31
RCMultiple Choice

Cumulative Exam — Cumulative exam

Question 31 • Common Core ELA 11 - ELA3011 B-IC

Read the following excerpt from Levitt and Dubner’s Freakonomics. The bagel data also reflect how much personal mood seems to affect honesty. Weather, for instance, is a major factor. Unseasonably pleasant weather inspires people to pay at a higher rate. Unseasonably cold weather, meanwhile, makes people cheat prolifically; so do heavy rain and wind. Worst are the holidays. The week of Christmas produces a 2 percent drop in payment rates—again, a 15 percent increase in theft, an effect on the same magnitude, in reverse, as that of 9/11. Thanksgiving is nearly as bad; the week of Valentine’s Day is also lousy, as is the week straddling April 15. There are, however, a few good holidays: the weeks that include the Fourth of July, Labor Day, and Columbus Day. The difference in the two sets of holidays? The low-cheating holidays represent little more than an extra day off from work. The high-cheating holidays are fraught with miscellaneous anxieties and the high expectations of loved ones.Which of the following best summarizes the main idea of this paragraph?

Answer
A
Different emotional states affect people’s honesty.
B
Some holidays cause people to be less honest.
C
Cold weather causes an increase in dishonesty.
D
Holidays and cold weather may cause anxiety.

Explanation

The paragraph gives several examples of circumstances that affect payment and honesty: pleasant weather improves payment rates, bad weather increases cheating, and stressful holidays also increase theft. Its main idea is broader than any one example: people’s emotional states and circumstances can influence how honest they are. Therefore, “Different emotional states affect people’s honesty” is the best summary.

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