LSAT 130 | Section 2 | Reading Comprehension: Q9

RC Question 9 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: According to the passage, which one of the following is true?

DISCUSSION: For a question like this, the answer will literally be said in the passage. When you pick an answer, you should quickly find the line reference in the passage to make sure you haven’t fallen into a trap. If you have a good map of the passage, this should take ten seconds or less.

CODE: MBT line reference.

___________

1. This isn’t supported. Parallel computers are good for problems that require simultaneous calculations, like modeling oil flows. But it’s possible that there are some problems that sequential supercomputers are better at.
2. We know Emeagwali solved an oil flow modeling problem, but we don’t know why he chose that particular problem.
3. CORRECT. See lines 11-21. Emeagwali used a parallel computer to model oil flows, and until then only sequential computers had been used.
4. This isn’t supported. Emeagwali did use nature, but the passage never said no one else did.
5. This isn’t supported. Lines 11-15 say that Emeagwali pioneered the use of massively parallel computers. But someone else might have tried using small parallel processors to solve simpler real world problems.
   You can have parallel processing without massive computer networks.