Self-study
This passage was adapted from articles published in the 1990s.
P1
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Intro topic ·
Computer scientist Philip Emeagwali's inspiration and work on parallel computing
Describe Emeagwali's contribution ·
Developed parallel computing system to predict underground oil flow
Used network of many computers working simultaneously; solved speed and efficiency problems with traditional "sequential" computers
P2
Problem ·
Predicting oil flow requires many simultaneous calculations
Emeagwali's solution ·
Connect many individual computers over Internet to form huge parallel computer
New problem and solution ·
Properly dividing parallel tasks is hard; solution was to design computer network like tree branches
Tree branches follow very efficient patterns for collecting and moving resources; computer networks that follow the same underlying patterns are very efficient at generating and transmitting data
P3
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Emeagwali's future work ·
Parallel computing modeled after spacing of honeycombs
Emeagwali's perspective ·
Nature will become a more important source of inspiration for technical solutions
Passage Style
Single position
Spotlight
11.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████████ ██
a
They provide an ███████ ██ ██ ███████████ ████████ ████ ███████████ ████ ███ ███████████
The first two sentences aren’t challenged by Emeagwali’s work. They describe a problem that Emeagwali helped to solve.
b
They help explain ███ ██████████████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████████ ████████ ███████████
This is the best answer. The first two sentences describe why modeling an oil field is so difficult. They describe the “
c
They provide examples ██ █ ███████ ██████ █████ ██ ███ ████████████ ██████████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ██ ██████
The first two sentences aren’t presented for the purpose of giving examples of a network design based on the branching structures of trees. Their purpose is to show why modeling an oil field is difficult. Although Emeagwali does look to the branching structure of trees to help model an oil field, the purpose of the first two sentences doesn’t relate to the branching structure of trees.
d
They describe a ████████████ █████ ████ █████████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ██████████ █ ███████ ███████
The first two sentences don’t describe a mathematical model. They describe the difficulties involved in modeling an oil field flow.
e
They provide specific ████████ ██ █ ████████ █████ ████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██████████ ███████ ███████ ███████ ██ ███████
The first two sentences don’t describe a paradigm shift. They describe the difficulties involved in modeling an oil field flow.