Read the Essay Below

question 131

Multiple Choice

Read the essay below. For each of the questions that follow, select the letter of the correct answer.
Use the following to answer question:
Quit Smoking Now
(1) In the United States today, an estimated 25.9 million men and 22.8 million women are smokers. Every day, about 3,000 people under the age of eighteen become smokers. Still, though, four out of every five smokers wish they could quit. For a number of reasons, every individual who smokes should try very hard to kick the habit.
(2) One obvious reason to stop smoking is to save money-quite a lot of it, as a matter of fact. The cost of a pack of cigarettes is now about $5, so a two-packs-a-day smoker will pay $304 per month and $3,650 per year to support his or her habit. This is money that could be stashed away in a savings account and spent on a home, a car, or a dream vacation. Americans often have inadequate savings accounts, and they could improve their finances by paying saved cash rather than charging the cost of purchases on credit cards.
(3) The most important reason to stop smoking, though, is to improve health. Smokers are more likely than nonsmokers to suffer from colds, headaches, and insomnia. A third of smokers complain of debilitating fatigue, chronic bronchitis, and other respiratory disorders. Worst of all, though, smoking causes a host of deadly diseases; in fact, it is a major cause of heart attack, stroke, and cancer. Every year, 400,000 people die from tobacco-related diseases.
(4) Smoking causes bad breath and yellows teeth. It also leaves a foul odor in the hair, clothing, and surroundings of not only the person who smokes but also everyone in close proximity to the smoker. Smoking ages the skin, too, making smokers look older than their years.
(5) Because smoking harmful in all of these respects, the best thing smokers can do for themselves and their loved ones is quit. They should try all of options available, such as nicotine patches and smoking cessation programs. Quitting is difficult thing to do, but it's worth it.
-Select the topic sentence that would best fit in the blank of paragraph 4.

• A) Quitting smoking also makes people look and feel younger.
• B) Another reason to quit smoking is to improve physical appearance.
• C) Smokers who quit also set a good example for the young people in their lives.

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Definitions:

Multiple Regression Model

A statistical technique that analyzes the relationship between two or more predictor variables and a single response variable.

Dependent Variable

A variable in an experiment or model that is affected by changes in other variables, often examined to observe the effect of a manipulation.

Coefficient Of Determination

A statistical measure represented by R² that assesses the extent of variance for a dependent variable that's predictable from the independent variable(s).

Total SS

Total sum of squares in statistics, representing the total variation in the dataset, which can be partitioned into explained and unexplained components.