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
12.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ███ ███ █████████
a
Passage A summarizes █ █████████ █████████████ ██████████ █████ ███████ █ ████████ █████████ ██ █ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████████
This is the best answer. Passage A describes Castonova’s discovery of commerce in virtual items in online multiplayer games. This discovery was “unanticipated” in that Castronova didn’t expect to find what he did. This is suggested by the fact that Castronova “noticed something curious” in the game, and that he felt “shock” at what he observed. Passage B proposes solutions to a problem raised by what Castronova discovered. That problem is the question of how to tax the virtual commerce in online multiplayer games. The solutions are the specific recommendations for how to handle taxes in online multiplayer games.
b
Passage A explains ██ ████████ ███████ █████ ███████ █ ██████████ █ █████████ ███████ █████████ ████ ████ ███████
Passage A doesn’t explain an economic theory. We get Castronova’s description of economic aspects of online multiplayer games. But we don’t get any discussion of Castronova’s theories. Since there’s no theory explained in Passage A, the title for Passage B also doesn’t fit.
c
Passage A reports ██ █ ███████████ █████ ███████ █ █████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████████ ████ ███████████
The title for Passage B doesn’t fit, because Passage B isn’t about the difficulty of policing online multiplayer games. It’s about how commerce in multiplayer games should be taxed. How something should be taxed is not reasonably characterized as part of the policing of online multiplayer games. In addition, Passage B doesn’t describe the difficulty of taxing online multiplayer games.
d
Passage A challenges ███ ██████ ██████████████ ██ █ ███████████ █████ ███████ █ █████████ ████ ███████████████
It’s not clear that Passage A challenges the common interpretation of commerce in online multiplayer games. We’re not told there’s a common interpretation or that Castronova’s observations go against the common interpretation.
e
Passage A states █ ███ ██ ██████ █████ ███████ █ █████ ███████████ ████████████ ████ █████ ██████
It’s not clear that Passage A states a set of facts. It presents Castronova’s observations and interpretations of commerce in online multiplayer games. Also, Passage B doesn’t draw theoretical consequences. It makes recommendations about how commerce in online multiplayer games should be taxed.