View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What did the first civilizations in Mesopotamia use to write on?

2. Who laid out a theory of dualism in his Meditations of 1641?

3. In which year was Carr born?

4. What famous work of Saint Augustine's does Carr reference in Chapter Four?

5. What kind of type did Johannes Gutenberg invent with the printing press?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. How does Carr describe the characteristics of a so-called technological determinist?

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

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

6. What movie does Carr reference in Chapter One, and what does he use the reference to illustrate?

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

8. In Chapter One, how does Joe O'Shea feel about his decision to stop reading books in favor of the shorter-form content of the Internet?

9. How did Johannes Gutenberg change the path of human history, according to Carr?

10. In Chapter Five, what does Carr say research suggests about the relationship between the time people spend on the Net and the time they spend watching television?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Carr's view, what is the "intellectual ethic" of a technology (45)? Why are a given technology's creators usually blind to the technology's so-called "intellectual ethic"?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Why is Google's business model so dependent on its ability to feed users information and web content so quickly and efficiently? Write an essay explaining your answer.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 684 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample