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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. According to James Alan Fox in 1995, what is the minimum rise in violent crime to be expected in the next decade?

2. What percentage of the Black Gangster Disciple Nation takes home half the pay?

3. At what preeminent university does Venkatesh meet Steven Levitt?

4. What action led to a reduction in blood donors in the 1970s?

5. Which of the following is not a group persecuted by the Klan in the twentieth century?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How were predictions about violent crime in the Nineties incorrect?

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

4. How does the inclusion of a small monetary compensation affect blood donation in the 1970s?

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

6. What tactics do researchers use to determine if CPS teachers are cheating on standardized tests?

7. What unorthodox theory do the authors offer regarding the drop in crime in the late 1990s?

8. How is this book different from other nonfiction books, according to the authors?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay on crack cocaine, dealing with its societal role in two parts: its origin and its effect. Where did crack cocaine come from, and how did it fill a hole in American drug culture? Why did it become so immensely popular in America? Secondly, how did it affect social trends regarding udban black Americans?

Essay Topic 2

Even though FREAKONOMICS is a work of nonfiction, it has two heroic characters: Sudhir Venkatesh and Roland G. Fryer, Jr. These two men both took unusual roads to a life of intellectual excellence. Write an essay about these men, focusing on their power as subjects as well as sources. What do their stories have in common? How are their exceptional stories juxtapositions to research that effectively argues that humanity is the slave of trends?

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 966 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample