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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 racist American figure is the focus of the final passage of this chapter?

2. By what percentage did violent crime drop between 1995 and 2000?

3. In his introduction, what does Levitt say he wants to replace with honest assessment?

4. How many Americans use dating websites every year?

5. Which realm of employment is not a turn-on to women on dating sites?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is a real estate agent inclined to keep her own house on the market longer than her client's?

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

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

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

5. What argument do the authors make about experts?

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

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

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

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

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

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 2

In the world as analyzed by Dubner and Levitt in FREAKONOMICS, information is a tangible commodity. From it derives power and influence over others, and many groups primarily derive their power from information. Write an essay on information as a commodity, in three parts:

Part 1) Information asymmetry is the purposeful consolidation of information by a group for the sake of greater influence. How is this an effective technique in controlling others? What examples exist of information asymmetry exist in our culture?

Part 2) To what extent did the Ku Klux Klan's power derive from its secrecy? As such, how were Stetson Kennedy's techniques against the Klan particularly effective at disempowering them?

Part 3) The authors state that the advent of the internet was a boon for a society held hostage to information asymmetry. What businesses were affected adversely by this new freedom of information? How were they affected?

Essay Topic 3

Dubner and Levitt spend much of Chapter 5 discussing fear, and how we fear the wrong things in life. Write an essay detailing what drives fear in a community. Why do we fear guns more than swimming pools and flying more than driving? What does control and familiarity have to do with fear? What about proximity with death?

(see the answer keys)

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