501 Critical Reading Questions

(Sean Pound) #1

  1. c. The author states in line 27 that the panopticon is already hereand
    then states that surveillance cameras are everywhere and we often
    don’t even know our actions are being recorded(lines 27–29). The
    rest of the paragraph provides additional examples of how our
    cyber-whereaboutsare observed and recorded.

  2. d.In Bentham’s panopticon, the prisoners would know they were
    being watched—or rather, they would know that they could be being
    watched(lines 15–17). However, in our modern panopticon, the
    author states, we often don’t even know our actions are being
    recorded(lines 28–29).

  3. a. Although information from our credit card purchases is often
    recorded and exchanged, the author makes no mention of an
    increased use of credit card purchases contributing to the ero-
    sion of privacy. All of the other options, however, are listed in
    the fourth and sixth paragraphs.

  4. c. The paragraph describing the author’s experience with identity
    theft immediately follows the sentence: We can do little to stop the
    information gathering and exchange and can only hope to be able to
    control the damage if something goes wrong(lines 43–45) and serves
    as an example of something going wrong—the misuse of private
    information.

  5. e.The example of identity theft makes it clear that in cyberspace,
    with so much information floating about [... ] and so much technol-
    ogy that can record and observe(lines 53–55), our privacy is in
    jeopardy—it is constantly at risk of being exploited.

  6. d.Because of the author’s personal experience with identity theft,
    and because the author finds it truly amazing that someone
    would want to live in a transparent house(lines 56–57), it can be
    inferred that the author greatly values privacy. The passage
    also expresses great concern for the lack of control over infor-
    mation in cyberspace (paragraph 4), stating that we can only
    hope to be able to control the damage if something goes wrong(line
    44–45). Thus the author would likely support stricter regula-
    tions for information gathering and exchange, especially on
    the Internet.

  7. e.In the second sentence the author states that Prometheus is a
    complex character, and in this and the following sentence, the
    author lists several specific examples of the rich combination of
    often-contradictory characteristicsof Prometheus.

  8. d.The passage relates the key episodes in the life of Prometheus.
    This is the only idea broad enough and relevant enough to be
    the main idea of the passage.

Free download pdf