PrepTest 159, Section 4, Question 23
The success of modern physics has consisted primarily(455 more words not shown)
The passage provides information that(9 more words not shown)
- AThe behavior of(19 more words not shown)
- BIt is impossible(11 more words not shown)
- CA cell's behavior(3 more words not shown)
- DA change in(7 more words not shown)
- EMost linear systems(9 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The final paragraph describes behavior that is partly linear and partly chaotic, then identifies living things as likely examples. Cells don't operate in complete disorder: they retain order while permitting changes that can help them adapt. That gives us a concrete claim to look for.
Working the answers
- A
Difficulty calculating a system's behavior doesn't mean its particles obey different laws. The opening's problem is that knowing about fundamental interactions still doesn't let scientists compute the behavior of a complicated collection of particles.
- B
The author considers what would happen even if all the particles' locations and trajectories were known. Nothing establishes that locating any one of them is impossible. The stated obstacle concerns computing their behavior together.
- CCorrect
Living things are presented as systems on the edge of chaos, with behavior that is partly linear and partly chaotic. The cell example develops that idea, and the final sentence explicitly says a cell requires order as well as some disorder.
- D
This is not the account of linear behavior the author gives. In linear systems, similar causes lead to similar effects. The faucet becomes chaotic when its operating conditions change sufficiently; that doesn't mean an input change in a system behaving linearly automatically produces nonlinear results.
- E
Adaptation is discussed in connection with living systems that combine order and disorder. We aren't told that most linear systems can cope with environmental changes. That broader claim doesn't follow from the cell example.
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