Reading comp PrepTest 130 · Section 2 · Question 10

Passage

Questions 8-13 This passage was adapted from articles published in the 1990s.  .        The success that Nigerian–born computer scientist Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Science


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Author on Emeagwali (looked to nature for a breakthrough in parallel computers) and problem Emeagwali solved (predicted oil flow, a difficult computation problem)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • Emeagwali drew inspiration from nature for designs, which helped him make a breakthrough with parallel computer systems (first and second sentences)
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • Single computers make one calculation at a time (sequential), while parallel computers can process calculations simultaneously (third sentence)
      • Before Emeagwali, supercomputers working sequentially were used for oil field calculations, so they were too slow and inefficient (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "success" (first sentence); "fueled by his willingness to reach beyond established paradigms and draw inspiration for his designs from nature" (first sentence); "achieved breakthroughs" (second sentence); "pioneered" (fourth sentence); "solve what is considered one of the most computationally difficult problems" (fourth sentence); "too slow and inefficient to accurately predict such extremely complex movements" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • In-depth description of Emeagwali’s solution (modeled network after tree branches to maximize messages sent)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Examples of variables that must be calculated when simulating oil flow:
      • Temperature, direction, viscosity, pressure, geological properties (second sentence)
    • Comparison, according to Emeagwali/the author:
      • The mathematical model that underlies tree branches can be used to set up a massively parallel computer network, allowing the computers to maximize the number of messages sent and preventing the computers from interfering with each other (fourth and last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "massively" (third sentence); "great difficulties" (fourth sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Another Emeagwali breakthrough (parallel computers, based on honeycombs' geometery, that can predict weather) and prediction (more use of nature)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Comparison, according to Emeagwali/the author:
      • Emeagwali's parallel computer network is similar to the geometry of bees' honeycombs, which use efficient 3D spacing (second sentence)
    • Cause-and-effect relationship, according to Emeagwali:
      • Computer scientists will increasingly turn to nature, which will cause us to better understand natural systems and improve human technology (third and last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "another breakthrough" (first sentence); "extremely efficient" (second sentence)

Main Point: By designing parallel computer systems modeled after elements of nature, Emeagwali has been able to solve computational problems that couldn’t be addressed by traditional supercomputers running sequentially.

Meta-Structure?

Innovative [Subject]: This passage best fits the "Innovative [Subject]" Meta-Structure.* In these passages, the author describes why the subject was unique, pioneering, or disruptive. So, "[Subject]" is a placeholder for whatever the subject of the passage happens to be. The subject of this passage is the computer scientist Philip Emeagwali, so we can think of this as an Innovative Computer Scientist passage.

In an Innovative [Subject] passage, the main point is generally the author's opinion on the innovative subject. To identify this main point, we look for the sentence or two in which the author summarizes their position on the subject. The author provides their summary in the first sentence of the passage. We used this sentence as the basis of our anticipated main point. But to make sure we had all our bases covered, we added some details from the passage.

*You could also think of this as a Problem/Solution passage since Emeagwali's innovative designs solved problems that couldn't be solved with sequential computer networks. Likewise, we could think of this as an Old Approach/New Approach passage, with those sequential computers representing the old way of doing things and Emeagwali's innovative parallel networks representing the new way. We could even call this a Generalization/Example passage, as the passage gives us two examples of breakthroughs that illustrate Emeagwali's innovative mind and willingness to turn to nature for solutions.

Comparison: Given the passage's main point, it's unsurprising that the author compares Emeagwali's parallel computer networks to nature several times. This makes the comparison the most prominent minor Meta-Structure in this passage. To save us some time on the inevitable questions about these comparisons, we can try to commit these two comparisons to memory:

  • Network that predicted underground oil flow was based on tree branch formations
  • Network that can predict weather patterns was based on the geometry of bees' honeycomb geometry

Last Thoughts?

We can classify this passage's Meta-Structure in several ways, but they all largely align and overlap. In viewing the passage through these lenses, though, we are better able to anticipate answers. For example, we know from them that answers about innovation, new ideas, improving approaches, and solving problems are more likely to be correct than answers that don’t use that language. That’s a pretty good general idea to have going into any set of answer choices!

Question prompt

The passage most strongly Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: A

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Question Type

Science

Strategy Overview

Review your notes to recall Emeagwali's views, then find an answer that must be true according to the passage

Answer Anticipation

This question stem asks us to infer a belief Emeagwali would agree with. Often, one's views are described at length throughout the passage, so reviewing the passage or anticipating what the correct answer will say is not a wise investment of our limited time. But even though the entire passage was about Emeagwali, this question is specifically about his viewpoint — not what the author says about it. So, we should focus on two things: anything the author says that implies Emeagwali believes something and anything the author raises as being something Emeagwali believes. The former we'll have to infer from the passage; the latter we should have noted since we always should note viewpoints when they show up in the passage.Let's start with the latter, since those should be specific sections. Looking at our notes, we see that the third paragraph describes Emeagwali's "prediction." We can review the end of the paragraph to recall his prediction — that scientists will increasingly turn to nature to find elegant solutions to complex problems (P3, S3). He also "asserts" that this will let us better understand nature and develop new technology (P3, S4).Judging from our notes, the rest of the passage describes how Emeagwali built parallel computing systems based on natural systems to solve complex problems. This implies that he believes such systems are an effective way of addressing these problems.Let's find an answer reflecting any of these explicit or implicit beliefs!

Answer choices

  1. A
    Some natural systems have Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem

    (A) Does this reflect Emeagwali's belief that scientists will increasingly turn to nature to find elegant solutions to complex problems or that parallel computer systems based on natural systems are an effective way to address complex problems?

    Yes! In fact, this answer lines up with the passage's main point — that Emeagwali designed parallel computing systems that successfully solved complex problems, and these systems were based on nature. He wouldn't have turned to nature if he didn't believe that natural systems have solutions that are analogous to the technical problems he faced, so we could feel comfortable picking this answer just based on the big picture. However, this answer also directly reflects Emeagwali's prediction in the third paragraph (P3, S3), lending further support to it being the correct answer. We can confidently select (A) and immediately advance to the following question.

  2. B
    Global weather is likely Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Does this reflect Emeagwali's belief that scientists will increasingly turn to nature to find elegant solutions to complex problems or that parallel computer systems based on natural systems are an effective way to address complex problems?

    Nope, so we can cross off (B). In fact, Emeagwali claims to have built a computer system that can predict global weather patterns a century in advance (P3, S1), so he would disagree with this answer.

  3. C
    Most computer designs will Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Does this reflect Emeagwali's belief that scientists will increasingly turn to nature to find elegant solutions to complex problems or that parallel computer systems based on natural systems are an effective way to address complex problems?

    Not quite. Although Emeagwali predicts that scientists will "increasingly" turn to natural systems to find elegant solutions to problems (P3, S3), that falls short of claiming that "[m]ost" computer designs will be inspired by natural systems. We can, therefore, eliminate (C).

  4. D
    Massively parallel computers will Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Does this reflect Emeagwali's belief that scientists will increasingly turn to nature to find elegant solutions to complex problems or that parallel computer systems based on natural systems are an effective way to address complex problems?

    No, so we can cross off (D). Emeagwali pioneered the use of parallel computing systems to solve complex computational problems (P1, S4). There's no indication that he believes these systems are necessary or even preferable for more mundane computational tasks.

  5. E
    The mathematical structure of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this reflect Emeagwali's belief that scientists will increasingly turn to nature to find elegant solutions to complex problems or that parallel computer systems based on natural systems are an effective way to address complex problems?

    Not quite. Emeagwali believes that the mathematical principles underlying tree branching structure is useful for this purpose (P2, S5), but this answer is wrong in saying that it's "primarily" useful for this purpose. Without such superlative language in the passage, we can't infer that he feels this way.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A Credited 66%
  2. B 1%
  3. C 25%
  4. D 3%
  5. E 6%

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