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    The British colonists in Delhi were troubled by venomous cobras, so the British government offered rewards for every dead cobra turned in. Initially this led to many cobras being killed, but people then started breeding cobras for the rewards. When the British learned this, they cancelled the program. Angry breeders then released their cobras into the wild, worsening the original cobra problem. Similarly, when Chicago banned lightweight plastic bags and imposed a tax, retailers made much thicker bags that were not taxed but not reusable, worsening plastic waste. These examples illustrate the "cobra effect," where a solution intended to fix a problem inadvertently makes the problem much worse.

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    The British colonists in Delhi were troubled by venomous cobras, so the British government offered rewards for every dead cobra turned in. Initially this led to many cobras being killed, but people then started breeding cobras for the rewards. When the British learned this, they cancelled the program. Angry breeders then released their cobras into the wild, worsening the original cobra problem. Similarly, when Chicago banned lightweight plastic bags and imposed a tax, retailers made much thicker bags that were not taxed but not reusable, worsening plastic waste. These examples illustrate the "cobra effect," where a solution intended to fix a problem inadvertently makes the problem much worse.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    80 views2 pages

    Cobra Effect

    Uploaded by

    karen viviana camacho
    The British colonists in Delhi were troubled by venomous cobras, so the British government offered rewards for every dead cobra turned in. Initially this led to many cobras being killed, but people then started breeding cobras for the rewards. When the British learned this, they cancelled the program. Angry breeders then released their cobras into the wild, worsening the original cobra problem. Similarly, when Chicago banned lightweight plastic bags and imposed a tax, retailers made much thicker bags that were not taxed but not reusable, worsening plastic waste. These examples illustrate the "cobra effect," where a solution intended to fix a problem inadvertently makes the problem much worse.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as RTF, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    Name:

    _____________________________
    Nonfiction Reading Test
    The Cobra Effect
    Directions: Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow. Refer to the text
    to check your answers when appropriate.

    The British colonized India from 1858 to 1947.


    That means that they ruled the country. They
    governed the Indian people. They used India to
    make wealth for the British Empire. But they also
    developed India. They built canals and railroads.
    They tried to make India more like the United
    Kingdom.

    Yet India was different from the UK. It was more


    rustic. The ecology was different too. Some British
    colonists had a hard time adapting. The snakes
    were particularly troubling. The capital area of
    Delhi was overrun with venomous cobras.

    Encountering a cobra is quite frightening. It's even The British plan seemed like a good idea at first. In
    worse getting bit by one. The cobras killed many practice though, it made things much worse. This
    colonists. Enough died that the British government is the cobra effect. The cobra effect is when a
    took action. They paid a bounty for every dead solution worsens a problem.
    cobra.
    Many well-intentioned programs backfire. In 2014
    The program was a success at first. Many people the City of Chicago banned lightweight plastic
    hunted and killed the cobras for the rewards. The bags. Single use bags are bad for the environment.
    number of cobras dropped. The colonists felt safer. They end up in the water. They pollute the land.
    But then it became harder to catch cobras. So City officials wanted people to reuse bags. So they
    enterprising people started breeding them. After put a tax on lightweight bags.
    all, it is easier to catch a pet cobra than a wild one.
    Retailers did not want to anger customers with the
    News of this scheme got back to the British new tax. So they made their bags much thicker.
    government. They learned that people were The new bags were 150 times thicker than the old
    breeding cobras to earn rewards. This is not what bags. The thicker bags were no longer lightweight,
    the British wanted to happen. They felt foolish. so they weren't taxed. But most customers did not
    They scrapped the program. reuse these bags. They just threw away the really
    thick plastic bags.
    Now the breeders were angry. Raising cobras can
    be challenging. They were doing it for the money. This is another example of the cobra effect. The
    When the program ended, the snakes were city intended to reduce plastic waste, yet the tax
    worthless. So the breeders released them into the worsened it 150 fold. Our actions do not always
    wild. Now there were more wild cobras than when have the consequences that we expect.
    the program started.
    1. Explain the cobra effect in your own words. Use an example from the text or your
    experience to describe the cobra effect.

    _____________________________________________________________________________
    _____________________________________________________________________________
    _____________________________________________________________________________
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    2. How is what happened in Chicago with plastic bags similar to what happened in New
    Delhi with cobras? Write in complete sentences and refer to the text in your response.

    _____________________________________________________________________________
    _____________________________________________________________________________
    _____________________________________________________________________________

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