#10 - Global Reference, Must Be True, Subject Perspective

[KG!]

Can someone help to provide a walkthrough for this question. I was stuck between D/E and I'm not sure why the answer Is A. While I do believe A is true, I thought that answer E represented what the questions was getting at. It was also the more specific answer choice. Help on why answer choice A is better?

[Adam Tyson]

"More specific" isn't necessarily a good thing, KG! In fact, in this case that specificity is exactly what's wrong with answer E. While it's true that the branching tree formula is useful for predicting oil flow, is there evidence in the passage that it is useful "primarily" for this purpose? Or could that be just one of many possible uses for that formula? That strong language, specifying that oil flow prediction is the number one thing that natural structure can be used for, makes it an unsupported answer and a loser.

Answer D goes wrong with the unsupported prediction about these massive systems becoming practical for even mundane tasks. The passage is only about very complex problems. Maybe a massive parallel computing approach would be completely impractical for a simple task such as writing questions and answers in this forum, or calculating the tip I should give the barista at the coffee shop where I am currently sitting? When the question asks what the passage suggests, you must reject answers that are not supported by the text of the passage, either because they are too strong, or too specific, or are based on information that simply wasn't provided.

[parisielvirac]

Can someone give an explaintion for this question? (I see that this entire passage is unanswered)

I was chose answer C because it seems that is what the Emeagwali believed (as he suggested in the final paragraph). In question number 8 it seemed like there wasnt a very thourough explanation.

Why are all of the other answer choices wrong? Including C

[Paul Popa]

Hi parisielvirac, no problem! With subject perspective questions like this one, it is very important to look back at the passage to be sure the answer choice you selected is in fact supported by the subject. Often times, as is the case with this question, certain answer choices will say something that is too extreme or goes beyond what the subject said, or brings up something out of scope altogether. Let's take a look at each answer choice:

A) CORRECT. This answer choice states that the problems that natural systems have faced are similar to technical problems faced by computer scientists, and that these natural systems were able to find efficient solutions to those problems. This is well supported by the end of the second paragraph. We see that Emeagwali was inspired by the branching patterns of trees, which allowed those trees to survive by maximizing the amount of sunlight gathered and quantity of water and sap delivered. The need for trees to acquire those resources is similar to the need for the parallel computer to gather and broadcast as many messages to its processing points in the shortest time.

B) This is flatly refuted by the third paragraph. Emeagwali presented a design for a computer that he claims will be able to predict weather a century in advance, and it's safe to say ten decades is more than "a few."

C) The issue here is "most." While the third paragraph does say that Emeagwali believes that computer scientists in the future will increasingly look to nature for solutions to technical problems, Emeagwali never goes so far as to say that most, or a majority of problems will be solved this way. "Increasingly" can be as small as a 1% increase; there is no support for the idea of a majority of problems being solved this way.

D) The passage never stated this. The reason massively parallel computers were conceived was to find solutions to complex technical problems that simple machines couldn't handle; the passage never stated that parallel computers will eventually be used for mundane tasks.

E) "Primarily" is too extreme. While it is true that Emeagwali used the math behind the branching structure of trees to solve the problem of predicting the flow of oil, he never stated that this was its primary use.

As you can see, many of these answers are incorrect because of one word. Reading the passage carefully and looking back at it for support for your answer choice will help you avoid common incorrect answer traps. I hope this helps!