501 Critical Reading Questions

Critical Reading Questions

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136.
c. The author states in line 27 that the panopticon is already here and
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-whereabouts are observed and recorded.
137.
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).
138.
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.
139.
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.
140.
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.
141.
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.
142.
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 characteristics of Prometheus.
143.
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.
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