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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. In Chapter Three, what does Ong say that writing does for consciousness?

2. Theorist Marshall McLuhan said that media forms supply the stuff of thought and also do which of the following?

3. What does Carr say was a feature of early writing that is hard for us to imagine today?

4. What did Lee de Forest invent?

5. In Chapter Four, who does Carr claim were the first people to use a specialized medium for writing?

Short Essay Questions

1. When scientists first discovered how adaptable, or "plastic" the brain was, how did the field of neuroscience receive this revelation?

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

3. What does Carr say about the relationship between the so-called "intellectual ethic" of a technology and its inventor (45)?

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

5. What invention did Lee de Forest create, and what technological advances did it allow for?

6. How does Carr describe intellectual technologies?

7. According to Carr, what is one way in which a reader can connect deeply with a book he is reading?

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

9. What style of reading does author David Levy describe in Chapter Four that Carr thinks is useful for learning?

10. How does attending Dartmouth College in the 1970s affect Carr's attitudes towards computers?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay exploring how Carr thinks the rise of eReaders and eBooks will change, or even possibly eliminate, people's experiences of deep reading.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay explaining Carr's views on how and why the Internet, and people's wide use of the Internet, is fundamentally changing public libraries in the United States.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay explaining the meaning of the term "switching costs," and explain how they relate to the act of surfing the Internet.

(see the answer keys)

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