal government spending, then:

Your Answer: government debt is zero

Correct Answer: tax per person equals government spending per person on average

That's not correct. In that case the government can bank the income and still borrow. Why would they do that? Borrowing feeds money to favored bankers. Another REALLY questionable one:

Question: A flood-control levee (or National Defense) is considered a public good because:

Your Answer: government pays for its construction, not citizens

Correct Answer: a resident can benefit from it without directly paying for it

There's plenty of things that a person (why did they use "a resident"?) can benefit from without paying for it that are NOT public goods. For example the good health of my neighbors. MANY others. In actually none of the answers they provided properly describes "public good" as used in this context.

Some dictionaries give definitions that accord to the meaning I chose on their test, but again, that's not a great answer either.

The place to look for the proper answer is in the legal rulings related to Eminent Domain, especially public rights-of-way. Unfortunately the majority in the abysmal Kelo ruling really f'd it up.

Yet the Thomas dissent says

The Framers embodied that principle in the Constitution, allowing the government to take property not for “public necessity,” but instead for “public use.”

[antidisestablishment]

Kelo epitomizes the state of our country. I still find it hard to believe that our “conservative” justices passed this abomination.

[PhatHead]

Sorry, but your answers really were incorrect - the questions were a bit narrower than the way you seem to be construing them:

If taxes equal government spending, then:

Your Answer: government debt is zero

Correct Answer: tax per person equals government spending per person on average

That's not correct. In that case the government can bank the income and still borrow.

Your explanation at the end ("government can...still borrow") is the reason that your answer above was wrong. The question says nothing about debt, but asks what happens if the government spends no more than what it takes in from taxes. The question and answer are really a basic tautology.

Question: A flood-control levee (or National Defense) is considered a public good because:

Your Answer: government pays for its construction, not citizens

Correct Answer: a resident can benefit from it without directly paying for it

There's plenty of things that a person (why did they use "a resident"?) can benefit from without paying for it that are NOT public goods.

Sure there are, but again, that wasn't the question. The question asked only why the two named examples would be considered public goods. Your answer, unfortunately, is the one too many politicians follow, which is that government funding is itself the definition of a public good. It ought to be the other way around - being a public good should be a necessary (though not sufficient) justification for public funding.