1. English B53
The Shallows Exam Prep

2. Materials Lined paper Pen/pencil A print dictionary
For your exam, you will need to bring
Lined paper
Pen/pencil
A print dictionary
All of your reading guides/notes
Your copy of The Shallows

3. Format
The exam consists of 10 passages from the book; you will need to respond to 8 of the 10.
In each response, you will be asked to first paraphrase (or re-state) the passage. Put it into your own words.
Then, you will write a paragraph (at least 5 sentences long) that explains how that passage supports Carr’s overall thesis statement.
You may use the book itself and all of your reading guides and notes on the exam.

4. Practice
Pretend the following passage is on the exam. Write out your two-part response: paraphrase the passage and explain how it supports Carr’s thesis.
“ Although neuroplasticity provides an escape from genetic determinism, a loophole for free thought and free will, it also imposes its own form of determinism on our behavior. As particular circuits in our brain strengthen through the repetition of a physical or mental activity, they begin to transform that activity into a habit. The paradox of neuroplasticity…is that, for all the mental flexibility it grants us, it can end up locking us into ‘rigid behaviors’” (34).

5. Example Answer Part one
Carr explains that while our brains’ ability to be shaped by outside stimulus favors nurture over nature, this malleability can also create set paths that we follow. The more we use certain parts of our brains, the further they develop, and our behaviors become deeply engrained. Ironically, our brain’s ability to rewire itself does allow for change, but at the same time can also trap us into set patterns of behavior.

6. Example Answer Part Two
In referencing the plasticity of the brain, Carr is explaining how all our behaviors affect us physiologically. When we use the internet, we are using certain parts of our brains more than others. This trains our brains to favor these behaviors and makes us less likely to do activities that use other parts of our brain (like reading). Carr uses this information to show that everything we do (and do not do) affects us at the neural level. If we tell ourselves that our internet use doesn’t affect us, we are being naïve or dishonest with ourselves.

7. Practice #2
Pretend the following passage is on the exam. Write out your two-part response: paraphrase the passage and explain how it supports Carr’s thesis.
“In a very real way, the Web returns us to the time of scriptura continua, when reading was a cognitively strenuous act. In reading online…we sacrifice the facility that makes deep reading possible. We revert to being ‘mere decoders of information.’ Our ability to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction remains largely disengaged” (122).

8. Example Answer Part One
When we use the Internet, we have to work harder to engage with what we read. The ease of reading that allows us to focus on the content is lost, and we become like machines in that we are processing information rather than understanding or interpreting it. We become unable to connect with the text when we view it through the information overload that is the Internet.

9. Example Answer Part Two
Some may argue that reading is always the same, whatever the format. Here, Carr is illustrating why that thinking is flawed. He explains that when we read online, the text has to fight links, notifications, and other distractions for our attention. Because we are so prone to distraction anyway, putting ourselves in this environment and attempting to deeply read a text sets us up for failure. Even if the content of an e-book is exactly the same as a print book, the way we read and understand it is not the same.