What is the main idea of the passage?

A transporter thought experiment tests whether personal identity depends on bodily continuity, psychological continuity, uniqueness, or a combination. (The passage compares continuity theories, adds duplication pressure, and warns that ordinary labels can prejudge the case.)

Why does leaving the original Leila alive make the puzzle harder?

Two later people share one psychological past, challenging identity as a unique one-to-one relation. (The third paragraph explains that shared history branches into distinct lives, while identity normally selects one continuer.)

What does “successor” mean in the opening paragraph?

someone who follows and continues a prior person's role or history (The word describes the newly built person who takes up Leila's memories and plans if she did not literally travel.)

Which feature is changed in the second version?

The original Leila is not destroyed. (The third paragraph explicitly changes destruction: the machine produces another person while the original remains.)

Would a Perfect Copy Still Be You?: Level 4 Reading Comprehension Questions

Imagine a transporter that scans Leila, destroys the original, and builds a version on Mars. The Mars person remembers entering the machine, recognizes Leila's friends, and continues her plans. Did Leila travel, or did she die while a successor appeared?

If identity follows psychological continuity, the Mars person has a strong claim: memory, character, intention, and causal connection all continue. If identity requires one continuing organism, the destruction breaks the chain. The two accounts normally agree because bodies and mental lives travel together; the machine pulls them apart.

Now change one feature. Suppose the machine produces the Mars person without destroying the original Leila on Earth. Both people remember a childhood, but they immediately begin different lives. They cannot both be numerically identical to one person if identity is one-to-one.

The duplication case pressures the claim that memory alone carries identity. A defender might say psychological continuity matters for survival even when strict identity branches. Another might insist that only bodily continuation avoids the problem. The language of “copy” already favors one answer, so neutral reasoning must examine what the machine does before naming its product. No available transporter works this way. The case removes familiar cues and tests what people value in continued existence: material persistence, connected consciousness, uniqueness, or some combination. It may not yield one verdict, but it makes hidden criteria visible.

Comprehension questions