Question

Read the following excerpt from Levitt and Dubner’s Freakonomics.

Driving around the parks that encircle Washington, he solicited customers with a simple pitch: early in the morning, he would deliver some bagels and a cash basket to company’s snack room; he would return before lunch to pick up the money and the leftovers. It was an honor-system commerce scheme, and it worked. Within a few years, Feldman was delivering 8,400 bagels a week to 140 companies and earning as much as he had ever made as a research analyst. He had thrown off the shackles of cubicle life and made himself happy.

Based on the excerpt, which statement best strengthens
Feldman’s claim that people are mostly honest?

a. Feldman solicited customers with a simple pitch.
b. Feldman’s payment system was largely successful.
c. Feldman earned a good living delivering bagels.
d. Feldman found a new career and made himself happy.

Answer 1

Based on the excerpt, the statement that best strengthens Feldman´s claim that people are mostly honest is b. Feldman´s payment system was largely successful. His payment system is based on honesty, because he leaves the bagels and a cash basket in which anyone who took a bagel would leave cash, even if people could take a bagel and not pay, or even take money out of the basket, that did not happen. As he says "it was an honor-system commerce scheme, and it worked."

Answer 2

the answer should be b