They were lucky devils, the bunch that came over on the Mayflower in 1620. The immigration laws were a good deal laxer back then. Nobody made those people take a citizenship test before they could join the club.

These days, we are more selective about whom we let in. You can’t simply be some guy in a funny hat with a buckle in front. To be one of us, you need to pass an exam. It has been that way for quite a while. But now, for the first time in 20 years, the government is tweaking the questions it will ask of immigrants who want to become citizens.

A new test will be given a dry run starting next month, with volunteers quizzed in 10 cities across the country. Surprisingly, New York City is not among the 10. Who has more immigrants than we do?

Nothing personal, said Chris Rhatigan, a spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency in charge of the exam. A computer picked the cities, she said yesterday, and besides, “there are a lot of other areas in this country that have rich diversity.”