Self-study
Passage A.
P1
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Intro topic ·
Climate prediction models
Concern ·
Impacts of slight changes in variables
P2
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Response ·
Brute force method
Test all possible combinations of variables using different values.
Problem ·
Brute force method is too intensive for individual computers
P3
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Solution ·
Divide calculations between mutliple connected computers
Example ·
Solution's (limited) success
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P4
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Intro topic ·
Using parallel processes to solve problems
P5
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Example ·
Parallel process
Ants working together to forage for food.
Analogy ·
Ants working together are like a computer
P6
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Application ·
Of parallel processes to computing
Involves many computers working simultaneously on different calculations.
Advantage of parallel computing ·
Better suited than sequential computing to solving parallel problems
Passage Style
6.
The passages share which one ██ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ███████ ████████
a
to show that ███ ███████████ ████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████ ██████ █████████ █████
This doesn’t capture the focus on the new paradigm of parallel computing. The purpose isn’t merely to criticize the old paradigm.
b
to argue that █ ███ ████████ ██ █████████ ██ ██ █████████ ███ ██ █████ █ █████████ ████ ██ ███████
This best captures the purpose of both passages, which is to tell us about parallel computing and how it can help solve complex problems. See the last paragraph of Passage A and the last paragraph of Passage B.
c
to convince skeptics ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ███ █████████████████████ ████████
This doesn’t capture the purpose, because we have no reason to think the authors wrote their passages for skeptics. We have no reason to think that there even exist any skeptics of the usefulness of desktop computers for heavy-calculation problems.
d
to demonstrate that █ ███ █████████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ███ ███████████ ████████ ███ ████ ███████████ █████████ ████████
Neither passage suggests that parallel computing has replaced non-parallel computing for “most” (over half) of large-scale problems. Neither passage quantifies the proportion of problems that now are solved using parallel computing.
e
to describe complex ███ ██ ███ ████████ ████████ ████ ████ ████████ ██████ ██ █████████
The primary purpose of each passage is focused on the solution to complex problems. The authors don’t focus on the different kinds of problems; they want to tell us about how we can solve complex problems using parallel computing.