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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which President spoke to the House of Representatives early about the dangers of the Ku Klux Klan?

2. Which film boxer do the authors cite in their discussion of honesty in sports?

3. According to the authors, what euphemism means that a house is largely dilapidated?

4. According to Levitt, because something is correlated to something else does not imply what type of relationship between them?

5. What did DuPont introduce in 1939 to make stockings more affordable?

Short Essay Questions

1. What example do the authors use at the end of the chapter to show that people will cheat if they know they won't be caught?

2. How did the introduction of crack cocaine reverse a trajectory in American black culture?

3. How does terminology help real estate agents set a price for a house?

4. How is a sumo wrestler's life affected by his ranking?

5. What are the defining characteristics of conventional wisdom?

6. Why would a foot soldier risk death or arrest in a gang that pays him less than minimum wage for his labor?

7. What happens to the day-cares of Haifa, Israel when a late-pickup fee is introduced?

8. How does Venkatesh get his hands on JT's financial records?

9. Why would some winning sumo wrestlers throw a match?

10. How do the authors show that money spent does not affect election results?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Much of the early section of FREAKONOMICS is dedicated to the idea of honesty in society. Write an essay about three of the analyzed systems and what they say about honesty. What incentives does each person in the system have either to act truthfully or cheat? How does this create a system in which cheating is common? How do arbiters attempt to affect the dynamic to stop cheating? Is it successful?

Part 1) The Sumo wrestling leagues of Japan.

Part 2) The Chicago Public School System.

Part 3) Paul Feldman's bagel business.

Essay Topic 2

At its root, FREAKONOMICS is a study in contrarian thinking. Dubner and Levitt lionize the idea of the "hidden side," and their studies espouse a willful denial of conventional thought. Write an essay about the hidden side of three trends. What is the conventional wisdom regarding each trend? How do the authors disassemble these conventional theories? What fresh notion do they reach in the end?

Part 1) The drop in violent crime in the mid 1990's.

Part 2) The lucrative nature of hard drugs.

Part 3) The importance of parental involvement in a child's development.

Essay Topic 3

Roland G. Fryer, Jr., is a Harvard-educated researcher who focuses on the socio-economic separations between black and white Americans. Write an essay covering three ways in which this separation manifests itself. How do these examples detail a separate cultural identity and an achievement gap? What are some of the origins of this separation? What conclusions do Levitt and Dubner draw from Fryer's research into these schisms?

(see the answer keys)

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