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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. About how much did Carr spend on his first real computer purchase in 1986?

2. Which former Rhodes Scholar and former student body president at Florida State University told Carr he does not read books any longer?

3. In what year was the book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man published?

4. According to Carr, what did the widespread use of clocks do for civilization?

5. Who created the Hypercard application?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Carr describe intellectual technologies?

2. In Chapter Five, what is the most important difference Carr identifies between the Net and most of the mass media it replaces, like television?

3. How does Carr describe the beliefs of a technological instrumentalist?

4. How does Carr describe Friedrich Nietzsche's feelings towards his first typewriter?

5. In Chapter One, what activity does Carr propose heavy Internet use has diminished human capacity for?

6. What does Carr think is the relationship between a medium and the content conveyed through that medium?

7. In Chapter Five, how does Carr describe the British mathematician Alan Turing?

8. In Chapter Three, what does Carr identify as the philosopher Socrates' fear that widespread reading would replace?

9. According to Carr, how did the first maps change society?

10. In Chapter Three, what does Carr identify as the format of some of the earliest Sumerian writing that archaeologists and historians have uncovered?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why do you think Carr chooses to both begin and end the book The Shallows with references to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, and particularly with references to the computer in the film, HAL? What do you think HAL represents to Carr? Write an essay explaining your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Carr writes that "every technology is an expression of human will" (44). Write an essay explaining your interpretation of Carr's meaning with this phrase. How does it relate to his views on computers and the Internet?

Essay Topic 3

When and how did scientists first begin to understand how much more "plastic," or adaptable, the brain was? How were the early works of these scientists received in the academic and medical fields at first? Write an essay explaining your answer, citing specific references to the text to support your answers.

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