Self-paced
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
8.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ███ ███ ██ ███ ██████ █
a
The former refers ██ ██ ████████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ ██ ████████ ████ ████ ███ ████████ ███████
This doesn’t accurately describe “fish pulled from the ocean.” Passage B doesn’t suggest that pulling fish from the ocean does not generate wealth. Rather, Author B thinks it does generate wealth, just as acquiring loot in-game generates wealth.
b
The former refers ██ ██ ████████ ██ ██ ██████ █████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ ██ █████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██████
This is the only accurate answer. “Skinning animals,” when used in the last sentence of Passage A, is an activity in an online game. People skin animals in-game to collect pelts to sell. “Fish pulled from the ocean” is an analogous activity in that it also generates wealth. It’s also an activity in the real world, at least in the context in which Passage B uses the phrase.
c
The former, unlike ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ █ █████████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ █ ██████ ██████ ██ ██████
Not accurate, because Author B doesn’t think there should be a difference in the tax treatment of skinning animals in-game and pulling fish from the ocean in the real world. Author B points out the similarity between the two things in order to support the conclusion that collecting items in-game should only be taxed upon sale.
d
The latter, unlike ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ █ █████████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ █ ██████ ██████ ██ ██████
Not accurate, because Author B doesn’t think there should be a difference in the tax treatment of skinning animals in-game and pulling fish from the ocean in the real world. Author B points out the similarity between the two things in order to support the conclusion that collecting items in-game should only be taxed upon sale.
e
Both are used ██ ████████ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ████ ███████ ████████ ███████
Not accurate, because “fish pulled from the ocean” is not an in-game activity. Author B compares in-game loot acquisition with real-world collection of fish from the ocean.