Joseph Arxhoek LEP-IS4A-EAP(3) Reading and writing May 2014

Mind over Mass Media Steven Pinker

A. Vocabulary
- The words underlined are part of the AWL. Do you know them? Can you use them?
- What do you think the words in bold mean? Why do you think this?

For a reality check today, take the state of science, which demands high levels of brainwork and
is measured by clear benchmarks of discovery. These days scientists are never far from their e-
mail, rarely touch paper and cannot lecture without PowerPoint. If electronic media were
hazardous to intelligence, the quality of science would be plummeting. Yet discoveries are
multiplying like fruit flies, and progress is dizzying. Other activities in the life of the mind, like
philosophy, history and cultural criticism, are likewise flourishing, as anyone who has lost a
morning of work to the Web site Arts & Letters Daily can attest.

hazardous ( )=
plummet ( )=
multiply ( )=
dizzying ( )=
flourish ( )=

B. Vocabulary (Academic Word List).

Fill in the blanks with a word belonging to the same word family as the Academic word
the parentheses (think of the N/V/ADJ/ADV/negative/positive)

Paragraph 8
The effects of (consume) electronic media are also likely to be far more
limited than the panic (imply). Media critics write as if the brain takes on
the qualities of whatever it (consume), the
informational (equivalence) of you are what you eat. As with primitive
peoples who believe that eating fierce animals will make them fierce,
they (assumed) that watching quick cuts in rock videos turns
your (mentally) life into quick cuts or that reading bullet points and Twitter
postings turns your thoughts into bullet points and Twitter postings.

Paragraph 10
And to encourage intellectual depth, dont rail at PowerPoint or Google. Its not as if habits of
deep reflection, thorough (researched) and rigorous reasoning ever came
naturally to people. They must be (acquire) in
special (institute), which we call universities,
and (maintain) with (inconstancy) upkeep, which we
call (analyse), criticism and (debated). They are
not (grant) by propping a heavy encyclopedia on your lap, nor are they
taken away by efficient (accessible) to information on the Internet.
Joseph Arxhoek LEP-IS4A-EAP(3) Reading and writing May 2014

C. Main idea/Detail questions.

1. What did people think television, radio and rock videos would cause? What actually happened?

2. What are more examples of reality checks Pinker mentions in paragraph 1-4?

3. What changes in the brain when we learn new information? What does not change?

4. What do people need to do to develop intellectual depth?

D. Evaluate

1. Do you think Pinkers arguments are convincing? Why (not)?

2. Steven Pinker defends Twitter, Powerpoint and Google. Who is attacking them? Find
examples of these attackers in the text and evaluate if Pinker mentions these attackers in
sufficient detail.

E. Summarize
Imagine you had to summarize Pinkers article. What would your first sentence be? (= summary
thesis).
Joseph Arxhoek LEP-IS4A-EAP(3) Reading and writing May 2014

F. Writing with reasons.

Pinker comments that the constant arrival of information packets can be distracting or
addictive. What has been your own experience in this area?

Write a one paragraph answer in which you support or refute Pinkers claim.

Start like this:

In his article Mind over Mass Media, Steven Pinker writes that the constant arrival of
information packets can be distracting or addictive. I ______________________ with this
statement, because_______________________
- reason 1
o example 1, example 2, etc.
- reason 2
o example 1, example 2, etc.

Handwrite below, or typewrite (preferred):

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