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PTS: 1 REF: p. 11 OBJ: 1-2
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking TOP: Business: A Definition

5. What three activities must a business perform in order to be successful? Briefly describe each of these
and why each is essential to business success.

ANS:
Answer not provided.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 9 OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic


TOP: Business: A Definition

6. Explain how the notion of scarcity is related to personal as well as business decision making.

ANS:
Answer not provided.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 12 OBJ: 1-3


NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking TOP: Types of Economic Systems

7. Explain how the basic economic questions are answered in capitalistic and command economies.

ANS:
Answer not provided.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 13-17 OBJ: 1-3


NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking TOP: Types of Economic Systems

8. Why do we say that the U.S. economy is a mixed economy?

ANS:
Answer not provided.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 15 OBJ: 1-3


NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking TOP: Types of Economic Systems

9. How does socialism differ from communism?

ANS:
Answer not provided.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 16-17 OBJ: 1-3


NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking TOP: Types of Economic Systems

10. Why is productivity important? How can a nation's productivity rate be improved?

ANS:
Answer not provided.
2

© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license
distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
PTS: 1 REF: p. 17 OBJ: 1-4
NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

11. What is real gross domestic product, and how does it differ from gross domestic product?

ANS:
Answer not provided.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 18 OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Communication


TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

12. A nation's economy fluctuates instead of growing at a steady pace every year. These fluctuations are
generally referred to as the business cycle. Describe the four different phases of the business cycle.

ANS:
Answer not provided.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 20-21 OBJ: 1-4


NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

13. What is the difference between monetary policies and fiscal policies? How does each affect the
nation's economy?

ANS:
Answer not provided.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 21 OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic


TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

14. In perfect competition, who sets the price of a product?

ANS:
Answer not provided.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 22 OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic


TOP: Types of Competition

15. Describe how supply and demand affect the price of a product.

ANS:
Answer not provided.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 22 OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic


TOP: Types of Competition

16. In a monopolistic competition setting, how can a manufacturer differentiate a product?

© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license
distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
ANS:
Answer not provided.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 23 OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic


TOP: Types of Competition

17. How does a monopoly have complete control over the price of its product?

ANS:
Answer not provided.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 24 OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Communication


TOP: Types of Competition

18. What effect did the Industrial Revolution and the golden age of invention have on the development of
American business?

ANS:
Answer not provided.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 24-26 OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic


TOP: American Business Today

19. What do you consider the most important challenges that American business faces today?

ANS:
Answer not provided.

PTS: 1 REF: p. 29 OBJ: 1-6


NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking TOP: American Business Today

MULTIPLE CHOICE

Satellite Communications

© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license
distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Jonathan worked for Satellite Communications for twenty years. In the time that he worked there, he
learned a lot about the company and how it operated. The company met its sales and revenue goals
every year. However, most of the employees had similar educational and cultural backgrounds. He
believed that the company could do much better if it cultivated an environment that promoted many
different ideas. Additionally, Satellite Communications was mostly focused on how much revenue it
earned in a given year. Jonathan felt that the most important goal should be to satisfy customers. He
believed financial success would result from focusing on customers.

After a lot of consideration, Jonathan decided to open his own business called Universal
Communications and hire employees that reflected a more diverse customer base. He was happy to
have this opportunity because it was a dream that he had always had. He had always wanted to make
his own decisions about what his company would produce and how. The only aspect of the business he
was unsure of was pricing, yet he knew this would be important for his ultimate success.

20. Refer to Satellite Communications. Jonathan is operating in a ____ because he has the opportunity to
decide what and how to do things.
a. command economy
b. mixed economy
c. free-enterprise system
d. split economy
e. cultural diversity
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 4
OBJ: 1-1 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Scenario Questions

21. Refer to Satellite Communications. When hiring people, Jonathan thinks it is important to consider
a. unilateral thinking.
b. profit.
c. wage increases.
d. health benefits.
e. cultural diversity.
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 6
OBJ: 1-1 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking TOP: Scenario Questions

22. Refer to Satellite Communications. Which company has the correct objective?
a. Satellite Communications
b. Universal Communications
c. Both of them
d. None of them
e. Not enough information is provided.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 10
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking TOP: Scenario Questions

© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license
distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
23. Refer to Satellite Communications. Now that Jonathan plans to open his own business, he needs to
look at the factors of production. Which of the following is not a factor of production?
a. Labor
b. Capital
c. Machinery
d. Demand
e. Entrepreneurship
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 12-13
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Scenario Questions

24. Refer to Satellite Communications. Jonathan's success will contribute to society. This is referred to as
the
a. objective.
b. market economy.
c. business cycle.
d. invisible hand.
e. standard of living.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 14
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Scenario Questions

Home Inspirations

Hailey works for her father in a family-owned business called Home Inspirations, a bedding company
that has been in operation since the 1800s. When her father retires, Hailey plans on taking over the
business. Hailey is aware of many things about the company that she likes, and a few things that she
does not. She has particularly noted that when the economy has low unemployment and high total
income, sales are great. However, any other time, sales are not so good.

Currently, all of the bedding items are created in one place and everyone works on various tasks every
day. Hailey is thinking about streamlining the production process so that individuals would be
responsible for only one task. She believes that if production would increase, she could sell her
products at a lower price and increase revenue. She knows that most bedding products available in the
market are very similar in nature and satisfy the same need. However, if she were able to lower prices,
this might give her company the competitive advantage that it needs. She would then be able to invest
money in differentiating her products by providing unique features, building the brand name, and
offering services such as free delivery. She is also considering selling her products on the Internet.
Hailey knows that her father does not like change very much, but she feels these changes are important
for the future of the company.

25. Refer to Home Inspirations. Hailey noticed that when sales were up, the economy was in a
6

© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license
distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
a. depression.
b. peak period.
c. grace period.
d. recession.
e. stagnant mode.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 20
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Scenario Questions

26. Refer to Home Inspirations. Home Inspirations currently operates in a ____ environment.
a. purely competitive
b. demand
c. monopolistic
d. command
e. supply
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 23
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Scenario Questions

27. Refer to Home Inspirations. Hailey feels that for productivity to improve, the company must practice
a. free enterprise.
b. work ethics.
c. specialization.
d. cultural diversity.
e. pure competition.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 23
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking TOP: Scenario Questions

28. Refer to Home Inspirations. Hailey's goal of offering products with unique features and special
services is called
a. specialization.
b. product differentiation.
c. barter.
d. a factory system.
e. a natural monopoly.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 23
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Scenario Questions

29. Refer to Home Inspirations. Which of these statements is true?


a. Hailey feels that e-business is an important avenue to venture into.
b. Home Inspirations is in a depressive economy.
c. Hailey feels that the barter system is working well.
d. The economy has a high standard of living.
e. The company's sales are obviously in equilibrium.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 26
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking TOP: Scenario Questions

© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license
distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
30. Amazon.com has the following rights: to make a profit for its stockholders; to market a wide variety of
products; and, to compete with other online retailers. Amazon.com operates in a(n) ____ system.
a. free-enterprise
b. domestic
c. e-business
d. socialistic
e. totalitarian
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 4
OBJ: 1-1 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Your Future in the Changing World of Business

31. When an individual chooses his or her ideal career, it is most likely a reflection of one's
a. values.
b. hobbies.
c. skills.
d. education.
e. desire to be rich.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 6
OBJ: 1-1 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking
TOP: Your Future in the Changing World of Business

32. Chris chooses to work only thirty hours a week as an engineering assistant while trying to shield
himself from additional responsibilities at work. Chris seems to value
a. recognition and rewards.
b. the opportunity to help others.
c. promotions and transfers.
d. more free time.
e. get-rich-quick schemes.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 6
OBJ: 1-1 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Your Future in the Changing World of Business

33. Of the following, which is not considered a basic management function necessary to be an effective
manager?
a. Planning
b. Organizing
c. Leading and motivating
d. Controlling
e. Selling
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 7

© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license
distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
OBJ: 1-1 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Your Future in the Changing World of Business

34. Cultural diversity represents


a. a business theory that is no longer valid.
b. the differences among people in a workforce.
c. a technical skill.
d. a statistical method used to project sales revenues and profits for global companies.
e. a religious issue that doesn't affect business organizations.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 6
OBJ: 1-1 NAT: AACSB: Diversity
TOP: Your Future in the Changing World of Business

35. Shawn Sine decides to start his own business. How likely is Shawn to still be operating a successful
business in seven years?
a. It depends on whether it is an e-business or not.
b. It is very likely because most small businesses are successful.
c. It is likely because the chance of failure is nearly equal to the chance for success.
d. It is unlikely because over half of all new small businesses fail.
e. It is very unlikely because almost all new businesses fail within the first three years.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 8
OBJ: 1-1 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Your Future in the Changing World of Business

36. According to Internet entrepreneur Mark Cuban,


a. e-business is a passing fad.
b. there is no need for a dot.com company to worry about competition.
c. many companies will fail over the next ten years if they don't provide something their
customers want.
d. there is no need for managers of dot.com companies to worry about meeting customer
needs.
e. there is no need to evaluate a high-tech company because almost all dot.com companies
are profitable.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 8
OBJ: 1-1 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Your Future in the Changing World of Business

37. The ability for a manager to think in abstract terms while envisioning the “big picture” falls into the
category of _____, deemed an important management trait.
a. interpersonal skills
b. conceptual skills
c. leading and motivating functions
d. mechanical skills
9

© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license
distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
e. controlling functions
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 7
OBJ: 1-1 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Your Future in the Changing World of Business

38. The organized effort of individuals to produce and sell, for a profit, the goods and services that satisfy
societies needs is called
a. consumerism.
b. the economy.
c. capitalism.
d. business.
e. the workplace.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 10
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

39. Raw materials, buildings, and machinery are ____ resources.


a. human
b. financial
c. information
d. major
e. material
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 10
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

40. All of the following are material resources for Toyota Motor Company except
a. paint.
b. steel.
c. factory.
d. tires.
e. money.
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 10
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

41. ____ resources include the funds needed to pay wages, purchase raw materials, and operate a business.
a. Human
b. Financial
c. Information
d. Major
e. Material
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 10
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

42. ____ resources are the individuals who provide labor for an organization in exchange for wages.
a. Human
b. Material
10

© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license
distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
c. Labor
d. Financial
e. Informational
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 10
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

43. The monetary contributions that the owners of IBM pay for shares of the company's stock are ____
resources for IBM.
a. material
b. financial
c. informational
d. human
e. manufacturing
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 10
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

44. What resource tells the managers of a business how effectively the other three resources are being
combined and used?
a. Technical
b. Human
c. Financial
d. Material
e. Informational
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 10
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

45. Organizations that combine raw materials, machinery, and labor to produce goods are called
a. manufacturing businesses.
b. service businesses.
c. merchandisers.
d. market intermediaries.
e. processors.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 10
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

46. Which of the following companies is an example of a manufacturer?


a. Best Buy
b. Intel
c. Walmart
d. AIG
e. Broadcast.com
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 10
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

11

© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license
distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
47. Mondell Weller decides to start a residential landscaping business. How would this business most
likely be classified?
a. Manufacturing business
b. Marketing intermediary
c. Service business
d. Corporation
e. Nonprofit organization
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 10
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

48. A business’ efforts to sustain the planet and their participation in ecological movements are part of a
firm’s
a. free enterprise system.
b. stakeholder responsibilities.
c. factors of production.
d. social responsibility.
e. business cycle.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 11
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

49. Best Buy stores would most likely be classified as


a. service businesses.
b. sole proprietorships.
c. a marketing intermediary.
d. manufacturing establishments.
e. perfect competition.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 10
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

50. A local retailer calls its customers when it receives merchandise that they may be interested in,
provides individual service to each customer, provides forms and phone numbers for complaints and
comments, and has a 100 percent satisfaction guarantee. Which objective is this business working hard
to accomplish?
a. Making a profit
b. Achieving low employee turnover
c. Satisfying the needs of its customers
d. Increasing the owner's wealth
e. Keeping up with the current technology
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 10

12

© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license
distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

51. The ultimate objective of every firm, such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, JC Penney, and Cengage
Learning, must be to
a. sell either to other firms or to consumers.
b. satisfy the needs of its customers.
c. pay out money to cover the various expenses of doing business.
d. know that people generally buy a product and store it.
e. make it impossible to satisfy customers.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 10
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

52. In the mid-1970s, American auto manufacturers produced big gas-guzzling cars and tried to sell them
to consumers who needed fuel-efficient transportation. This happened because manufacturers
a. lost sight of consumers' needs.
b. attempted to satisfy consumers' needs.
c. followed consumers' wants too closely.
d. knew the economy would rise again.
e. did not expect a profit.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 10
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

53. When a firm's sales revenues are greater than its expenses, the firm has a
a. profit.
b. loss.
c. positive cash flow.
d. financial resource.
e. factor of production.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 11
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

54. When a firm's expenses are greater than its sales revenue, the firm has a
a. profit.
b. loss.
c. negative cash flow.
d. recession.
e. depression.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 11
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

55. The relationship between sales and profits can be written as


a. sales revenues + expenses = profit.

13

© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license
distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
b. loss + profit = sales revenue.
c. profit − expenses = sales revenue.
d. expenses + loss = sales revenue + profit.
e. sales revenue − expenses = profit.
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 11
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

56. During 2011, Just-The-One Jewelry had sales revenues of $1,500,000. This retailer also had expenses
that totaled $800,000. What is the firm's profit or loss amount?
a. $2,300,000
b. $1,500,000
c. $800,000
d. $700,000
e. It is impossible to calculate profit or loss with the above information.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 11
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

57. Andrew Cooper decides to become a part owner of a corporation. As a part owner, he expects to
receive a profit as payment because he has assumed the risk of
a. serious inflation eroding the purchasing power of his investment.
b. being paid before the suppliers and employees are paid.
c. losing his home, car, and life savings.
d. losing the money he has invested in the corporation and not receiving profits.
e. the company giving all of the profits to local communities.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 12
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

58. At the end of the year, an individual, small business owner has made $65,000 in profit. Who does that
profit belong to?
a. The company's CEO and top managers
b. The banks from which the business borrowed money
c. All employees of the small business
d. The consumers of the business’ products
e. The owner of the business
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 12
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

59. For a business, stakeholders represent


14

© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license
distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
a. investors in the business.
b. lenders that have provided loans.
c. suppliers that have extended credit to the firm in search of profit for the firm..
d. employees who work for the firm.
e. all of the different people or groups who are affected by the business.
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 11
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

60. ____ is the study of how wealth is created and distributed.


a. Economics
b. Business
c. Marketing
d. Capitalism
e. Finance
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 12
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

61. Microeconomics is the study of


a. global economies.
b. the entire U.S. economy.
c. the decisions made by individuals.
d. the national unemployment rate.
e. productivity in other countries.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 12
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

62. The study of an individual's economic decisions would be an example of


a. macroeconomics.
b. microeconomics.
c. fiscal policy.
d. monetary policy.
e. national economic policy.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 12
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

63. When economists study the national economy or global economy, they are using a ____ approach.
a. macroeconomics
b. microeconomics
c. fiscal
d. monetary
e. intuitive
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 12
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

64. According to economists, natural resources, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship are called
15

© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license
distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
a. free resources.
b. competitive resources.
c. factory resources.
d. factors of manufacturing.
e. factors of production.
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 12-13
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

65. A natural resource, as recognized by economists, would include which of the following?
a. Crude oil
b. Buildings
c. Tools
d. Machinery
e. Equipment
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 12
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

66. The work performed to produce goods and services is referred to as


a. land.
b. financial resources.
c. material resources.
d. capital goods.
e. labor.
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 12
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

67. Matt Newell, a former Air Force pilot, decides to operate a helicopter tour company to provide
customers with breathtaking views of the Rocky Mountains. He obtains a loan and purchases the
necessary land, facilities, advertising, and five helicopters for his business. What important factor of
production has he overlooked in creating his business?
a. Equipment
b. Capital
c. Labor
d. Entrepreneurship
e. Natural resources
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 12
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

68. Capital or capital goods as recognized by economists would include all of the following except
a. crude oil.
b. facilities.
c. money.
d. machinery.
e. computer equipment.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 13
16

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

69. Steve Wilson, a chef at a major restaurant in San Francisco, wants to start his own restaurant. He
surveys the market, finds a suitable location, and calculates how much money he will need to lease the
building and purchase the necessary equipment and supplies. Steve visits his banker and requests a
loan. The money Steve will receive from the loan and the resources he will purchase with it are known
as
a. capital.
b. profit.
c. revenue.
d. collateral.
e. stock.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 13
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

70. For a Pepperidge Farm production facility, managers and employees would be
a. natural resources.
b. capital.
c. information resources.
d. labor.
e. the entrepreneurial resource.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 12
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

71. A person who risks his or her time, effort, and money to start and operate a business is called a(n)
a. free-market specialist.
b. entrepreneur.
c. intrapreneur.
d. competitor.
e. profit taker.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 13
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

72. Diane is passionate about soccer and decides to open her own soccer sporting goods store. She invests
her money, time, and effort into making the store a success. Diane can be best described as a(n)
a. capitalist.
b. laborer.
c. corporate owner.
d. entrepreneur.
e. competitor.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 13
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

73. Which of the following scenarios would best exemplify Adam Smith's view of best serving the
interests of society?

17

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
a. Individuals are selected to fill certain positions within the economy of their nation
according to the needs of the nation as a whole.
b. Markets are carefully regulated to ensure that all individuals within a nation are treated
fairly and charged standardized prices.
c. A country only has a limited amount of space for college students and uses a type of
lottery system to determine who gets these spaces.
d. Government scarcely exists in this country, and transactions are based on a system of
barter, or trading goods, for other goods.
e. Individuals in the country may pursue their own economic gain and self-interest by doing
whatever is best for them.
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 14
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

74. Which of the following is not a feature of laissez faire capitalism?


a. Competition
b. Guaranteed income
c. Private ownership of wealth
d. Economic freedom
e. Limited role of government
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 14
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

75. An economic system in which individuals and businesses make the decisions about what to produce
and what to buy, and the market determines how much is sold and at what prices, is called a ____
economy.
a. product
b. producer's
c. market
d. planned
e. command
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 14
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

76. Olan Okowo recently moved to the United States with many hopes and dreams. However, he realizes
that economic freedom includes all of the following except the right to
a. guaranteed economic success.
b. use owned resources to produce a profit.
c. accept or reject any job offered.
d. sell a product at the price chosen.
e. buy any economic good or service producers sell.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 14
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

77. In Adam Smith's view, which of the following is not the role of government in business?

18

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
a. Providing defense against foreign governments
b. Regulating business activity
c. Ensuring internal order
d. Furnishing public works
e. Providing education
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 14
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

78. The United States, whose economy exhibits elements of both capitalism and socialism, has what is
known as a ____ economy.
a. planned
b. utilitarian
c. nationalized
d. mixed
e. centralized
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 15
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

79. All of the following would typically be considered consumer products except a
a. 2-liter of Coke.
b. DVD player.
c. prom dress.
d. high-powered drill press.
e. bag of dog food.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 15
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

80. Approximately what portion of our nation's total production is made up of consumer goods?
a. 70 percent
b. 50 percent
c. 40 percent
d. 20 percent
e. 10 percent
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 15
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

81. Which of the following represents the biggest customer of American business?
a. Government
b. Other businesses
c. Foreign governments

19

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
d. Consumers
e. The military
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 15
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

82. Households provide all of the following resources to businesses except


a. labor.
b. land.
c. dividends.
d. buildings.
e. capital.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 15
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

83. Ways in which consumers affect American business include all the following except
a. purchasing goods and services.
b. providing necessary business capital.
c. providing the labor necessary for production.
d. providing the resources necessary for production.
e. taxing goods and services.
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 15
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

84. When consumers spend their money to purchase Amazon Kindles or computers with an Intel
processor, or when they discontinue buying such items as compact discs, they are telling resource
owners
a. how to produce.
b. for whom to produce.
c. what to produce.
d. when to produce.
e. to avoid faddish products.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 15
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

85. Gail Nelson begins her first job after graduating from college and starts putting money away in a
savings account. She believes she has removed this money from the circular flow between buyers and
sellers that she studied in Introduction to Business. Is Gail correct?
a. Yes, by putting this money into a savings account, only she has access to the funds and
they are no longer available to the circular flow.
b. No, even though she has saved this money, the bank will in turn invest the money back
into the circular flow.
c. Yes, only direct investments into companies, such as purchasing ownership shares of that
company, will put her savings back into the circular flow.
d. Yes, the circular flow focuses on businesses and government, and therefore Gail's savings
have no impact on the circular flow.

20

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
e. No, because she earned this money from a company and because she paid taxes on it, it is
always considered part of the flow.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 15-16
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

86. For the U.S. government to provide services, it collects revenue from
a. only individuals in the form of taxes.
b. only corporations in the form of taxes.
c. selling bonds to foreign governments.
d. both households and businesses in various forms of taxes.
e. selling manufactured goods overseas.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 16
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

87. The government uses tax dollars to


a. invest in foreign bonds.
b. invest in foreign corporations.
c. purchase resources and products needed to provide services.
d. purchase other nations.
e. increase consumer income.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 16
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

88. A system where the basic economic questions are determined, at least to some degree, through
centralized government planning is referred to as a ____ economy.
a. command
b. capitalistic
c. mixed
d. laissez-faire
e. communal
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 16
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

89. Examples of command economies include


a. socialism and free enterprise.
b. capitalism and socialism.
c. socialism and market economy.
d. communism and capitalism.
e. socialism and communism.
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 16
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

90. Susan Montgomery works at an institutional bakery and is paid a wage dictated by the government.
She does not like her job but is not allowed other options. Susan must purchase necessities for her
family at fixed prices. The country Susan lives in can be described as a ____ economy.
21

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
a. demand
b. command
c. market
d. free-enterprise
e. capitalist
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p.16-17
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

91. In a socialist economy, key industries owned by the government include all except
a. utilities.
b. communications.
c. food production.
d. banking.
e. transportation.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 16
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

92. Tim Garner owns and operates his own small automobile repair shop. However, the prices he can
charge are fixed, and he rents his land and building from the government. Most of his friends work for
industries owned by the government. Tim's country is most likely a(n) ____ economy.
a. market
b. communist
c. socialist
d. industrialized
e. capitalist
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 16
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

93. Which of the following is uncharacteristic of a socialist economy?


a. All capital and capital goods are privately owned.
b. The government owns and controls key industries.
c. Land and raw materials may be the property of the state.
d. What to produce and how to produce it are based on national goals.
e. Distribution of goods and services is controlled by the state.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 16
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

94. France, a socialist economy, does not have which of the following goals?
a. Equitable distribution of income
b. Elimination of poverty

22

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
c. Reduction of government regulations
d. Elimination of economic waste
e. Distribution of social services to all who need them
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 16
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

95. An example of a command economy is


a. capitalism.
b. laissez-faire.
c. oligopoly.
d. communism.
e. mixed economy.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 16-17
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

96. The nationalization of key industries in countries such as Sweden and India is indicative of a(n) ____
economy.
a. socialist
b. communist
c. capitalist
d. nationalist
e. industrialized
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 16
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

97. Which economist has been called the father of communism?


a. Adam Smith
b. Fidel Castro
c. Mark Cuban
d. Karl Marx
e. Alan Greenspan
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 17
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

98. In a communist country such as Cuba, emphasis is placed on producing what type of goods?
a. Goods needed by the government
b. Consumer goods
c. Goods for export

23

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
d. Perishable goods such as food
e. Durable goods such as machinery
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 17
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

99. Although changes have occurred over the years, ____ is historically considered to have a communist
economy.
a. Germany
b. Sweden
c. Norway
d. North Korea
e. Britain
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 17
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

100. All of the following are characteristics of communist countries such as Cuba except
a. intensive production of goods the government needs.
b. all workers contribute to society according to their ability.
c. frequent shortages of consumer goods.
d. government ownership of almost all economic resources.
e. an adequate supply of consumer goods.
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 17
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

101. Productivity can best be described as


a. a country's total output.
b. the efficiency of a company's operations.
c. economic growth in a country.
d. the average level of output per worker per hour.
e. the average level of output per worker per year.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 17
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

102. The production and operations manager at a large shoe factory in Fall River, Massachusetts, notices
that the total number of hours worked by production employees has increased 12 percent, while the
number of pairs of shoes ready for shipping has dropped 6 percent this year over last year. This means
a. the inflation rate is unchanged.

24

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
b. the demand for shoes is decreasing.
c. the manager's calculations cannot be correct.
d. productivity has decreased.
e. the gross national product has increased by 6 percent.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 17
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

103. All of the following except ____ are effects felt by individuals in regard to the health of a nation’s
economy.
a. the amount of interest paid for a home
b. acquiring a job
c. obtaining financing for your education
d. increases in productivity
e. the interest paid on credit card purchases
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 17
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

104. Which of the following situations is most likely to increase the United States' productivity?
a. Increased number of people in the workforce
b. Decreased production of goods
c. Increase in economic activity being transferred to the Internet
d. More corporations being split up into smaller divisions
e. More unemployment benefits
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 18
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

105. Which of the following statements is false?


a. One way to reduce costs is to increase productivity.
b. Increased productivity can lead to higher manufacturing costs.
c. Increased productivity is a concern for nations throughout the world.
d. Productivity is expected to improve as more economic activity is transferred to the
Internet.
e. Productivity growth enables American business firms to compete more effectively with
other nations in a competitive world.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 17
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

106. To compare the productivity of the United States to that of Japan, one should examine their respective

25

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
a. defense budgets.
b. trade deficits.
c. gross domestic products.
d. stock markets' performance.
e. consumer price indices.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 18
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

107. The total dollar value of all goods and services produced by all people within the boundaries of a
country is called
a. productivity.
b. gross domestic product.
c. gross national product.
d. inflation factor.
e. standard of living.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 18
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

108. Which of the following would not be included in the gross domestic product of the United States?
a. Value of tax return services performed by H&R Block, U.S. locations
b. Value of BMW automobiles manufactured in Alabama
c. Total value of Procter & Gamble products produced in Michigan
d. Value of medical care services rendered in the United States
e. Value of McDonald's sales for their Tokyo locations
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 18
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

109. Which of the following economic terms describes the total value of a nation's goods or services that
have been adjusted for inflation?
a. Altered gross domestic product
b. Gross domestic product
c. Real gross domestic product
d. Altered gross national product
e. Gross national product
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 18
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

110. Due to the recent economic crisis, many employers were reluctant to hire new employees. As a result,
the unemployment rate hovered at approximately ____ for most of 2009 and 2010.
a. 7 percent

26

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
b. 8 percent
c. 10 percent
d. 12 percent
e. 13 percent
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 18
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

111. According to economists, inflation is


a. a general decrease in the level of prices.
b. a general rise in the level of prices.
c. unavoidable, and therefore something beyond the control of government.
d. eliminated by the government.
e. a general problem for countries with command economies.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 18
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

112. Deflation
a. is a typical economic event in the U.S. economy.
b. is scheduled by the nation's economists to make economic corrections.
c. occurs only in command economies.
d. is a general decrease in the level of prices.
e. is characteristic of a mixed economy.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 18
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

113. An executive at a U.S. steel company uses growth in gross domestic product as one way to develop
trends in industry steel use, so he records GDP change for each year on a graph. However, the
executive's figures are considerably higher than those of the staff economist, who also has drawn a
graph. This difference is most likely the result of
a. measurement errors by the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
b. a decline in gross domestic product.
c. an increase in gross domestic product.
d. the economist adjusting the figures for the inflation rate.
e. a change in productivity.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 18
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

114. The consumer price index (CPI)


a. is a quarterly index that producers receive for their finished goods.

27

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
b. measures increases or decreases in the level of worker performance.
c. is the price of metals, lumber, and raw materials.
d. measures prices paid during periods of deflations.
e. is a monthly index that tracks the prices paid by consumers.
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 19
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

115. Which of the following is false in regard to the unemployment rate?


a. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, the country loses goods and services that could
have been produced.
b. A nation benefits from unemployment due to a lower level of wages required to be paid by
employers.
c. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, families lose wages due to unemployment.
d. The unemployment rates is the percentage of a nation’s labor force that are not working at
any one time.
e. The purchasing power of unemployed workers is lost.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 18
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

116. A furniture manufacturer like Thomasville would be concerned with the producer price index because
it
a. is related to the real gross domestic product.
b. measures prices that manufacturers must pay for lumber and other raw materials used in
the manufacturing process.
c. tracks the cost of housing and transportation.
d. is published daily.
e. measures the effect of interest rates on the economy.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 19
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

117. The producer price index is an accurate predictor of


a. future changes in the consumer price index.
b. the level of unemployment.
c. prime interest rates.
d. Internet business activity.
e. an individual's standard of living.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 19
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
118. Fluctuations in a nation's economy are referred to as its
a. economic upheaval.
b. inflation problem.
c. depression cycle.
d. business cycle.
e. recession period.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 20
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

119. All except ____ are considered industries that cause the U.S. recession and economic crisis that began
in fall 2007.
a. home construction
b. the automobile industry
c. retail
d. banking
e. financial markets
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 20
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

120. All except ____ was a part of the U.S. federal government’s stimulus plan
a. Shore up the country’s banks
b. Create a more extensive physical infrastructure
c. Shore up Wall Street firms
d. Reduce the number of home foreclosures
e. Free up credit for individuals and businesses
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 20
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

121. Which of the following is not one of the four states included in a typical business cycle?
a. Repression
b. Peak
c. Recession
d. Trough
e. Recovery
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 20-21
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

122. During which phase of the business cycle would a company like General Electric introduce new
products?
a. Repression
b. Peak

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
c. Recession
d. Depression
e. Recovery
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 20
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

123. Which of the following is not a characterization of a depression?


a. High unemployment rates
b. Lower stock values
c. two or more consecutive three-month periods of GDP decline
d. General decrease in business activity
e. General lack of confidence in the economy by members of the population
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 20
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

124. As Rachel Smith and her friends prepare to graduate from college, they are faced with numerous job
offers with starting salaries better than they could have imagined when they began college four years
ago. Based on this information, which stage of the business cycle would the economy be in?
a. Depression
b. Peak
c. Recession
d. Trough
e. Recovery
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 20
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

125. During which stage of the business cycle would a company such as 3M begin to focus on being more
value conscious in its production decisions?
a. Depression
b. Peak
c. Recession
d. Trough
e. Recovery
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 20
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

126. Economists define a ____ as two consecutive three-month periods of decline in a country's gross
domestic product.

30

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
a. repression
b. prosperity
c. recession
d. trough
e. recovery
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 20
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

127. The economic term used to describe the Federal Reserve's actions to determine the size of the supply
of money in the nation and the level of interest rates is
a. monetary policy.
b. fiscal policy.
c. debt policy.
d. recovery technique.
e. recovery guideline.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 21
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

128. The Federal Reserve uses ____ when it lowers the interest rate charged to banks on short-term loans.
a. monetary policy
b. national debt
c. inflation
d. fiscal policy
e. competition
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 21
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

129. The economic term used to describe the government's influence on savings and changing the levels of
government spending is
a. monetary policy.
b. fiscal policy.
c. debt policy.
d. recovery technique.
e. recovery guideline.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 21
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

130. In France, income taxes are reduced so that individuals will have more income to spend, which in turn
will stimulate the economy. This is an example of
a. the business cycle.
b. economic stimulation.

31

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
c. monetary policy.
d. recession.
e. fiscal policy.
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 21
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

131. When the U.S. government spends more than it receives within a fiscal year, this is called the
a. economic debt.
b. federal deficit.
c. fiscal debt.
d. national debt.
e. consumer debt.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 21
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

132. The total of all federal deficits in the United States is called the
a. economic debt.
b. federal deficit.
c. fiscal debt.
d. national debt.
e. consumer debt.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 21
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

133. Some economists believe that sound fiscal and monetary policy can reduce the amount of time the
economy is in the ____ stage of the business cycle.
a. recession
b. recovery
c. repression
d. prosperity
e. trough
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 21
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

134. Since World War II, the average length of recessions has been
a. six months
b. eleven months
c. twenty-two months
d. three years

32

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
e. five years
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 21
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

135. During which phase do high unemployment rates decline and levels of income increase?
a. Repression
b. Peak
c. Recession
d. Trough
e. Recovery
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 21
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

136. The rivalry among businesses for sales to potential customers


a. is an unfair business practice.
b. is a necessary part of a command economy.
c. is referred to as competition.
d. is typical in a communist nation.
e. doesn't exist in the real world.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 21
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

137. For firms like Target and Walmart, competition


a. is not a factor that must be considered in a free-market economy.
b. affects smaller businesses but not large chain operations.
c. affects larger chain operations but not smaller businesses.
d. is a rivalry among businesses for sales to potential customers.
e. is a problem that has been eliminated in the twenty-first century.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 21
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

138. Perfect competition is characterized by


a. many buyers and many sellers.
b. few buyers and few sellers.
c. few buyers and many sellers.
d. many buyers and few sellers.
e. a few companies that control the market.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 22
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition
33

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
139. ____ is a necessary and extremely important by-product of free enterprise.
a. Monopoly
b. Socialism
c. Communism
d. Competition
e. Poverty
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 21
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

140. As a farmer, Gary Forsythe is familiar with the economics of perfect competition. How is the price at
which he sells his corn determined?
a. It is determined by Gary because he has the product that many people want.
b. The price is determined by combining the actions of all buyers and all sellers together.
c. The price he will receive is primarily determined by the buyer at the local grain bin.
d. The government sets the price of the corn to level the playing field for everyone.
e. The price will be approximately 25 percent higher than what other farmers are selling the
same corn for because Gary is an astute businessperson.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 22
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

141. If the demand for a product declines, what happens to the price of the product?
a. The price stays the same.
b. The price decreases.
c. The price increases.
d. The equilibrium price will be maintained.
e. The market price will be maintained.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 22
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

142. As computers gained popularity, the ____ typewriters decreased along with the price.
a. demand for
b. supply of
c. equilibrium of
d. productivity of
e. monopoly associated with
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 23
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

143. As the price of jeans rises, Levi Strauss is likely to


a. decrease production and thus decrease the supply.
b. increase production and thus increase the supply.
c. do nothing to influence the available supply of jeans.
d. discontinue producing jeans in favor of a different product.
e. increase production to influence the demand for jeans.

34

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 22
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

144. A price at which the demanded quantity is equal to the produced quantity of that product is called the
____ price.
a. market
b. customer
c. equality
d. demand
e. supply
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 22-23
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

145. Researchers just released the results of a study that shows eating fish at least four times a week
dramatically decreases adults' risk of heart disease. What will likely result from this new information?
a. The demand for fish will decrease.
b. The supply of fish will decrease, causing a decrease in the price.
c. The demand for fish will increase at every price.
d. The demand for fish will decrease at every price.
e. The demand for fish will likely remain the same, but the market price will adjust.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 23
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

146. Monopolistic competition is a market situation in which


a. similar but not identical products are available.
b. only one product is available.
c. several identical products are available.
d. the same price is charged for all products.
e. the government regulates prices.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 23
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

147. ____ is the process of developing and promoting the differences between one's products and other
similar products.
a. Advertising
b. Monopolistic competition
c. Product differentiation
d. Branding
e. Goods distinction
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 23

35

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

148. The maker of Hanes pantyhose attempts to set its product apart from the competition. As a result, the
company obtained limited control over the price of its product. Achieving price control in this manner
is known as
a. advertising.
b. distributional efficiency.
c. low-cost production.
d. niche marketing.
e. product differentiation.
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 23
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

149. Although all casual clothing ultimately provides the same purpose, companies such as The Gap strive
to make their brand seem unique from the many other brands available on the market. The market for
casual clothing can best be characterized as
a. pure competition.
b. monopolistic competition.
c. an oligopoly.
d. a monopoly.
e. a natural monopoly.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 23
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

150. ____ is a market situation (or industry) in which there are few sellers.
a. Monopolistic competition
b. Pure competition
c. Monopoly
d. Oligopoly
e. Natural monopoly
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 23
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

151. Which of the following is not a characteristic of an oligopoly?


a. There are few sellers.
b. The seller has considerable control over price.
c. Any duplication of facilities is wasteful.
d. Sizable investments are required to enter the market.
e. The market actions of each seller can strongly affect other sellers.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 23-24
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

36

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
152. Which of the following industries would most likely have the characteristics of an oligopoly?
a. Clothing
b. Restaurants
c. Automobiles
d. Cameras
e. Make-up
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 23
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

153. When General Mills and a few other firms dominate the American cereal market, this is an example of
a. pure competition.
b. monopolistic competition.
c. oligopoly.
d. natural monopoly.
e. monopoly.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 23
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

154. Exxon/Mobil and Shell are two of the relatively few sellers in the oil-refining industry. Due to the
tremendous capital investment required to enter this industry, these companies are insulated
significantly from the threat of new competitive entrants and thus have considerable control over price.
This market situation is referred to as a(n)
a. cartel.
b. monopoly.
c. natural monopoly.
d. oligopoly.
e. trust.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 23
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

155. When Toyota experienced declining sales as a result of quality and safety issues, it began offering
buyer incentives to new-car buyers. Nearly immediately, Ford and General Motors began similar
promotions. These businesses
a. represent an oligopoly in which there are few sellers, and each seller has considerable
control over price.
b. represent a monopoly in which only one firm supplies a product or products.
c. are engaging in monopolistic competition in which there are many buyers as well as a
relatively large number of sellers that differentiate their products from those of
competitors.

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
d. are engaging in pure competition, in which no single seller is powerful enough to affect
prices.
e. are engaging in monopolistic competition, in which the products are very similar.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 23-24
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

156. A market or industry with only one seller is referred to as


a. a limited command system.
b. a monopoly.
c. an oligopoly.
d. monopolistic competition.
e. a perfect competitive market.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 24
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

157. If all leading corporations in the soft-drink industry merged, this would
a. encourage pure competition.
b. encourage monopolistic competition.
c. lead to an oligopoly.
d. create a limited monopoly.
e. create a monopoly.
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 24
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

158. Public utilities are often referred to as


a. sole proprietorships.
b. monopolistic competitors.
c. monopolies.
d. oligopolies.
e. socialistic.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 24
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

159. What must a monopoly, such as a public utility, account for when setting its prices?
a. A monopoly, because it has no competitors, can set prices as high as it likes.
b. A monopoly must consider customer demand, and then set prices at the most profitable
level.
c. A monopoly must take into account what its top competitors are charging for the same
product or service.
d. A monopoly has no say in what prices it will charge because the government sets the
prices for all monopolistic industries.
e. A monopoly must look at the importance of each client, and then determine what
respective rate each will be charged.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 24
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition
38

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
160. Bowflex, Inc., which manufactures total strength training systems for home use, obtained a patent on
its power rods. Bowflex has a(n) ____ for this product.
a. monopoly
b. oligopoly
c. natural monopoly
d. limited monopoly
e. illegal monopoly
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 24
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

161. When Microsoft copyrighted its Windows software, it established a(n) ____ monopoly.
a. domestic
b. international
c. legal
d. natural
e. unnatural
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 24
OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

162. ____ is a loose, subjective measure of how well off an individual or society is in terms of obtaining
want-satisfying goods and services.
a. Employment success
b. Standard of wealth
c. Standard of living
d. Economic satisfaction
e. Satisfaction economic factor
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 24
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

163. American Airlines traded eight 747s for twelve DC-10s owned by United Airlines. This transaction is
an example of
a. barter.
b. ancient trading.
c. the domestic system.
d. the factory system.
e. an unequal exchange of goods.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 25
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

164. The system in which raw materials are distributed by entrepreneurs to homes in which family members
process those materials into finished products is referred to as
a. the factory system.
b. an apprenticeship.
c. specialization.

39

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
d. free enterprise.
e. the domestic system.
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 25
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

165. Randall Newman distributes rawhide to several different homes. In turn, each household produces a
product such as satchels, belts, shoes, and boots, and then Randall sells the finished goods. This
represents a(n)
a. oligopoly.
b. domestic system.
c. system of specialization.
d. factory system.
e. barter system.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 25
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

166. The use of the factory system in the United States helped to usher in the
a. colonial period.
b. Industrial Revolution.
c. Great Depression.
d. Renaissance.
e. twentieth century.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 26
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

167. One of Samuel Slater's contributions to the development of American business was the use of
a. capital.
b. flexible manufacturing.
c. domestic robots.
d. the factory system.
e. the domestic system.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 26
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

168. The separation of a manufacturing process into distinct tasks and the assignment of different tasks to
different individuals is called
a. specialization.
b. entrepreneurship.
c. free market.
d. barter.
e. factory manufacturing.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 26
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

40

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
169. The Hamel family owns and operates an interior decorating business. Greg installs hardwood floors
and chair rails; Stephanie reupholsters furniture and takes care of the finances; Ryan designs and
makes draperies and pillows; and Allison coordinates the overall color, look, and design. The process
the Hamel family uses to run its business is
a. specialization.
b. division of service.
c. the factory system.
d. the domestic system.
e. the barter system.
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 26
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

170. The purpose of specialization is to


a. reduce productivity.
b. increase the efficiency of industrial workers.
c. boost the morale of an employee because he or she is special.
d. relieve boredom.
e. make the nature of the work more general.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 26
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

171. Which of the following is not a characteristic of the Great Depression?


a. Stock prices decreased.
b. It was a period of misery and human suffering.
c. There was a near collapse of the nation's economy.
d. The government became less involved in business activities.
e. People lost faith in business and its ability to satisfy society's needs.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 26
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

172. When did the U.S. government become more deeply involved in business than it had been previously?
a. In the early 1920s
b. After Franklin D. Roosevelt became president
c. After the Vietnam War
d. During the social responsibility movement during the 1960s
e. After the Korean War
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 26
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

173. All except ____ are considered important, major events that shaped the nation’s economy during the
period of 1940 to 2000.
a. the Korean War
b. the institution of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s federal government programs
c. the shortage of crude oil
d. high inflation with high interest rates and reduced business profits

41

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
e. the Vietnam War
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 26
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

174. In the early 1980s, David Jimenez, a corporate finance manager, was faced with which of the
following problems?
a. High inflation rates
b. Competition from e-business firms
c. Too much productivity
d. Declining interest rates
e. A decline in the use of specialization
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 26
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

175. The organized effort of individuals to produce and sell, for a profit, the products and services that
satisfy society's needs through the Internet is known as
a. business.
b. economy.
c. entrepreneurship.
d. e-business.
e. e-marketing.
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 26
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

176. Increased competition from firms in other nations is an example of the


a. technological environment.
b. global environment.
c. command environment.
d. laissez-faire environment.
e. mixed environment.
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 27
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

177. In the last decade of the century, ____ became a major force in the economy in regard to business.
a. reduced business profits
b. high interest rates
c. high inflation
d. the Internet
e. shortage of crude oil
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 26
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

42

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
178. The current technology environment
a. is not as important as it was fifteen years ago.
b. does not affect manufacturing firms.
c. changes the way business firms communicate with customers.
d. doesn't change as often as it did fifteen years ago.
e. is not a concern for most firms that do business only in the United States.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 27
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

179. Which of the following statements does not describe the U.S. economy as we finish the first decade of
the new millennium?
a. Information technology will continue to fuel the new economy.
b. There will be more investment in information technology.
c. There will be fewer opportunities for international trade.
d. E-business will be a more important part of the economy.
e. Service businesses will continue to employ more than half of the American workforce.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 28
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

180. The concept of sustainability focuses on which of the following?


a. The needs of the present without compromising the future
b. The needs of the future without compromising the present
c. The needs of the firm to make a profit in the present
d. The needs of future employees
e. The needs of the government in the future
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 28
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

181. Service businesses employ approximately ___ percent of the U.S. work force.
a. 40
b. 50
c. 65
d. 75
e. 85
ANS: E PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 27
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
182. Which of the following issues will not be a challenge for our economy in the years to come?
a. How can we encourage economic growth while conserving natural resources?
b. How can we preserve the benefits of competition?
c. How can we meet the challenges of managing a culturally diverse workforce?
d. How can individuals reinvest all the profits that have been made in the stock market as a
result of the strong economy?
e. How can we meet the needs of the less fortunate?
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 28
OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

TRUE/FALSE

183. As the founder of an American business firm, Jeff Bezos can, within certain limits, produce and/or sell
any product he chooses and sell it at any price it sets.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 4


OBJ: 1-1 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Your Future in the Changing World of Business

184. In our free-enterprise system, federal and state governments decide what products and services to
provide.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 4


OBJ: 1-1 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Your Future in the Changing World of Business

185. A working knowledge of our business system combined with technical skills can give an applicant an
advantage in looking for a job.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 5


OBJ: 1-1 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Your Future in the Changing World of Business

186. After getting her bachelor's degree in business, Mary Wilson realized she was much more productive
at her job than she had been before. Mary's degree helped her to become a better employee.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 6


OBJ: 1-1 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Your Future in the Changing World of Business

44

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
187. Today, managers and employees are no longer concerned about cultural diversity.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 6


OBJ: 1-1 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Your Future in the Changing World of Business

188. Because e-businesses use the Internet, there is no need to meet the needs of their customers.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 8


OBJ: 1-1 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Your Future in the Changing World of Business

189. In order for a business to be successful, it must be organized, it must satisfy needs, and it must make a
profit.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 10


OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

190. The four resources that a business must use to operate successfully include material resources, human
resources, financial resources, and operational resources.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 10


OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

191. Generally there are three types of businesses⎯manufacturing businesses, service businesses, and
marketing intermediaries.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 10


OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

192. Sony is most correctly classified as a marketing intermediary type of business.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p.10


OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

193. People buy goods and services simply to own them.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 10


OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

194. The ultimate goal of every business firm should be to satisfy the needs of its customers.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 10


OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

195. If a firm's sales revenue exceeds its expenses, the firm has earned a profit.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 11


45

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

196. Profit is the payment business owners receive for assuming the risks of ownership.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 12


OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

197. The term stakeholders refers only to the people who have invested money in a business.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 11


OBJ: 1-2 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Business: A Definition

198. Economics is the study of how wealth is created and distributed.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 12


OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

199. How the price of homes affects the number of homes built and sold would be an economic issue
studied in a Macroeconomics course.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 12


OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

200. Macroeconomists often study the effect of taxes, government spending, interest rates, and similar
factors on a nation's economy.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 12


OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

201. The factors of production include natural resources, labor, government assistance, and
entrepreneurship.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 12-13


OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

202. The four basic questions in a capitalist economy are what to produce, how to produce, who should
produce, and when to produce.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 13


OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

203. Adam Smith is the person who actually organized American business as we know it today.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 13


OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

204. According to Adam Smith, under laissez-faire capitalism, each person should be allowed to work
toward his or her own economic gain without government interference.
46

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 14
OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

205. Adam Smith argued that the creation of wealth is a proper concern of government.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 14


OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

206. Adam Smith developed the concept of the invisible hand to explain how all economic activity should
be based on a nation's needs and not the individual's needs.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 14


OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

207. A market economy is sometimes referred to as a command economy.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 14


OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

208. The U.S. business system is commonly referred to as a mixed economy.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 15


OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

209. Consumer goods make up about one-third of our nation's gross national product.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 15


OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

210. Consumers exchange tax money to purchase goods and services.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 15


OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

211. A business provides goods and services in exchange for sales revenues.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 15


OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

212. When a business distributes profits to business owners, these profits become household income and are
removed from the circular flow of the economy.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 15


OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

47

© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license
distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
213. The services that government provides would not be produced by private business firms or would be
produced only for those who could afford them.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 16


OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

214. The government uses taxes to purchase resources and products required to provide services.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 16


OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

215. Command economies include capitalism, socialism, and communism.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 16


OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

216. In a socialist economy, the key industries are owned and controlled by the government.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 16


OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

217. Karl Marx is known as the father of communism.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 17


OBJ: 1-3 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Economic Systems

218. Productivity is the total output per worker per year.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 17


OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

219. Reducing costs and enabling employees to work more efficiently are at the core of all attempts to
improve productivity.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 18


OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

220. Fewer workers producing more goods and services can lead to higher overall employment rates.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 18


OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

221. Gross domestic product is a loose, subjective measure of how well a society can satisfy its people
through goods and services.

48

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 18
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

222. The terms real gross domestic product and gross domestic product can be used interchangeably.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 18


OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

223. Real gross domestic product is an economic measure that has been adjusted for price increases of
goods and services during a given period of time.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 18


OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

224. Inflation is a general rise in the level of prices experienced by people in a nation.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 18


OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

225. Deflation is a general decrease in the level of prices.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 18


OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

226. The consumer price index (CPI) and the producer price index (PPI) actually measure the same
economic factors.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 19


OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

227. The recurrence of periods of growth and recession in a nation's economic activity is a depression.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 20


OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

228. During the peak or prosperity stage of a nation's business cycle, businesses are reluctant to offer new
products and services.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 20


49

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

229. Economists define a recession as two or more consecutive three-month periods of decline in a
country's gross domestic product.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 20


OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

230. A depression is a severe recession that lasts longer than a recession.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 20


OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

231. Monetary policies exert the government's influence on the amount of savings and expenditures by
altering the tax structure and changing the levels of government spending.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 21


OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

232. The national debt in the United States is about $12.7 trillion.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 21


OBJ: 1-4 NAT: AACSB: Analytic
TOP: Measuring Economic Performance

233. Basically, there are four recognized degrees of competition: perfect competition, monopolistic
competition, oligopoly, and monopoly.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 21


OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

234. Perfect competition is the market situation in which a product has many buyers and sellers, and no
single buyer or seller is powerful enough to affect a product's price.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 22


OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

235. As the price of a product increases, the amount of the product that a producer is willing to supply
increases.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 22


OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition
50

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distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
236. As the price of a product increases, the amount of the product that consumers purchase increases.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 22


OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

237. The equilibrium or market price exists when the supply of a product exceeds the amount that
consumers are willing to purchase.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 22-23


OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

238. The products available in a monopolistically competitive market are similar in nature and are intended
to satisfy the same need.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Diff. REF: p. 23


OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

239. An oligopoly is a market situation in which there is one producer and a few large buyers.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 23


OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

240. In a monopoly situation, there is no close substitute for the product or service.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 24


OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

241. A copyright of a product exists indefinitely.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 24


OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

242. A legal monopoly is often referred to as a natural monopoly.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 24


OBJ: 1-5 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: Types of Competition

243. A factory system of manufacturing involves the separation of a manufacturing process into separate
tasks and the assignment of different tasks to different employees.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 26


OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

244. Specialization is meant to increase the efficiency of industrial workers.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 26


OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today
51

© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license
distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
245. Typical service businesses in the U.S. include real estate, repair companies, and restaurants.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 27


OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

246. During the 1930s, government became deeply involved in business for the first time.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 26


OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

247. Because of technology and the Internet, the use of information by business managers has increased.

ANS: T PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 26


OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

248. According to global experts, India is the fastest-growing economy in the world.

ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Mod. REF: p. 27


OBJ: 1-6 NAT: AACSB: Analytic TOP: American Business Today

52

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Another random document with
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of tawny gold, primrose, saffron, or salmon-pink, bearing their brass
bowls and saucers full of flowers, and a supply of Ganges water.
The ghauts were thronged. Wandering along them we presently
came upon a yogi sitting under the shade of a wall—a rather fine-
looking man of thirty-five, or nearing forty, with a kindly
unselfconscious face—not at all thin or emaciated or ascetic looking,
but a wild man decidedly, with his hair long and matted into a few
close ringlets, black but turning brown towards his waist, a short
unkempt beard, and nothing whatever on but some beads round his
neck and the merest apology for a loin-cloth. He sat cross-legged
before a log or two forming a small fire, which seemed grateful as
the morning was quite cold, and every now and then smeared his
body with the wood-ashes, giving it a white and floury appearance.
For the rest his furniture was even less than Thoreau’s, and
consisted apparently of only one or two logs of firewood kept in
reserve, a pair of tongs, and a dry palm-leaf overhead to ward off the
sun by day and the dews by night. I looked at him for some time, and
he looked at me quietly in return—so I went and sat down near him,
joining the circle of his admirers of whom there were four or five. He
seemed pleased at this little attention and told me in reply to my
questions that he had lived like this since he was a boy, and that he
was very happy—which indeed he appeared to be. As to eating he
said he ate plenty “when it came to him” (i.e. when given to him), and
when it didn’t he could go without. I should imagine however from his
appearance that he did pretty well in that matter—though I don’t
think the end of his remark was mere brag; for there was that look of
insouciance in his face which one detects in the faces of the animals,
His friends sat round, but without much communication—at any rate
while I was there—except to offer him a whiff out of their pipes every
now and then, or drop a casual remark, to which he would respond
with a quite natural and pleasant laugh. Of any conscious religion or
philosophy I don’t think there was a spark in him—simply wildness,
and reversion to a life without one vestige of care; but I felt in looking
at him that rare pleasure which one experiences in looking at a face
without anxiety and without cunning.
A little farther on we came to one of the burning ghauts—a
sufficiently dismal sight—a blackened hollow running down to the
water’s edge, with room for three funereal pyres in it. The evening
before we had seen two of these burning—though nearly burnt out—
and this morning the ashes only remained, and a third fresh stack
was already prepared. As we stood there a corpse was brought
down—wrapped in an unbleached cloth (probably the same it wore
in life) and slung beneath a pole which was carried on the shoulders
of two men. Round about on the jutting verges of the hollow the male
relatives (as we had seen them also the day before) sat perched
upon their heels, with their cloths drawn over their heads—
spectators of the whole operations. I could not help wondering what
sort of thoughts were theirs. Here there is no disguise of death and
dissolution. The body is placed upon the pyre, which generally in the
case of the poor people who come here is insufficiently large, a
scanty supply of gums and fragrant oils is provided, the nearest male
relative applies the torch himself—and then there remains nothing
but to sit for hours and watch the dread process, and at the
conclusion if the burning is complete to collect the ashes and scatter
them on the water, and if not to throw the charred remains
themselves into the sacred river. The endurance of the Hindu is
proverbial—but to endure such a sight in the case of a dear and near
relative seems ultra-human. Every sense is violated and sickened;
the burning-ground men themselves are the most abhorred of
outcasts—and as they pass to and fro on their avocations the crowd
shrinks back from the defilement of their touch.
We did not stay more than a few minutes here, but passed on
and immediately found ourselves again amongst an animated and
gay crowd of worshipers. This was the ghaut where Panna wished to
bathe—a fine pyramidal flight of stairs jutting into the water and
leading up to the Durga Temple some way above us. While he was
making preparations—purchasing flowers, oil, etc.—I sat down in the
most retired spot I could find, under an awning, where my presence
was not likely to attract attention, and became a quiet spectator of
the scene.
After all, there is nothing like custom. One might think that in
order to induce people to bathe by thousands in muddy half-stagnant
water, thick with funeral ashes and drowned flowers, and here and
there defiled by a corpse or a portion of one, there must be present
an immense amount of religious or other fervor. But nothing of the
kind. Except in a few, very few, cases there was no more of this than
there is in the crowd going to or from a popular London church on
Sunday evening. Mere blind habit was written on most faces. There
were the country bumpkins, who gazed about them a bit, and the
habitués of the place; there were plenty with an eye to business, and
plenty as innocent as children; but that it was necessary for some
reason or other to bathe in this water was a thing that it clearly did
not enter into any one’s head to doubt. It simply had to be done.
The coldness of the morning air was forced on my attention by a
group of women coming up, dripping and shivering, out of the river
and taking their stand close to me. Their long cotton cloths clung to
their limbs, and I wondered how they would dress themselves under
these conditions. The steps even were reeking with wet and mud,
and could not be used for sitting on. They managed however to
unwind their wet things and at the same time to put on the dry ones
so deftly that in a short time and without any exposure of their bodies
they were habited in clean and bright attire. Children in their best
clothes, stepping down one foot always first, with silver toe-rings and
bangles, were a pretty sight; and aged people of both sexes, bent
and tottering, came past pretty frequently; around on the various
levels were groups of gossipers, and parties squatting opposite each
other, shaving and being shaved. Nearly opposite to me was one of
the frequent stone lingams which abound here at corners of streets
and in all sorts of nooks, and I was amused by the antics of a goat
and a crow, which between them nibbled and nicked off the flowers,
ears of barley, and other offerings, as fast as the pious deposited
them thereon.
While I was taking note of these and other features of the scene,
my attention was suddenly arrested by a figure standing just in front
of me, and I found that I was looking at one of those self-mutilating
fakirs of whom every one has heard. He was a man of a little over
thirty perhaps, clothed in a yellow garment—not very tall though of
good figure; but his left arm was uplifted in life-long penance. There
was no doubt about it; the bare limb, to some extent dwindled, went
straight up from the shoulder and ended in a little hand, which looked
like the hand of a child—with fingers inbent and ending in long claw-
like nails, while the thumb, which was comparatively large in
proportion to the fingers, went straight up between the second and
third. The mans face was smeared all over with a yellow pigment
(saffron), and this together with his matted hair gave him a wild and
demonish appearance.
One often reads of such things, yet somehow without quite
realising them; certainly the sight of this deliberate and lifelong
mutilation of the human body gave me a painful feeling—which was
by no means removed by the expression of the face, with its stultified
sadness, and brutishness not without deceit. His extended right hand
demanded a coin, which I gladly gave him, and after invoking some
kind of blessing he turned away through the crowd—his poor
dwindled hand and half-closed fingers visible for some time over the
heads of the people. Poor fellow! how little spiritual good his
sufferings had done him. His heavy-browed face haunted me for
some time. For the rest he was well-liking enough, and it must be
said that these fellows for the most part make a fair living out of the
pious charity of the people, though I would not be understood to say
that all of them adopt this mode of life with that object.
When Panna came up out of the water and had dressed himself,
and I had satisfied the curiosity of one or two bystanders who
wanted to know whether I had come with him all the way on this
pilgrimage out of friendship, we went up to the temple above—where
a little band was playing strange and grisly music, and a few
devotees were chanting before an image of Siva—and having made
an offering returned to our hotel.
CHAPTER XV.
THE ANGLO-INDIAN AND THE OYSTER.

Allahabad.—It certainly is a very difficult thing to see the real India, the
real life of the people. You arrive at a railway station, give the name of
a hotel, and are driven there. When you wake up in the morning you
find yourself in a region of straight shady avenues, villa residences,
hotels and churches, lawn-tennis and whisky pegs. Except that the
residences are houses of one storey instead of three, and that the sun
is rather glaring for February, you might just as well be at Wandsworth
or Kew. In some alarm you ask for the native city and find that it is four
miles off! You cannot possibly walk there along the dusty roads, and
there is nothing for it but to drive. If there is anything of the nature of a
“sight” in the city you are of course beset by drivers; in any case you
ultimately have to undergo the ignominy of being jogged through the
town in a two-horse conveyance, stared at by the people, followed by
guides, pestered for bakshish, and are glad to get back to the shelter
of your hotel.
If you go and stay with your Anglo-Indian friend in his villa-
bungalow, you are only a shade worse off instead of better. He is
hospitality itself and will introduce you cordially to all the other good
folk, whom (and their ways) you have seen more than once before at
Wandsworth and at Kew; but as to the people of the country, why, you
are no nearer them physically, and morally you are farther off because
you are in the midst of a society where it is the correct thing to damn
the oyster, and all that is connected with him.
The more one sees of the world the more one is impressed, I think,
by the profundity and the impassibility of the gulf of race-difference.
Two races may touch, may mingle, may occupy for a time the same
land; they may recognise each other’s excellencies, may admire and
imitate each other; individuals may even cross the dividing line and be
absorbed on either side; but ultimately the gulf reasserts itself, the
deepset difference makes itself felt, and for reasons which neither
party very clearly understands they cease to tolerate each other. They
separate, like oil and water; or break into flame and fierce conflict; or
the one perishes withering from the touch of the other. There are a few
souls, born travelers and such like, for whom race-barriers do not exist,
and who are everywhere at home, but they are rare. For the world at
large the great race-divisions are very deep, very insuperable. Here is
a vast problem. The social problem which to-day hangs over the
Western lands is a great one; but this looms behind it, even vaster.
Anyhow in India the barrier is plain enough to be seen—more than
physical, more than intellectual, more than moral—a deepset
ineradicable incompatibility.
Take that difference in the conception of Duty, to which I have
already alluded. The central core of the orthodox Englishman, or at
any rate of the public-school boy who ultimately becomes our most
accepted type, is perhaps to be found in that word. It is that which
makes him the dull, narrow-minded, noble, fearless, reliable man that
he is. The moving forces of the Hindu are quite different; they are, first,
Religion; and second, Affection; and it is these which make him so
hopelessly unpractical, so abominably resigned, yet withal so tender
and imaginative of heart. Abstract duty to the Hindu has but little
meaning. He may perform his religious exercises and his caste
injunctions carefully enough, but it is because he realises clearly the
expediency of so doing. And what can the Englishman understand of
this man who sits on his haunches at a railway station for a whole day
meditating on the desirability of not being born again! They do not and
they cannot understand each other.
Many of the I.C.S. are very able, disinterested, hardworking men,
but one feels that they work from basic assumptions which are quite
alien to the Hindu mind, and they can only see with sorrow that their
work takes no hold upon the people and its affections. The materialistic
and commercial spirit of Western rule can never blend with the
profoundly religious character of the social organisation normal to
India. We undertake the most obviously useful works, the
administration of justice, the construction of tanks and railways, in a
genuine spirit of material expediency and with a genuine anxiety to
secure a 5 per cent. return; to the Hindu all this is as nothing—it does
not touch him in the least. Unfortunately, since the substitution of mere
open competition for the remains of noblesse oblige, which survived in
the former patronage appointments to the I.C.S., and with the general
growth of commercialism in England, the commercial character of our
rule has only increased during the last thirty years. There is less belief
in justice and honor, more in 5 per cent. and expediency—less anxiety
to understand the people and to govern them well, more to make a
good income and to retire to England with an affluence at an early
date.
Curious that we have the same problem of race-difference still
utterly unsolved in the United States. After all the ardor of the
Abolitionists, the fury of civil war, the emancipation of the slaves, the
granting of the ballot and political equality, and the prophecies of the
enthusiasts of humanity—still remains the fact that in the parts where
negroes exist in any numbers the white man will not even ride in the
same car with his brother, or drink at the bar where he drinks. So long
does it take to surpass and overcome these dividing lines. We all know
that they have to be surpassed—we all know that the ultimate and
common humanity must disentangle itself and rise superior to them in
the end. The Gñáni knows it—it is almost the central fact of his
religious philosophy and practice; the Western democrat knows it—it is
also the central fact of his creed. But the way to its realisation is long
and intricate and bewildering.
We must not therefore be too ready to find fault with the Anglo-
Indian if he only (so to speak) touches the native with the tongs. He
may think, doubtless, that he acts so because the oyster is a poor
despicable creature, quite untrustworthy, incapable, etc.—all of which
may be true enough, only we must not forget that the oyster has a
corresponding list of charges against the Anglo—but the real truth on
both sides is something deeper, something deeper perhaps than can
easily be expressed—a rooted dislike and difference between the two
peoples. Providence, for its own good reasons, seems to have put
them together for a season in order that they may torment each other,
and there is nothing more to be said.
And, putting race-difference aside, it is obvious that the
circumstances of our presence in India make any fusion of the two
parties very difficult. Certainly the spectacle of our domination of this
vast region is a very remarkable one—something romantic, and almost
incredible—the conquest and subjection of so many tribes and of such
diverse elements under one political rule and standard, the mere
handful of foreigners holding the country at such a vast distance from
home and from their base of operations, the patience and pluck with
which the problem has been worked out, the broad and liberal spirit of
administration with less of rapine than perhaps ever known in such a
case before, and even an allowance and tenderness for native
customs and institutions which are especially remarkable considering
the insular habits of the conquerors—all this makes one feel how
wonderful an achievement the thing has been. But as far as
intercourse between the two peoples goes, the result has been
inevitable. We came to India as conquerors, we remain there as a
ruling caste. There is a gulf to begin with; how can it be bridged over?
A young man at the age of twenty-two or twenty-three comes out
to join the official ranks. He finds two societies existing, quite sundered
from each other. He cannot belong to both. He may have the most
cosmopolitan ideas; he might even prefer to associate with the subject
race, but that would be obviously impossible; he must join his own
people—which means the use of the tongs when a native gentleman
calls. As a mere lad, even though of strong character, it is impossible
for him to withstand the tremendous pressure which the Anglos will
bring to bear on him. When he is forty, he will have accommodated his
views to his position. Thus the gulf remains as wide as ever.
Then the people themselves are the conquered, and they have
learned their lesson only too well. Walking through an Indian city is as
bad as walking through a Devonshire parish, where the parson and the
squire have done their deadly work, and the school-children curtsey to
you and the farm-laborer pulls his forelock and calls you “Sir,” if you
only ask the way. I have walked alone through a crowded city in this
part of India for two or three hours without seeing a single white face—
one among scores of thousands—and the people officiously pushing
each other out of the way to make room for me, the native police and
soldiers saluting and shouldering arms as one went by, and if one
chanced to look too straight at a man he covered his face with his
hands and bowed low to the ground! This does not happen fortunately
in the great centres like Bombay and Calcutta, but it does in some of
the up-country cities; and it is a strange experience, impressing one no
doubt with a sense of the power of the little mother-country ten
thousand miles away, which throws its prestige around one—but
impressing one also with a sinister sense of the gulf between man and
man which that prestige has created. It may be imagined that a long
course of this kind of thing soon convinces the average Anglo-Indian
that he really does belong to a superior order of being—reacting on
him just as the curtseys and forelock-pulling react on the class-
infatuation of squire and parson—and so the gulf gets wider instead of
lessening.
At dinner last night I met a dozen or so of the chief officials here,
and thought them a capable, intelligent and good-hearted lot—steeped
of course in their particular English class-tradition, but of their class as
good a sample as one could expect to meet. Talking with a Bengali
gentleman who was present—one of the numerous Bannerji clan—he
reiterated the usual complaint. “The official people,” he said, “are very
good as long as the governed submit and say nothing; but they will
neither discuss matters with individual natives nor recognise the great
social movement (National Congress, etc.) that is going on. Their
methods in fact are those of a hundred years ago.” “It is a great pity,”
he continued, “because in a few years the growing movement will
insist on recognition, and then if that leads to altercation and division
the future will be lost, both for the English and the native. The people
of India are most friendly to the Government, and if the official classes
would stretch out a hand, and give and take so to speak, they would
be loyal to death.”
With these last expressions I am much inclined to agree, for having
talked with oysters of all classes on this subject—from the lowest to
the highest—I have always found but one sentiment, that of
satisfaction with the stability and security which our rule has brought to
the country at large—not of course without serious criticisms of our
policy, but with the general conviction, quite spontaneously expressed,
that a change of government—as to that of Russia—or even a return
to the divided rule of native princes, would be a decided change for the
worse. While however thus gladly and unasked expressing their
loyalty, my interlocutors have (I think in every case) qualified their
remarks by expressing their dissatisfaction at the personal treatment
they receive from the English. As one friend mildly expressed it, “The
English official calls upon you, and you of course take care to return
his call; but he takes care to confine the conversation to the weather
and similar topics, and makes you feel that it is a relief when the visit is
over, and so there is not much cordiality.”
No doubt as rulers of the country and inheriting, as I have said, a
tradition of aloofness and superiority over the ruled, it is difficult for our
Anglo-Indian folk to act otherwise than they do. Some of them I think
feel really grieved at the estrangement. One of the officials here said to
me in quite a pathetic tone, “There is a gulf between us and the people
which it is very difficult to bridge.” The native gentleman on the other
hand is, very naturally, extremely sensitive about his dignity, and not
inclined—under such conditions—to make advances; or, if not
sensitive, tends in some cases to be a toady for his own ends; in either
case further estrangement results. If the English are to keep India
together (supposing that really is a useful object) they must rule no
doubt, and with a firm hand. At the same time the rapidly growing
public opinion beneath the surface has to be recognised, and will have
to be recognised even more in the future. I myself am inclined to think
that timidity has a good deal to do with the policy of the English to-day.
Conscious that they are not touching the people’s hearts, and cut off
from them so as to be unable to fathom rightly what is going on in their
minds, they magnify the perils of their own position, and entrenching
themselves in further isolation and exclusiveness, by so doing create
the very danger that they would avoid.
Aligurh.—This place affords a striking example of a rapprochement
taking place between the rulers and the ruled. It is the only place in
India which I have visited where I have noticed anything like a cordial
feeling existing between the two sections; and this is due to the
presence here of the Mahomedan Anglo-Oriental College, run by
Englishmen whose instincts and convictions lie a little outside the
Anglo-Indian groove. And the fact shows how much might be done by
even a few such men scattered over India. Our friends Theodore Beck
and Harold Cox, both Cambridge men, and the latter a decided
Socialist in opinion, being connected with the college at its first start a
few years ago, naturally made a point of cultivating friendly relations
not only with the boys but with their parents—especially those who
might happen to be residing in the place. Being also, naturally, on
friendly terms with the Anglo-Indians and officials of Aligurh, they (and
the college) became a point of contact between the two sections of the
community. At cricket matches, prize-givings, supper-parties, etc., the
good people of both sides met and established comparatively cordial
relations with each other, which have given, as I say, a quite distinctive
flavor to the social atmosphere here.
Last night (Feb. 17th) I came in for a dinner-party, given in the
college reception-room by one of the Mahomedan taluqdars, or
landlords, of the neighborhood—a little grey timid man with gold-
braided cap and black coat—somewhat resembling the conductor of a
German band. Very amusing. Gold caps on beaked and bearded
faces, and gorgeous robes; speeches in Hindustani by Englishmen,
and in English by Mahomedans; a few Hindus present, sitting apart so
as not to eat at the table with us; healths enthusiastically drunk in tea,
etc.! and to crown it all, when the health of the Mahomedans and
Hindus present was proposed, and the English—including officials,
collector, and all—stood up and sang, “For they are jolly good
fellows”—the astonishment of the natives, hardly knowing what it all
meant and unaccustomed to these forms of jollification, was quite
touching.
But the influence of Sir Syed Ahmed here must of course not be
overlooked. He is the originator and founder of the M.A.O. College,
and one of the leading Mahomedans of India, as well as a confidant of
the British and of the Government—a man of considerable weight,
courage, and knowledge of the world, if a little ultra-Mahomedan in
some of his views and in his contempt of the mild Hindu. He was a
member of Lord Ripon’s Council and opposed Lord Ripon with all his
might in the matter of the proposed system of popular election to Local
Boards and Municipal Councils. The Mahomedan is poles asunder
from the modern Radical, and Carlylean in his contempt of voting
machinery. His fingers still itch, even in these degenerate days, to cut
the Gordian knot of politics with the sword. He hates the acute and
tricky Bengali, whom he cannot follow in his acuteness, and whom he
disdains to follow in his tricks, and cannot away with his National
Congress and representative reforms. But all this perhaps
recommends him the more to Anglo-Indian sympathies. There is
something in the Mahomedan, with his love of action and dogmatic
sense of duty, which makes him more akin to the Englishman than is
the philosophical and supple-minded Hindu. And one can easily
understand how this race ruled India for centuries, and rejoiced in its
rule.
Yet to-day it seems to be the fact that the Mahomedan population
is falling into considerable poverty, which—according to some opinions
—must end either in the extinction of their influence or their adoption of
Western ideas and habits. With the advent of commercialism the stiff-
necked son of Islam finds himself ousted in trade by the supple chetty
or Brahman. Hence the feud between the two races, which to a certain
extent in the country parts was scarring over with mere lapse of time,
seems likely now in the more advancing districts and commercial
centres to break out afresh. “In Bundelkhand,” says Beck in his Essays
on Indian Topics, “where society is very old-fashioned, the Rajas are
quite Islamized in their customs and thoughts; while in Calcutta, where
English influence has been longest, the anti-Mahomedan feeling
reaches its greatest height.” That is to say, that in Calcutta and such
places the English have brought with them commercialism and a
desire among the Hindus for political representation, both of which
things have only served to enrage the two parties against each other—
Hindu against Mahomedan, and Mahomedan against Hindu.
When a man of authority and weight could make such a jingo
speech as that of Sir Syed Ahmed at Lucknow in 1887—who in the
extremity of his contempt for the Hindu said, “We do not live on fish;
nor are we afraid of using a knife and fork lest we should cut our
fingers (cheers). Our nation is of the blood of those who made not only
Arabia but Asia and Europe to tremble. It is our nation which
conquered with its sword the whole of India, although its peoples were
all of one religion”—one realises how deep-set is the antagonism still
existing. Though forming a minority, fifty or sixty million descendants of
a powerful race sharing such sentiments cannot be ignored; and it is
obvious that the feud between the two races must for a long period yet
form one of the great difficulties and problems of Indian politics.
A few years ago the Hindus tied a pig at night-time in the midst of
the Jumma Mosque at Delhi, where it was found in the morning by the
infuriated Mahomedans. They in retaliation cut up a brahman cow and
threw it into a well used by Hindus. Street fights and assassinations
followed and many people were killed—and the affair might have
grown to a large scale but for the interference of British troops. Such
little amenities are not infrequent, at any rate in certain districts.

* * * * *
There is a big horse-fair going on here just now. A hundred booths
or more arranged in four little streets in form of a cross, with
decorations. All round, bare sandy land with horses tied up for sale.
The Cabulees—great tall men with long hair and skin coats, fur inside,
and ramshackle leggings and shoes—ride in with their strings of
horses, 300 or 400 miles from the frontier—where they are obliged to
pile their arms until they return, as they would play the deuce in the
country if they were to bring their guns with them. They look tidy
ruffians, and no doubt would overrun the country if not held back by
the English or some military power.
Outside the fair is a wrestling arena, with earth-banks thrown up
round it, on which a motley crowd of spectators was seated to-day.
Saw several bouts of wrestling. The Aligarh champion’s challenge was
accepted by a big Punjaubee, a fellow from Meerut, over sixty years of
age, but remarkably powerful—burly, with small nose, battered ears,
and huge frontal prominences like some African chieftain or Western
prize-fighter—good-humored too and even jolly till accused of unfair
play, when he raged among the mob, and the meeting broke up in
insane noise and blows of sticks—a small whirlwind of combatants
eddying away for some distance over the plain. It was characteristic
though, that when they had had enough of fighting, the two parties
came back and appealed for fair play to Beck and me—the only two
Englishmen present—though there did not seem the least reason why
they should, and we were quite unable to afford them any proper
satisfaction.
CHAPTER XVI.
DELHI AND AGRA.

The train rushes over an iron girder bridge, crossing the Jumna, into
Delhi. There are sandy flats and bits of garden by the river-side, and
then the great red-sandstone walls of the fort, 30 or 40 feet high,
surmounted by remnants of the old white marble palace of Shah
Jehan, looking out eastward over the great plain. Here are the Pearl
Mosque—a little pure white shrine—the Shah’s private audience hall,
the zenana apartments, and the royal baths, still standing. The
women’s apartments are certainly lovely. White and polished marble
floor and marble walls inlaid with most elegant floral and arabesque
designs in mosaics of colored stones, and in gold; with marble screens
of rich lace-like open work between the apartments and the outer
world; and a similarly screened balcony jutting over the fort wall—
through which the river and the great plains beyond are seen
shimmering in the heat. The private audience hall is of like work—a
sort of open portico supported on some twenty marble columns, with
marble floor and rich mosaic everywhere (see illustration), and the
baths the same. Indeed the old Shah with his fifty queens must have
had some high old times in these baths—one for himself, one for the
queens, and one for his children, all opening conveniently into each
other.
Behind the fort used to be the densest part of the city; but after the
Mutiny this was cleared away, and now an open space extends from
the fort walls up to the Jumma Mosque and the present Delhi.
DEWAN KHAS, OR AUDIENCE HALL, IN PALACE AT DELHI.

A large city of narrow alleys and courtyards—here and there a


broad tree-planted avenue with disheveled little two-storey houses on
each hand, and occasional banks, hotels, and offices. Crowds of
people. A finer-looking race than southwards—more of the
Mahomedan element—and about the Hindus themselves more fling
and romance and concreteness; some handsome faces, verging a little
towards the Greek or Italian types—but looking fine with their dark
skins. I suppose that in the Punjaub the men are finer and taller still,
and look down a little on the folk at Delhi. Cows and brahman bulls
throng the streets, and come out of courtyards in the mid-city. Some of
these bulls are public property, belong to no individual and live on the
highways and mingle with the herds of cows. When they want food
they go into the market, and the Hindus feed them with their hands.
The Jumma Mosque is the first large mosque I have seen in India,
but I am a little disappointed with it. These Indian mosques differ a little
from the Turkish—being quite open to sun and sky. The idea seems to
be, first a large open square, 100 feet across, or 100 yards, or more,
paved with marble if possible, with a tank in the middle for worshipers
to wash their feet in, and an arcade round three sides, very likely open-
work of stone, with fine gateways in each side—and on the fourth side
a sort of very handsome portico, with its floor raised above the general
court, and surmounted by three domes. Right and left of the portico
stand the two tall minarets. To be perfect the whole should be of white
polished marble inlaid with arabesques and scriptures from the Koran.
One of the main points is the absolute purity of the place. There is
nothing whatever under the portico—no likeness of beast or bird—only
three recesses in which one might fairly expect to see an altar or an
image, a flight of three steps on which the reader stands to read the
Koran, and that is all. Attendants continually dust the whole courtyard
with cloths to keep it clean.
From a distance the effect of the domes, the minarets, the open-
work of the arcade, the handsome gateways, and the little kiosks is
very attractive; but within one misses something. It seems as if the
portico ought to open back on a vast interior; but it doesn’t. There is no
mysterious gloom anywhere—not a cranny for a hobgoblin even.
There is no nice Virgin Mary in the niches, or nasty gurgoyle on the
angles, no meditative Buddha or terrifying Kali with necklace of skulls,
no suggestion of companionship human or divine, no appeal to sense.
It doesn’t give one a chance of even having a make-believe god. How
different from Hinduism with its lingams and sexual symbols deified in
the profound gloom of the temple’s innermost recess!
THE JUMMA MOSQUE, DELHI.

What an extraordinary region is this to the south and west of Delhi


—a huge waste sprinkled with the ruins of six or seven previous
Delhis! Emperors in those days had a cheerful way—when they
thought they had found a securer or more convenient site—of calmly
removing a whole city from its old location. Now you pass through an
arid land, here and there green with crops, but running up into stony
ridges and mounds, and dotted with ruins as far as the eye can see.
Stumpy domes of decayed mosques in every direction looming against
the sky, mere lumps of brickwork, now turned into barns and
farmyards, or with herds of goats sheltering from the sun beneath their
arches—the land in some parts fairly covered with loose stones,
remnants of countless buildings. Here and there, among some foliage,
you see a great mosque tomb in better preservation—kept up by the
Government—that of Safdar Jung, for instance, who died 1753,
Akbar’s Vizier, or of the Emperor Humayoun, or the marble shrine of
the poet Khusro. Along the roads go bullock-carts of all kinds, some
with curtains to them, concealing women folk; and camels with loads of
grass, and donkeys with huge panniers of cowdung; and by the
wayside are ash trees and peepul trees, and wells worked by brahman
cows drawing up water in huge skins.
Eleven miles south of Delhi stands the great Kutab Minar, a huge
tower 240 feet high and 50 feet diameter at its base—tapering through
five storeys to its summit, which unfortunately has lost its four-
columned watch-turret and has only now a wretched iron rail—a kind
of multiple column breaking out into a sort of scroll-work capital at each
landing—not very beautiful, but impressive in its lonely vastness. The
twin column or minar—hardly to be called a minaret—was never
finished; its base alone stands to a height of 40 or 50 feet. Between
them lie the remains of a handsome mosque, and within the courtyard
of the mosque the columned arcades of an ancient Hindu temple;
while the whole group stands within the lines of the old Hindu fortress
of Lalkab built about a.d. 1060. The mosque and minar were built by
Kutab-ud-din about 1200 a.d.; but the Hindu temple is no doubt
considerably older. Within the latter stands the celebrated iron pillar
(22 feet high above ground—and said to be an equal depth below the
surface—by 16 inches diameter at base)—whose construction at that
early date is somewhat of a puzzle. It evidently is not a casting, but
hammered. It is of pure iron, and was probably, I should say, welded to
these huge dimensions piece by piece. A Sanskrit inscription on it,
recording a victory over the Bahilkas near the seven mouths of the
Indus, fixes its date at a.d. 360–400.
This huge Kutab Minar is supposed to have been built as a kind of
glorification of the triumph of Mahomedanism over Hinduism; but now
from its top one looks out over a strange record of arid lands and
deserted cities—both Mahomedan and Hindu—fortified places built
one after another in succession and razed to the ground or deserted.
The circles of their old walls are still however mostly traceable. One of
these, which was called Toglakabad, and was destroyed by Tamerlane
in 1398, lies to the south-east. Another, which the English call the old
Fort, and which lies nearer Delhi, I visited on my way back to the city.
Like most of the villages it stands on an eminence composed of the
débris of former habitations. The walls, 40 feet high, of this little
fortress, whose irregular sides are none of them probably much more
than a quarter of a mile in length, are very rude but bold stonework,
and command a dry ditch. Within there are now only a hundred or so
mud huts, and a red-sandstone mosque of rather good appearance—
from the terrace of which you look out over the Jumna and see the
minarets of the present city only three or four miles off. Owing however
to the dust flying in the air the views were by no means very clear.
Agra.—The fort here is quite on the same lines as that at Delhi, but
of earlier date—built by Akbar in 1566 or so—and even finer in
conception. There is indeed something very grand about this bold
stern and practical Mahomedan structure with its lofty seventy-foot
walls and solid gateway of red sandstone, surmounted by the glitter of
the marble and gilt-roofed domes and arcades and terraces which
formed the royal palace within. All these buildings of the royal palace,
like the Taj and other monuments, are now kept and repaired by the
British Government, and with tender care, and are open for visitors to
walk through at their own sweet will—subject to the trivial importunities
of a few guides. One may wander for a whole day through the many
courts of the palace at Agra and keep finding fresh beauties and
interest. After one guide has been exhausted and paid off the others
leave one respectfully alone, and one may sit down in the lovely
arcade of the Dewan Khas, or in the canopied balcony called the
Jessamine Tower, and enjoy the shade and coolness of the marble, or
the sight of the brilliant landscape between the arches—the river banks
and the busy folk washing themselves and their linen—or study the
beautiful floral mosaics upon walls and columns, at one’s leisure.
PERFORATED MARBLE SCREEN IN PALACE AT DELHI.

In marble and mosaic it is impossible to imagine anything more


elegant than the Mahomedan work of this period—as illustrated by
numbers of buildings—the brilliant coloring and richness of inlaid stone
in coral, agate, jade, bloodstone, turquoise, lapis-lazuli, or what not;
the grace of running leaf and flower; the marble reliefs—whole plants
—in panels, the lily or the tulip or the oleander conventionalised—one
of the most beautiful in the Dewan Khas being a design of the tomato
plant; and then the inimitable open-work screens (often out of one
great slab of stone)—of intricately balanced yet transparently simple
designs—some in the zenana apartments here almost as elaborate as
lacework; and the care and finish with which they have all been
wrought and fitted. It was from this fort and among these arcades and

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