Question

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

Answer 1

d

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

Some holidays cause people to be less honest.

Step-by-step explanation:

The text shows how some holidays influence people's honesty. According to the text, Christmas, Thanksgiving Day and Valentine's Day are the holidays that most affect people's honesty in a negative way, making them less honest, because on these holidays, they make people more anxious mainly for the expectations of family members. However, this behavior is going against the grain, showing more honest people, on 9/11.