Read the passage below and answer the following questions about using sources appropriately.
In the article, "The Loneliness of the Interconnected", Charles Seife argues that people are becoming more and more isolated in our increasingly interconnected world and, furthermore, that bits and pieces of our delicate mental structure are withered away as we increasingly rely on the internet as our source of information. According to Seife, this mental decay leaves us with some opinions "as firm as bedrock, and just as difficult to remove" (290). As an example of this phenomenon, Seife describes how, in the 1950s, psychologist Leon Festinger sought to research the point at which this crisis occurs. He contacted a woman by the name of Dorothy Martin who was the leader of a small cult in Chicago. Martin believed that she was writing letters under the command of Clarion, a distant planet. She had concrete belief that Chicago would be wiped out and that the United States would be submerged underwater from a great flood on the morning of December 21, 1955. Her salvation? A spaceman, assumed to be a Clarion, would visit Dorothy and her followers hours before the disaster, whisking them away on a spaceship to safety. This bizarre and radical belief was only strengthened when the calamity never arose. The cult members convinced themselves that the Clarions managed to stop the destruction from happening (Seife 290-91). This type of herd mentality and definition of self convinced people to drink poisoned Kool-Aid.
Which of the following best describes the use of summary in this passage?
Responses
The third sentence (“As an example of this phenomenon, Seife describes...) represents an effective summary that uses an example to demonstrate the key idea in Seife’s article.
The second sentence (“According to Seife, this mental decay …) represents an effective summary that captures the main that opinions are firm through effective direct quotation.
The last sentence (“This type of her mentality …) represents an effective summary that explains the consequences of her mentality for people in the small cult that Leon Festinger researched.
The first sentence ("The Loneliness of the Interconnected", Charles Seife argues...) represents an effective summary that captures the main ideas about the dangers of isolation in our interconnected world in Seife’s article.
