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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who was one of the inventors of BASIC, the first programming language to use common words and syntax?
(a) Nicholas Carr.
(b) Bill Richardson.
(c) Steve Jobs.
(d) John Kemeny.

2. How does the brain's ability to adapt to changes shift as people age?
(a) The brain becomes less able to change as quickly as people age.
(b) The brain needs medication to be able to change as people age.
(c) The brain becomes more able to change as people age.
(d) The brain requires surgery to be able to change as people age.

3. Which of the following terms did Jeffrey Schwartz of UCLA coin?
(a) Survival of the fittest.
(b) Survival of the fastest.
(c) Survival of the busiest.
(d) Survival of the most connected.

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

5. According to Carr in Chapter Four, what kind of reading was largely unknown in the ancient world?
(a) Silent reading.
(b) Deep reading.
(c) Group reading.
(d) Skimming.

6. What is the name of the computer from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey?
(a) Wemberly.
(b) Dave.
(c) Winifred.
(d) HAL.

7. Which media mogul at RCA and NBC dismissed criticism of the mass media on which his career was built in the year 1955?
(a) Walter White.
(b) David Sarnoff.
(c) Walter Winchell.
(d) Les Moonves.

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

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

10. What does Carr say was a feature of early writing that is hard for us to imagine today?
(a) There were no spaces separating the words.
(b) There was no capitalization.
(c) There was only blue and red ink in use.
(d) The ancient writers only used two vowels.

11. What famous work of Saint Augustine's does Carr reference in Chapter Four?
(a) Phaedrus.
(b) Confessions.
(c) Illuminati.
(d) The DaVinci Code.

12. How many categories does Carr claim our technologies can be divided into in Chapter Three?
(a) 8.
(b) 7.
(c) 2.
(d) 4.

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

14. How did the map and clock change language indirectly, according to Carr?
(a) People started using navigational terms for literature-related topics.
(b) People started reading maps much more than they read books.
(c) People started drawing clock hands on their books.
(d) New metaphors based on the map and clock arose to describe natural phenomenon.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Where was Johannes Gutenberg born?

3. Carr writes that the computer is our servant, but it is simultaneously which of the following?

4. What did a 2006 study by Jupiter Research reveal a huge overlap in, according to Carr in Chapter Five?

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

(see the answer keys)

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