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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. When do 7-7 sumo wrestlers begin losing matches most often?

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

3. What percentage commission does a real estate broker generally take from a home sale?

4. What is the name of the first Internet web site to allow consumers to compare life insurance rates?

5. Which two groups are the most discriminated against on Weakest Link?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How have attitudes toward public bigotry changed in recent years?

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

4. To what extent is the winning of a conventional wisdom battle key to achieving public success?

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

6. From what did the Ku Klux Klan derive its power in the twentieth century?

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

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

9. Why is information crime so difficult to catch?

10. What is the nature of discrimination on The Weakest Link?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Write an essay on the theories surround the drop in violent crime in America in the nineties. In the essay, discuss two theories that the authors determine had no effect on crime and one that they determine did. Why is each theory either effective or ineffective? How do the authors go about showing the validity of each? For the one that is deemed effective, how could policy be changed to incorporate this theory?

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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