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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who wrote the book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man?
(a) Marshall McLuhan.
(b) Merrion Crace.
(c) Nicholas Carr.
(d) Walter Winchell.

2. How did Francis Bacon say that Gutenberg's press affected the globe?
(a) He said it made everyone, everywhere, better educated.
(b) He said it made societies much more equal.
(c) He said it made books much less expensive.
(d) He said it changed things all over the world so much that no empire or sect or star had as great an effect worldwide.

3. Which was one of the first computers Carr ever bought for his own personal use?
(a) An early Apple Smartphone.
(b) One of Apple's earliest Macintoshes.
(c) One of Toshibia's early laptops.
(d) One of IBM's earliest desktops.

4. What does the Turning Test designed to measure?
(a) Signal strength of transistors.
(b) The strength of a code.
(c) A machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior that is equal to, or even indistinguishable from, a human's.
(d) The bandwith of fiber optic cables.

5. Where did Lee de Forest grow up?
(a) Louisiana.
(b) Mississippi.
(c) Pennsylvania.
(d) Alabama.

6. According to Carr in Chapter Three, every technology is an expression of which of the following?
(a) Foresight.
(b) Ingenuity.
(c) Human will.
(d) Progress.

7. Which university was at the forefront of computer programming and technological advances in the late 1970s, according to Carr?
(a) Harvard University.
(b) Penn State University.
(c) Dartmouth University.
(d) Florida State University.

8. In what year was the book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man published?
(a) 1980.
(b) 1984.
(c) 1940.
(d) 1964.

9. Who did Gutenberg secure funding for his printing press from?
(a) A neighbor, Johann Fust.
(b) His Uncle, Rhine Gutenberg.
(c) His best friend, Sebastian Bach.
(d) His father, Josiah Gutenberg.

10. What did the creation of word breaks and punctuation do for readers as the act of writing evolved, according to Carr?
(a) Readers became more receptive to having their children learn to read.
(b) Readers became more likely to also want to listen to music as they were reading.
(c) Readers became more likely to want to attend the theater.
(d) Readers became more efficient and more attentive.

11. How did much of the early evidence of neuroplasticity come about?
(a) Through experiments researches tracked on ultrasound machines.
(b) Through experiments about the movement of the right arm.
(c) Through experiments that studied the brain's reaction to injuries.
(d) Through experiments about language.

12. In which year was Carr born?
(a) 1946.
(b) 1959.
(c) 1936.
(d) 1990.

13. Which dialogue did Plato write about love, beauty and rhetoric that Carr references in Chapter Three?
(a) Daedulus.
(b) Circe.
(c) Phaedrus.
(d) The Iliad.

14. Who were the first people to start manufacturing scrolls of papyrus?
(a) Europeans.
(b) Egyptians.
(c) Greeks.
(d) Arabs.

15. What job did Johannes Gutenberg have before inventing the printing press?
(a) He was an accountant.
(b) He was a doctor.
(c) He was a lawyer.
(d) He was a goldsmith.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Chapter Three, what does Carr posit is one way to trace the intellectual maturation of individuals?

2. In what year does Carr say he starts to have reservations and misgivings about how his time spent online is affecting him?

3. What did Aristotle think the primary function of the human brain was?

4. What does Hebb's rule say?

5. Who was one of the first biologists to argue that the human brain might be in a constant state of flux?

(see the answer keys)

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