#11 - Specific Reference, Must Be True, Purpose

[emilyrk]

Hi there. I picked D for this question and I didn't even have A in my contenders. I'm confused because I don't think that Emeagwali's new model challenges the explanation given at the beginning of paragraph 2. He is instead proposing a way to solve the problem. I picked D because none of the answers seemed great.

[Frank Peter]

Hi Emily,

Looks like you may have been accidentally referring to the correct answer to question #10, which was (A). The correct answer for #11 is (B), since it describes the great complexity of the task and why a new paradigm in computing not based on sequential processing would be needed.

[epicfaace]

Why can't the answer be (D)? Those two sentences do sound like a mathematical model (they describe the prerequisites needed to "model oil field flow using a computer", which is presumably what Emeagwali did as well, though of course he improved on it with the parallelism).

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi epic,

We want to look at the function of the specific listed sentences. Describing the difficulties in modeling oil flow is different than describing a mathematical model used, as stated in answer choice (D). If we were picking that answer choice, we would be able to use those sentences to describe the mathematical model used. We don't have that here.

When we think about describing a mathematical model, we need more math knowledge. Understanding the pattern of flower petals with Fibonacci sequences would be a great example of this. We can use the Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8. 13. 21, 35, and so on) as a model for how flowers grow petals. There is a clear mathematical concept we can point to with this example, but the sentences given in the passage do not allow us to point to a similar mathematical model. They gesture at the idea that supercomputers struggle to use a mathematical model because of the complexity of the movement of oil, but they do not give us an idea of what that specific mathematical model would be. Answer choice (B) is the correct choice here because the sentences serve to introduce the difficulty posed by the oil issue, and lead into how Emeagwali's system developed despite that difficulty.

Hope that helps
Rachael