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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 name is charted in this section as having ten common variations?

2. According to child-rearing "expert" L. Emmett Holt, what is a baby's daily exercise?

3. Which of the following is a unifying attribute of parental factors that affect child development?

4. What two first names were place on identical resumes in the name study of this chapter?

5. According to the authors, what must one balance to reach a new perspective?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is name-choice an indicator of parenting?

2. What situation in Chicago in 1980 offers the authors a chance to review the effect of education on children's development?

3. According to Dubner and Levitt, what is the essential function of the gun?

4. What action do the authors of FREAKONOMICS think a reader might take after finishing the book?

5. By what rational do Levitt and Dubner reason that even a cynical person would not consider abortion a reasonable deterrent to crime?

6. How do the authors explain the above contradiction in fears?

7. How is the quality of life of an aborted child different from one that is born?

8. What study is cited involving names and job hiring?

9. What do the authors determine about the social migration of names?

10. What caveat of hope do Dubner and Levitt give regarding parenting at the end of the book?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Juxtaposition - almost like that in a fictional work - is central to the writing of FREAKONOMICS. Dubner and Levitt often choose two groups - sumo wrestlers and school teachers, a crack-gang and McDonald's - who are connected by some unseen trend or attribute. Write an essay, analyzing three such juxtapositions. How do the authors arrive at the point of comparing these two things? What do they surprisingly have in common? What trend does this connection reveal?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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