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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. Who was the hypothetical black boy in the Chapter 5 comparison?
2. What negative consequence do the authors say derives from unconventional thinking?
3. Which of the following is not an action the authors regularly recommend in order to reach unexpected conclusions?
4. How many American children per year would be saved if parents childproofed their pools?
5. In the authors' hypothetical comparison of two boys' lives, where does the poor black boy grow up?
Short Essay Questions
1. How do the authors explain the correlation between number of books and achievement?
2. What policy recommendations do the authors make regarding their theories?
3. How do the authors address the moral outrage their theories may elicit?
4. What do the authors determine about the social migration of names?
5. How do the authors explain the above contradiction in fears?
6. Why did the influence of crack cocaine decline in the 1990s?
7. What study is cited involving names and job hiring?
8. According to Dubner and Levitt, what is the essential function of the gun?
9. How does Roland G. Fryer, Jr., figure into the book both as a source and a topic?
10. What is regression analysis?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Levitt states throughout FREAKONOMICS that the guiding force behind all systemic trends are incentives. A person or group acts according to what they believe they can gain. Write an essay about incentives in three parts:
Part 1) What incentive does a real estate agent have fore selling a house at a lower price? Doesn't she receive a larger commission if the house goes for more money? Does she have different selling practices regarding her own house?
Part 2) What incentive would a professional sumo wrestler have for throwing a fight? How does the ranking system of the sumo wrestling league create this incentive? How does cheating create a situation where everyone benefits?
Part 3) The authors detail in Chapter 3 the ways in which a crack-gang like the Black Gangster Disciple Nation offers little in the way of compensation to most of its members. Why do so many young urban men join? What incentive do they perceive in the gang and its dangerous activity?
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
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?
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This section contains 961 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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