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Scent is tightly interwoven with our daily lives, often evoking significant memories and important social events. This connection is of growing interest to archaeologists who hope to use it to better understand ancient rituals, trade, social hierarchies, and medicine. Although the speed at which odor molecules dissipate makes identifying ancient scents challenging, advancements in biomolecular technologies show promise in unlocking ancient aromas from preserved artifacts. Archaeological studies making use of these advancements may provide new insights into past societies.
According to the text, what is one reason some archaeologists are interested in recovering scents from ancient artifacts?
They are investigating whether people's sense of smell has declined in recent centuries.
They believe the scents could illuminate important aspects of ancient life.
They think that ancient scents would be enjoyable to people today.
They hope to develop new medicines using ancient scent molecules.
Scholars have noted that F. Scott Fitzgerald's writings were likely influenced in part by his marriage to Zelda Fitzgerald, but many don't recognize Zelda as a writer in her own right. Indeed, Zelda authored several works herself, such as the novel Save Me the Waltz and numerous short stories. Thus, those who primarily view Zelda as an inspiration for F. Scott's writings _______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
overlook the many other factors that motivated F. Scott to write.
risk misrepresenting the full range of Zelda's contributions to literature.
may draw inaccurate conclusions about how F. Scott and Zelda viewed each other's works.
tend to read the works of F. Scott and Zelda in an overly autobiographical light.
Neural networks are computer models intended to reflect the organization of human brains and are often used in studies of brain function. According to an analysis of 11,000 such networks, Ryan Schaefer and colleagues advise caution when drawing conclusions about brains from observations of neural networks. They found that when attempting to mimic grid cells (brain cells used in navigation), while 90% of the networks could accomplish navigation-related tasks, only about 10% of those exhibited any behaviors similar to those of grid cells. But even this approximation of grid-cell activity has less to do with similarity between the neural networks and biological brains than it does with the rules programmed into the networks.
Which finding, if true, would most directly support the claim in the underlined sentence?
The rules that allow for networks to exhibit behaviors like those of grid cells have no equivalent in the function of biological brains.
The networks that do not exhibit behaviors like those of grid cells were nonetheless programmed with rules that had proven useful in earlier neural-network studies.
Neural networks can often accomplish tasks that biological brains do, but they are typically programmed with rules to model multiple types of brain cells simultaneously.
Once a neural network is programmed, it is trained on certain tasks to see if it can independently arrive at processes that are similar to those performed by biological brains.
Rivers rich in sediment appear yellow, while increases in red algae make rivers appear red. To track things like the sediment or algae content of large US rivers, John R. Gardner and colleagues used satellite data to determine the dominant visible wavelengths of light measured for various segments of these rivers. The researchers classified wavelengths of 495 nanometers (nm) and below as red, wavelengths between 495 and 560 nm as blue, and wavelengths of 560 nm and above as yellow. The researchers concluded that for the Missouri River, segments flowing into lakes tend to carry more sediment than those flowing out of lakes.
Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers' conclusion?
The segments of the Missouri River that had higher levels of chlorophyll-a, which contributes to the green color of photosynthetic organisms, have dominant wavelengths of light between 490 and 560 nm.
In lakes through which segments of the Missouri River pass, the dominant wavelength of light tended to be above 560 nm near the lakes' shores and below 560 nm in the lakes' centers.
The majority of the segments of the Missouri River were found to have dominant wavelengths of light significantly higher than 560 nm.
Segments of the Missouri River flowing into lakes typically had dominant wavelengths of light above 560 nm, while segments flowing out of lakes typically had dominant wavelengths below 560 nm.
In their book Smart Pricing, Jagmohan Raju and Z. John Zhang consider musicians' use of the nontraditional "pay as you wish" pricing model. This model generally offers listeners the choice to pay more or less than a suggested price for a song or album--or even to pay nothing at all. As the authors note, that's the option most listeners chose for an album by the band Harvey Danger. Only about 1% opted to pay for the album, resulting in earnings below the band's expectations. But the authors also discuss musician Jane Siberry, who saw significant earnings from her "pay as you wish" online music store as a result of many listeners choosing to pay more than the store's suggested prices. Hence, the "pay as you wish" model may _________
Which choice most logically completes the text?
prove financially successful for some musicians but disappointing for others.
hold greater financial appeal for bands than for individual musicians.
cause most musicians who use the model to lower the suggested prices of their songs and albums over time.
more strongly reflect differences in certain musicians' popularity than traditional pricing models do.
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