PT140.S4.P2.Q13 > Analytics

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Passage A is from a source published in 2004 and passage B is from a source published in 2007.

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Intro topic · Multiplayer online games

People play charaters tht band together to kill monsters. (Think World of Warcraft.)

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.

Additional point of interest · "Player auctions"

People sometimes sold their online character's possessions.

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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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Intro topic · Real-world trading of in-game items

Most games prohibit it, but some encourage it.

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Important questions · Is acquiring in-game items taxable? Is money made from selling in-game items taxable?

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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.

Author's perspective · Sale of in-game items for real-world money should be taxable

Passage Style

13.

Based on passage B, which ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ █ ██████████████ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ███ █████████████ ████████████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ ██ ███████ ███

Question Type

Meaning in context (of word, phrase, or idea)

Structure

It’s difficult to predict the correct answer just based on the question stem. We can tell from the last paragraph that for games that are intentionally commodified, the author believes we should tax in-game (”in-world”) sales for in-game currency.

The game allows ███████ ████ █████ ███ ███████ █████████

Not supported, because the author comments on “in-world sales for virtual currency.” “In-world sales” refers to in-game sales, not sales of real items in the real world.

36%

The game allows ███████ ██ █████ ███████ ████ █████ ████████

Not supported, because trading avatars is never mentioned.

Players of the ████ ████ █████████ ███ ██████ ████ █████

Not supported, because Passage B never comments on wealth growth over time.

10%

Players of the ████ ███ ████████████ ████████ ██████ ██ █████ ██████████

Supported by the first paragraph. When the author says “some [games] actually encourage [real-world trade in virtual items],” the author refers to games that are intentionally commodified. These are games that intend for players to treat the items they collect in game as commodities (things to be sold).

28%

Players of the ████ ███ ████████ ███ ███████ ████████ ███ ███████ ███████ █████████

Not supported, because Passage B never discusses the exchange of one currency for another currency.

23%

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PrepTest 140 - Section 4 - Passage 2 - Question 13

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PrepTest 140 - Section 4 - Passage 2 - Question 13

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