Self-study
Passage A is from a source published in 2004 and passage B is from a source published in 2007.
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P1
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Intro topic ·
Multiplayer online games
People play charaters tht band together to kill monsters. (Think World of Warcraft.)
P2
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Castronova's interest ·
Intrigued by economy in multiplayer online games
People collected things from monsters after killing them, and traded those things. This was an economy.
P3
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Additional point of interest ·
"Player auctions"
People sometimes sold their online character's possessions.
P4
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Castronova's discovery ·
Trading game items was currency trading
Items in-game had an in-game value. But when these items were sold for real money, that meant the in-game currency had real-life value.
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P5
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Intro topic ·
Real-world trading of in-game items
Most games prohibit it, but some encourage it.
P6
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Important questions ·
Is acquiring in-game items taxable? Is money made from selling in-game items taxable?
P7
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Author's perspective ·
Acquiring items shouldn't be taxable, but the sale should be taxed
Acquiring in-game items should be like things that require effort to obtain (ex. fishing). Taxable at sale, not acquisition.
P8
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Author's perspective ·
Sale of in-game items for real-world money should be taxable
Passage Style
7.
Which one of the following █████ ██ ██████ █████ ██ ████ ███████████ ███ ███████ █ ███ ███████ ██ █████████████
a
"The Economic Theories ██ ██████ ███████████
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“Economic Theories of Edward Castronova” doesn’t fit Passage A, because we don’t get a discussion of various theories of Castronova. We get a description of his discovery of economic aspects of online multiplayer games. It’s not clear that those are “theories.” Also, the title for Passage B doesn’t fit, because it doesn’t even mention tax.
b
"An Economist Discovers ███ ████████ ██████████
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This is the best answer. The title for Passage A fits, because Passage A discusses Castronova’s discovery of economic aspects of online multiplayer games. The title for Passage B fits, because the passage focuses on recommending how we should treat taxation of virtual property (in-game property).
c
"The Surprising Growth ██ ███████████ ██████ ██████
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The title for Passage A doesn’t fit, because the passage isn’t about how online multiplayer games are growing. It’s about certain economic aspects of those games. Since we can eliminate based on Passage A, we don’t need to consider Passage B’s title.
d
"How to Make █████ ███████ ██████
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The title for Passage A doesn’t fit, because the passage isn’t about how to make money playing games. It’s about how certain aspects of an online multiplayer game have features of an economy. The passage isn’t focused on showing readers how it’s possible to make money. Since we can eliminate based on Passage A, we don’t need to consider Passage B’s title.
e
"A New Economic █████████
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The title for Passage A doesn’t fit, because the passage isn’t about a shift in an approach to the economy or certain economic issues. It’s about how we can observe certain economic elements in online multiplayer games. This doesn’t necessarily represent a change in an economic system or economic thinking. Since we can eliminate based on Passage A, we don’t need to consider Passage B’s title.