Question

ordering the chaos of the contemporary world: an introduction to freakonomics
pre-test complete
1
read the following excerpt from levitt and dubner’s freakonomics.
he had also—quite without meaning to—designed a beautiful economic experiment. from the beginning, feldman kept rigorous data on his business. so by measuring the money collected against the bagels taken, he found it possible to tell, down to the penny, just how honest his customers were. did they steal from him? if so, what were the characteristics of a company that stole versus a company that did not? under what circumstances did people tend to steal more, or less?
based on the excerpt, which of the following best explains why the authors included feldman in their study?
○ feldman designed a beautiful economic experiment.
○ feldman kept rigorous data on his business.
○ feldman disliked people who stole from him.
○ feldman encouraged people to steal less.

Explanation:

To determine the answer, we analyze each option:

• Option 1: The excerpt says Feldman designed the experiment "quite without meaning to", so this is not the main reason for including him.
• Option 2: The text states "Feldman kept rigorous data on his business" and this data allowed measuring honesty, which is key for the study. This matches the purpose of including him.
• Option 3: There's no mention of Feldman disliking stealers.
• Option 4: No info about Feldman encouraging people to steal less.

Answer:

B. Feldman kept rigorous data on his business.