A intellect and language were widely influenced 12)'
6. Though a hummingbird weighs less than one ounce,
all species of hummingbirds are --- eaters, maintaining very high body temperatures and ---
many times their weight in food each day.
(A) voracious . . consuming (B) fastidious . . discarding ( C) hasty . . locating (D) prolific . . producing (E) delicate . . storing
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Directions: The passages below are followed by questions based on their content; questions following a pair of related passages may also be based on the relationship between the paired passages. Answer the questions on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passages and in any introductory material that may be provided.
Questions 7-19 are based on the following passages.
The following passages present two views of the genius of Leonardo da Vinci. Passage 1 emphasizes Leonardo's fundamentally artistic sensibility. Passage 2 offers a
defense of his technological achievements.
Passage I
What a marvelous and celestial creature was Leonardo da Vinci. As a scientist and engineer, his gifts were unparalleled. But his accomplishments
Line in these capacities were hindered by the fact that
(5) he was, before all else, an artist. As one conversant with the perfection of art, and knowing the futil
ity of trying to bring such perfection to the realm of practical application, Leonardo tended toward variability and inconstancy in his endeavors. His
( 1 0) practice of moving compulsively from one project to the next, never bringing any of them to com
pletion, stood in the way of his making any truly useful technical advances.
When Leonardo was asked to create a memorial
(1 5) for one of his patrons, he designed a bronze horse of such vast proportions that it proved utterly impractical-even impossible-to produce. Some historians maintain that Leonardo never had any intention of finishing this work in the first place.
(20) But it is more likely that he simply became so intoxicated by his grand artistic conception that he lost sight of the fact that the monument actually had to be cast. Similarly, when Leonardo was commissioned to paint the Last Supper, he left
(25) the head of Christ unfinished, feeling incapable of investing it with a sufficiently divine demeanor.
Yet, as a work of art rather than science or engi
neering, it is still worthy of our greatest venera
tion, for Leonardo succeeded brilliantly in captur-
(30) ing the acute anxiety of the Apostles at the most dramatic moment of the Passion narrative.
Such mental restlessness, however, proved more problematic when applied to scientific matters.
When he turned his mind to the natural world,
(35) Leonardo would begin by inquiring into the proper
ties of herbs and end up observing the motions of the heavens. In his technical studies and scientific experiments, he would generate an endless stream of models and drawings, designing complex and
( 40) unbuildable machines to raise great weights, bore through mountains, or even empty harbors.
It is this enormous intellectual fertility that has suggested to many that Leonardo can and should be regarded as one of the originators of modern
( 45) science. But Leonardo was not himself a true sci
entist. "Science" is not the hundred-odd principles or pensieri' that have been pulled out of his Codici.
Science is comprehensive and methodical thought.
Granted, Leonardo always became fascinated by
(50) the intricacies of specific technical challenges.
He possessed the artist's interest in detail, which explains his compulsion with observation and problem solving. However, such things alone do not constitute science, which requires the working
(55) out of a systematic body of knowledge-some
thing Leonardo displayed little interest in doing.
'pensieri: (Italian) thoughts
Passage 2
As varied as Leonardo's interests were, analy
sis of his writings points to technology as his main concern. There is hardly a field of applied
(60) mechanics that Leonardo's searching mind did not touch upon in his notebooks. Yet some of his biographers have actually expressed regret that such a man, endowed with divine artistic genius, would "waste" precious years of his life on such a
(65) "lowly" pursuit as engineering.
To appreciate Leonardo's contribution to tech
nology, one need only examine his analysis of the main problem of technology-the harnessing of energy to perform useful work. In Leonardo's
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(70) time, the main burden of human industry still rested on the muscles of humans and animals. But little attention was given to analyzing this primi
tive muscle power so that it could be brought to bear most effectively on the required tasks.
(75) Against this background, Leonardo's approach to work was revolutionary. When he searched for the most efficient ways of using human muscle power, the force of every limb was analyzed and measured.
(80) Consider Leonardo's painstaking approach to the construction of canals. After extensive analysis of the requirements for constructing a particular canal by hand, he concluded that the only reasonable solution was to mecha-
(85) nize the whole operation. Then he considered and ultimately discarded numerous schemes to clear excavated material by wheeled vehicles. It was not that Leonardo underestimated wheeled vehicles.
But he realized that a cart is useful only on level
(90) ground; on steep terrain the material's weight would nullify the effort of the animal.
Having systematically rejected several solu
tions in this way, Leonardo began to examine the feasibility of excavation techniques incorporat-
(95) ing a system of cranes. Power was again his main concern. To activate a crane, the only transport
able motor available at the time would have been a treadmill, a machine that converts muscle power into rotary motion. This is not to suggest
(1 00) that Leonardo invented the external treadmill.
However, it was Leonardo who first used the prin
ciple of the treadmill rationally and in accordance with sound engineering principles.
Because Leonardo's insights were sometimes so
(1 05) far beyond the standards of his time, their impor
tance to the development of modern engineering is often underestimated. Many scholars, in fact, still regard his work merely as the isolated accom
plishments of a remarkably prophetic dreamer,
( 1 1 0) refusing to concede that Leonardo was one of our earliest and most significant engineers.
7.
8.
9.
Section 7 1
Practice Test Seven 627
The author of Passage 1 seems to regard the
"perfection of art" (line 6) as
(A) a more valuable goal than scientific accomplishment
(B) achievable only with diligence and constant effort
(C) applicable to the solving of technical problems
(D) a model to which scientists should aspire (E) unattainable in the fields of science and
engineering
The word "variability" in line 9 most nearly means (A) comprehensiveness
(B) changeability (C) uncertainty (D) confusion (E) disorder
The author of Passage 1 considers the Last Supper
ultimately successful as a work of art because it (A) is much sought after by collectors (B) emphasizes the role of the apostles in
comforting Christ before his crucifixion (C) captures the divinity of Christ on the eve of
his death
(D) depicts a well-known moment in the history of Christianity
(E) conveys the anxiety felt by Christ's apostles
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