PrepTest 159, Section 4, Question 27
The success of modern physics has consisted primarily(455 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(12 more words not shown)
- AIf scientists could(20 more words not shown)
- BAt this time(14 more words not shown)
- CBiological systems that(14 more words not shown)
- DThe relation of(12 more words not shown)
- EMost nonlinear systems(2 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The final sentence gives disorder a useful role. Cells need order to survive, but some disorder allows new structures and behaviors to develop. Those changes can help them respond to changing conditions. If that room for change were absent, we would expect less ability to adapt.
Working the answers
- A
The first paragraph says the opposite of this easy-calculation claim. Even with the particles' locations and trajectories known, computing their collective behavior far enough ahead would remain a problem. Possessing the data isn't the same as being able to use it to make the prediction.
- B
Complexity theory is described as promising, not as already established to work only for simple systems. Living things are a central reason for the excitement, so the author doesn't impose the restriction B proposes.
- CCorrect
The cell needs some disorder to facilitate the novelty that helps it adapt and evolve. Biological systems without that element would lack a source of the new structures and behaviors needed to cope with environmental change. That supports the qualified prediction that they would be less adaptive.
- D
Unpredictable doesn't mean uncaused. Nonlinear behavior is described in terms of causes: small differences in initial conditions produce large differences in results. The relationship remains; the effects are difficult to predict.
- E
Water is an example, not a survey of nonlinear systems. Nothing tells us that most such systems involve liquids.
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