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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. The amount of money spent on every season's election campaigns is the same as the amount spent by Americans yearly on what?

2. How many times a year are elite sumo tournaments held?

3. Which of the following real estate terms indicates that a home buyer should bid high?

4. How do teachers most often cheat on standardized tests?

5. What comedic Hollywood icon does Levitt quote regarding honesty in this chapter?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How did Sudhir Venkatesh become acquainted with the Black Gangster Disciple Nation?

3. 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?

4. Why had Chicago public schools already been standardized testing for years before No Child Left Behind?

5. What is information asymmetry?

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

7. How did Stetson Kennedy use the information he compiled about the Ku Klux Klan?

8. What is important to women on dating sites?

9. What does Paul Feldman learn about honesty from his bagel business?

10. How is the organizational structure of the Black Gangster Disciple Nation similar to McDonald's?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay detailing the authors' comparison between America and Communist Romania's abortion policies. How is Roe v. Wade and Nicolae Ceausescu's accession drastically alter the availability of abortions? What affect id these changes have on the populace and social order in each country? According to Levitt and Dubner, what was the unexpected end result of these separate changes in abortion policy?

Essay Topic 2

Dubner and Levitt regularly analyze "consumer patterns" in American culture. This allows them to see how trends shift from group to group - particularly between socioeconomic groups - and what this says about societal influences. Write an essay about consumer trends in two parts:

Part 1) How are nylon stockings similar to crack cocaine? To what extent is each a more affordable and mass-produced version of a luxury good? Explain in this section how both of these products represent a trend shift from high-end consumers to low-end consumers.

Part 2) How are child names a commodity that regularly move from one group to another? What are the driving forces behind the national trends regarding baby names? How do baby names shift from one group to another?

Essay Topic 3

Throughout FREAKONOMICS, Levitt and Dubner regularly offer apologias to the reader, explaining that they understand that the conclusions they reach may be upsetting or offensive to some. Write an essay examining these apologias. With what findings are they associated? Why do you think the authors deem it necessary to offer an aesthetic caveat to these decisions? To what extent is the final moment of the book a final apologia to the reader?

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