ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Smoop du jour, brought to you by fads,

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because nothing stays cool forever.

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All right, check out the following passage.

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[ mumbles ]

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At the height of tulip mania, people were willing to pay

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such high prices for tulip bulbs because of, uh... what?

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And here are the potential answers.

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[ mumbles ]

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All right, well, anyone who's owned an iAnything

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knows the power of a fad.

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In 1637, tulip mania was sweeping the nation.

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Why? Well, let's look to the text.

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Well, tulip bulbs might be delicious and nutritious...

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or they might taste like brown, dirty flower pods.

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Either way, it's irrelevant, because there's no mention in this passage

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about eating tulips.

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So option B is incorrect.

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Similarly, there's no mention of option D.

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It's possible that anyone could grow their own two lips,

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even little Timmy, and he hates tulips...

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but this point is also not addressed in the text.

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So sorry, D. You're out.

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Option C is a little trickier.

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The law of supply and demand says that when supply is low,

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prices go up if there's a lot of demand for things.

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Well, for instance, just try to buy a video game console

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the day it's released.

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But the passage doesn't mention a shortage of

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bulbs, so we can rule out C.

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Instead, it talks about a different phenomenon -

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An economic bubble in which a fad item's actual value

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stops having any bearing on its price.

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The text indicates that this is what happened with tulips.

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They became such a fad, it didn't matter how many there were.

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People would pay, uh, whatever.

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Well, this is expressed in option A, the correct answer.

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Our next fad to discuss?

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Cold brew coffee.

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Heh. Because trust us, it ain't here to stay.

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[ whoa ]

Full Transcript