PrepTest 155, Section 3, Question 20
This passage was adapted from an article published(449 more words not shown)
The primary role of the(12 more words not shown)
- Awhy research of(14 more words not shown)
- Bthe purpose and(10 more words not shown)
- Cthe skepticism with(13 more words not shown)
- Da commonly held(9 more words not shown)
- Ea hypothesis that(8 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The first two sentences explain why smaller chips matter and warn that continued progress is approaching a wall. That background gives the later peptide research a purpose: find a way to keep improving circuits when existing methods reach their limit.
What we’re looking for
So the opening doesn't need to mention peptides to explain the significance of the project. It establishes the problem that makes the research worth pursuing.
Working the answers
- A
The opening doesn't explain why earlier researchers hadn't attempted this approach. Showing a need for a new technique is different from explaining its absence from past research.
- BCorrect
Continued miniaturization has produced major benefits, and the expected limit threatens that progress. Those facts establish both the purpose of Belcher and Hu's project and why success would matter. The research is then introduced as a possible way past the limitation.
- C
No skeptical response to their research appears in these sentences. The concern is the approaching limit of current technology, not scientists' doubts about the peptide project.
- D
The limit is presented as background under current methods. Belcher and Hu are exploring a different method, not trying to refute an opposing viewpoint introduced in the opening. They can accept the existing limitation and still look for another way to build circuits.
- E
These sentences don't present a hypothesis the peptide experiments test. The experiments investigate useful interactions between peptides and semiconductor materials; they don't test whether earlier chip improvements fueled growth or whether continued progress matters.
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