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3. What equation relates pi to the circumference of a circle?
A) C = 2πr (where r is the radius of the circle)
B) C = πr (where r is the radius of the circle)
C) C = 2πd (where d is the diameter of the circle)
D) C = 2πa (where a is the area of the circle)
Ans: A
Ahead: 2.4
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Easy
Copyright © 2021 by Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC, an Ascend Learning Company
Reference: Case Study 1
4. Refer to the session in the accompanying case study. Which line uses the math module?
A) innerAngleB = 360.0 / numSides
B) oneHalfSideS = math.sin(math.radians(halfAngleA))
C) pi = polygonCircumference / 2
D) sideS = oneHalfsideS * 2
Ans: B
Ahead: 2.4.1
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Easy
5. Refer to the session in the accompanying case study. How many sides does the polygon in this
approximation have?
A) 2
B) 8
C) 64
D) pi Ans:
B Ahead:
2.4.1
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Easy
Copyright © 2021 by Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC, an Ascend Learning Company
D) quit
Ans: A
Ahead: 2.4.2
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Easy
>>> acc = 0
>>> for x in range(1, 6):
acc = acc + x
>>> acc
15
8. Refer to the session in the accompanying case study. Which of the following is the
initialization statement?
A) acc
B) for x in range(1, 6):
C) acc = acc + x
D) acc = 0
Ans: D
Ahead: 2.5
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Moderate
9. Refer to the session in the accompanying case study. What type of variable is acc?
Copyright © 2021 by Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC, an Ascend Learning Company
A) Accumulator variable
B) Range variable
C) Initialization variable
D) Timer variable
Ans: A
Ahead: 2.5
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Easy
10. What is the name of the formula that calculates pi using the following equation?
/4 = 1/1 – 1/3 + 1/5 – 1/7 + 1/9 …
A) Archimedes approach
B) Leibniz formula
C) Wallis formula
D) Monte Carlo simulation
Ans: B
Ahead: 2.5,2
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Easy
11. When calculating pi using the Wallis formula, the accumulator variable:
A) must be initialized to zero.
B) is increased by two each iteration.
C) must be initialized to one.
D) is multiplied by two each iteration.
Ans: C
Ahead: 2.5.3
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Moderate
Copyright © 2021 by Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC, an Ascend Learning Company
13. To create a random number in Python, use the function.
A) math.random()
B) random.random()
C) montecarlo.random()
D) help.random()
Ans: B
Ahead: 2.6
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Moderate
14. The relational operator that means “not equal” is represented with which operator in Python?
A) ==
B) !=
C) <=
D) >=
Ans: B
Ahead: 2.6.1
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Easy
1. if <condition>:
2. if <condition>:
3. <statements>
4. else:
5. <statements>
6. else:
7. if <condition>:
8. <statements>
9. else:
10. <statements>
15. Refer to the code in the accompanying case study. Under what circumstances are the
statements on line 10 executed?
A) The condition in line 1 is false, and the condition in line 7 is false.
B) The condition in line 1 is false, and the condition in line 7 is true.
C) The condition in line 1 is true, and the condition in line 7 is false.
Copyright © 2021 by Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC, an Ascend Learning Company
D) The condition in line 1 is true, and the condition in line 7 is true.
Ans: A
Ahead: 2.6.3
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Moderate
True or False
1. The parameters passed to the print function are, by default, separated by a space when printed.
Ans: True
Ahead: 2.4.2
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Easy
2. The code in the accompanying case study 2 (see below) is used to calculate a running product.
>>> acc = 0
>>> for x in range(1, 6):
acc = acc + x
>>> acc
15
3. When using the Wallis function, the larger the value of the parameter passed into the function,
the less accurate the result. Therefore, wallis(100) will be more accurate than
wallis(10000).
Ans: False. The larger the value, the more accurate the result.
Ahead: 2.5.3
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Easy
Copyright © 2021 by Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC, an Ascend Learning Company
Ans: True
Ahead: 2.6.3
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Easy
5. To create a drawing window, use the Screen constructor contained in the turtle module.
Ans: True
Ahead: 2.6.5
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Easy
Matching
Short Answer
1. Refer to the session in the accompanying Case Study 1. Explain, in general terms, how to
modify this series of statements in such a way that you would be able to change the number of
sides and try the calculation again without needing to retype all of the statements.
Ans: One way to accomplish this is to use abstraction. Abstraction allows us to think about a
collection of steps as a logical group. In Python, we can define a function that not only serves as
a name for a sequence of actions but also returns a value when it is called. We have already seen
this type of behavior with the sqrt function. When we call sqrt(16), it returns 4.
Copyright © 2021 by Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC, an Ascend Learning Company
Ahead: 2.4.2
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Moderate
2. Refer to the session in the accompanying Case Study 2. Explain what pattern this code
implements and why it is useful.
Ans: The code implements a common problem-solving pattern known as the accumulator pattern.
This common pattern comes up often. Your ability to recognize the pattern and then implement it
will be especially useful as you encounter new problems that need to be solved. As an example,
consider the simple problem of computing the sum of the first five integer numbers. Of course,
this is quite easy because we can just evaluate the expression 1+2+3+4+5. But what if we wanted
to sum the first ten integers? Or perhaps the first hundred? In this case, we would find that the
size of the expression would become quite long. To remedy this, we can develop a more general
solution that uses iteration.
Ahead: 2.5.1
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Moderate
3. What are some patterns to keep in mind when implementing the Leibniz formula with Python?
Ans:
• All the numerators are 4.
• The denominators are all odd numbers.
• The sequence alternates between addition and subtraction.
Ahead: 2.5.2
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Easy
4. Explain how a Monte Carlo simulation can be used to calculate the value of pi.
Ans: Pretend that we are looking at a dartboard in the shape of a square that is 2 units wide and 2
units high. A circle has been inscribed within the square so that the radius of the circle is 1 unit.
Now assume that we cut out the upper right-hand quadrant of the square. The result will be a
square that is 1 unit high and 1 unit wide with a quarter-circle transcribed inside. This piece is
what we will use to “play” our simulation. The area of the original square was 4 units. The area
of the original circle was πr2 = π units since the circle had a radius of 1 unit. After we cut the
upper-right quarter, the area of the quarter-circle is π/4 and the area of the entire quarter square is
1.
The simulation will work by randomly “throwing darts” at the dartboard. We will assume that
every dart will hit the board but that the location of that strike will be random. It is easy to see
that each dart will hit the square, but some will also land inside the quarter-circle. The number of
Copyright © 2021 by Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC, an Ascend Learning Company
darts that hit inside or outside the quarter-circle will be proportional to the areas of each. More
specifically, the fraction of darts that land inside the quarter-circle will be equal to π/4.
Ahead: 2.6
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Moderate
5. Explain the difference between the “=” in line 1 and the “==” in line 2 in the code sample
below:
1. >>> apple = 25
2. >>> apple == 25
3. True
Ans: On line 1, the variable apple is assigned the value 25 and is then used in an equality
comparison in line 2. It is important to distinguish between the use of the assignment operator, =,
and the equality operator, ==.
Ahead: 2.6.1
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Moderate
6. Explain the term short-circuit evaluation of Boolean expressions. Use an example to illustrate
what this means.
Ans: This means that Python evaluates only as much of the expression, from left to right, as it
needs to in order to determine if the expression is True or False. For example, consider the
Boolean expression 3 < 7 or 10 < 20. Because 3 < 7 is True, we know at that time
that the full expression is True. Python does not need to evaluate the expression 10 < 20
since it would not matter whether 10 < 20 is True or False. Similarly, for the Boolean
expression 10 > 20 and 3 < 7, Python would need to evaluate only the 10 > 20 part of
the expression. Because 10 > 20 is False, the full expression will be False regardless of
whether 3 < 7 is True or False.
Ahead: 2.6.2
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Difficult
Copyright © 2021 by Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC, an Ascend Learning Company
Complexity: Easy
8. Refer to the code in the accompanying Case study 3. Why is this section of code referred to as
“nested selection”?
Ans: The result of this structure is to decide between four groups of statements. If the outer
condition is True, then the first nested ifelse is performed. If the nested condition is also
True, then the first group of statements is performed. However, if the nested condition is
False, the second group of statements is executed. Likewise, if the outer condition is False,
the second nested ifelse will be performed. In this way, we are able to decide between four
groups of statements by using the results of two conditions.
Ahead: 2.6.3
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Moderate
9. Explain how to modify the coordinate system of the drawing window when using the turtle
module.
Ans: To modify the coordinate system of the drawing window, we can use a Screen method
called setworldcoordinates. This method will take four pieces of information: (1) the x -
coordinate of the lower-left corner, (2) the y-coordinate of the lower-left corner, (3) the x -
coordinate of the upper-right corner, and (4) the y-coordinate of the upper-right corner. These
two points will denote the coordinates of the lower-left and upper-right corners of the window
used by the drawing turtle: wn.setworldcoordinates(-2, -2, 2, 2).
Ahead: 2.6.5
Subject: Ch 2
Complexity: Moderate
Copyright © 2021 by Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC, an Ascend Learning Company
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Kal-Jmar
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Language: English
Syme looked at the man, nursing the tortured muscles of his arms.
His rescuer was tall and thin, of indeterminate age. He had light,
sandy hair, a sharp nose, and—oddly conflicting—pale, serious eyes
and a humorous wide mouth. He was still panting.
"I'm not hurt," Syme said. He grinned, his white teeth flashing in his
dark, lean face. "Thanks for giving me a hand."
"You scared hell out of me," said the man. "I heard a thud. I thought
—you'd gone over." He looked at Syme questioningly.
"That was my bag," the outlaw said quickly. "It slipped out of my
hand, and I overbalanced myself when I grabbed for it."
The man sighed. "I need a drink. You need a drink. Come on." He
picked up a small black suitcase from the floor and started for the
elevator, then stopped. "Oh—your bag. Shouldn't we do something
about that?"
"Never mind," said Syme, taking his arm. "The shock must have
busted it wide open. My laundry is probably all over Lillis by now."
They got off at the amusement level, three tiers down, and found a
cafe around the corner. Syme wasn't worried about the man he had
just killed. He had heard no second thud, so the body must have
stayed on the first outcropping of the tower it struck. It probably
wouldn't be found until morning.
And he had the wallet. When he paid for the first round of culcha, he
took it out and stole a glance at the identification card inside. There
it was—his ticket to freedom. He began feeling expansive, and even
friendly toward the slender, mouse-like man across the table. It was
the culcha, of course. He knew it, and didn't care. In the morning
he'd find a freighter berth—in as big a spaceport as Lillis, there were
always jobs open. Meanwhile, he might as well enjoy himself, and it
was safer to be seen with a companion than to be alone.
He listened lazily to what the other was saying, leaning his tall,
graceful body back into the softly-cushioned seat.
"Lissen," said Harold Tate. He leaned forward on one elbow, slipped,
caught himself, and looked at the elbow reproachfully. "Lissen," he
said again, "I trust you, Jones. You're obvi-obviously an adventurer,
but you have an honest face. I can't see it very well at the moment,
but I hic!—pardon—seem to recall it as an honest face. I'm going to
tell you something, because I need your help!—help." He paused. "I
need a guide. D'you know this part of Mars well?"
"Sure," said Syme absently. Out in the center of the floor, an AG
plate had been turned on. Five Venusian girls were diving and
twisting in its influence, propelling themselves by the motion of their
delicately-webbed feet and trailing long gauzy streamers of
synthesilk after them. Syme watched them through narrowed lids,
feeling the glow of culcha inside him.
"I wanta go to Kal-Jmar," said Tate.
Syme snapped to attention, every nerve tingling. An indefinable
sense, a hunch that had served him well before, told him that
something big was coming—something that promised adventure and
loot for Syme Rector. "Why?" he asked softly. "Why to Kal-Jmar?"
Harold Tate told him, and later, when Syme had taken him to his
rooms, he showed him what was in his little black suitcase. Syme
had been right; it was big.
Kal-Jmar was the riddle of the Solar System. It was the only
remaining city of the ancient Martian race—the race that, legends
said, had risen to greater heights than any other Solar culture. The
machines, the artifacts, the records of the Martians were all there,
perfectly preserved inside the city's bubble-like dome, after God
knew how many thousands of years. But they couldn't be reached.
For Kal-Jmar's dome was not the thing of steelite that protected
Lillis: it was a tenuous, globular field of force that defied analysis as
it defied explosives and diamond drills. The field extended both
above and below the ground, and tunneling was of no avail. No one
knew what had happened to the Martians, whether they were the
ancestors of the present decadent Martian race, or a different
species. No one knew anything about them or about Kal-Jmar.
In the early days, when the conquest of Mars was just beginning,
Earth scientists had been wild to get into the city. They had
observed it from every angle, taken photographs of its architecture
and the robots that still patrolled its fantastically winding streets,
and then they had tried everything they knew to pierce the wall.
Later, however, when every unsuccessful attempt had precipitated a
bloody uprising of the present-day Martians—resulting in a rapid
dwindling of the number of Martians—the Mars Protectorate had
stepped in and forbidden any further experiments; forbidden, in fact,
any Earthman to go near the place.
Thus matter had stood for over a hundred years, until Harold Tate.
Tate, a physicist, had stumbled on a field that seemed to be identical
in properties to the Kal-Jmar dome; and what is more, he had found
a force that would break it down.
And so he had made his first trip to Mars, and within twenty-four
hours, by the blindest of chances, blurted out his secret to Syme
Rector, the scourge of the spaceways, the man with a thousand
credits on his sleek, tigerish head.
Syme's smile was not tigerish now; it was carefully, studiedly mild.
For Tate was no longer drunk, and it was important that it should
not occur to him that he had been indiscreet.
"This is native territory we're coming to, Harold," he said. "Better
strap on your gun."
"Why. Are they really dangerous?"
"They're unpredictable," Syme told him. "They're built differently,
and they think differently. They breathe like us, down in their
caverns where there's air, but they also eat sand, and get their
oxygen that way."
"Yes, I've heard about that," Tate said. "Iron oxide—very interesting
metabolism." He got his energy pistol out of the compartment and
strapped it on absently.
Syme turned the little sand car up a gentle rise towards the tortuous
hill country in the distance. "Not only that," he continued. "They eat
the damndest stuff. Lichens and fungi and tumble-grass off the
deserts—all full of deadly poisons, from arsenic up the line to xopite.
They seem intelligent enough—in their own way—but they never
come near our cities and they either can't or won't learn Terrestrial.
When the first colonists came here, they had to learn their crazy
language. Every word of it can mean any one of a dozen different
things, depending on the inflection you give it. I can speak it some,
but not much. Nobody can. We don't think the same."
"So you think they might attack us?" Tate asked again, nervously.
"They might do anything," Syme said curtly. "Don't worry about it."
The hills were much closer than they had seemed, because of Mars'
deceptively low horizon. In half an hour they were in the midst of a
wilderness of fantastically eroded dunes and channels, laboring on
sliding treads up the sides of steep hills only to slither down again
on the other side.
It was a weird situation, Syme thought. His mind was racing, but as
yet he could see no way out. He began to wonder, if he did, could he
keep the Martians from knowing about it? Then he realized that the
Martian must have received that thought, too, and he was enraged.
He stood, holding himself in check with an effort.
"Will you tell us why?" Tate asked.
"You were brought here for that purpose. It is part of our conception
of justice. I will tell you and your—friend—anything you wish to
know."
Syme noticed that the other Martians had retired to the farther side
of the cavern. Some were munching the glowing fungus. That left
only the leader, who was standing alertly on all fours a short
distance away from them, holding the Benson gun trained on them.
Syme tried not to think about the gun, especially about making a
grab for it. It was like trying not to think of the word
"hippopotamus."
Tate squatted down comfortably on the floor of the cavern,
apparently unconcerned, but his hands were trembling slightly. "First
why—" he began.
"There are many secrets in Kal-Jmar," the Martian said, "among
them a very simple catalyzing agent which could within fifty years
transform Mars to a planet with Terrestrially-thick atmosphere."
"I think I see," Tate said thoughtfully. "That's been the ultimate aim
all along, but so far the problem has us licked. If we solved it, then
we'd have all of Mars, not just the cities. Your people would die out.
You couldn't have that, of course."
He sighed deeply. He spread his gloved hands before him and looked
at them with a queer intentness. "Well—how about the Martians—
the Kal-Jmar Martians, I mean? I'd dearly love to know the answer
to that one."
"Neither of the alternatives in your mind is correct. They were not a
separate species, although they were unlike us. But they were not
our ancestors, either. They were the contemporaries of our
ancestors."
"Several thousand years ago Mars' loss of atmosphere began to
make itself felt. There were two ways out. Some chose to seal
themselves into cities like Kal-Jmar; our ancestors chose to adapt
their bodies to the new conditions. Thus the race split. Their answer
to the problem was an evasion; they remained static. Our answer
was the true one, for we progressed. We progressed beyond the
need of science; they remained its slaves. They died of a plague—
and other causes.
"You see," he finished gently, "our deception has caused a natural
confusion in your minds. They were the degenerates, not we."
"And yet," Tate mused, "you are being destroyed by contact with an
—inferior—culture."
"We hope to win yet," the Martian said.
Tate stood up, his face very white. "Tell me one thing," he begged.
"Will our two races ever live together in amity?"
The Martian lowered his head. "That is for unborn generations." He
looked at Tate again and aimed the energy gun. "You are a brave
man," he said. "I am sorry."
Syme saw all his hopes of treasure and glory go glimmering down
the sights of the Martian's Benson gun, and suddenly the pent-up
rage in him exploded. Too swiftly for his intention to be telegraphed,
before he knew himself what he meant to do, he hurled himself
bodily into the Martian.
It was like tangling with a draft horse. The Martian was astonishingly
strong. Syme scrambled desperately for the gun, got it, but couldn't
tear it out of the Martian's fingers. And all the time he could almost
feel the Martian's telepathic call for help surging out. He heard the
swift pad of his followers coming across the cavern.
He put everything he had into one mighty, murderous effort. Every
muscle fiber in his superbly trained body crackled and surged with
power. He roared his fury. And the gun twisted out of the Martian's
iron grip!
He clubbed the prostrate leader with it instantly, then reversed the
weapon and snapped a shot at the nearest Martian. The creature
dropped his lance and fell without a sound.
The next instant a ray blinked at him, and he rolled out of the way
barely in time. The searing ray cut a swath over the leader's body
and swerved to cut down on him. Still rolling, he fired at the holder
of the weapon. The gun dropped and winked out on the floor.
Syme jumped to his feet and faced his enemies, snarling like the
trapped tiger he was. Another ray slashed at him, and he bent lithely
to let it whistle over his head. Another, lower this time. He flipped his
body into the air and landed upright, his gun still blazing. His right
leg burned fiercely from a ray-graze, but he ignored it. And all the
while he was mowing down the massed natives in great swaths,
seeking out the ones armed with Bensons in swift, terrible slashes,
dodging spears and other missiles in midair, and roaring at the top of
his powerful lungs.
At last there were none with guns left to oppose him. He scythed
down the rest in two terrible, lightning sweeps of his ray, then
dropped the weapon from blistered fingers.
He was gasping for breath, and realized that he was losing air from
the seared-open right leg of his suit. He reached for the emergency
kit at his side, drawing in great, gasping breaths, and fumbled out a
tube of sealing liquid. He spread the stuff on liberally, smearing it
impartially over flesh and fabric. It felt like liquid hell on the burned,
bleeding leg, but he kept on until the quick-drying fluid formed an
airtight patch.
Only then did he turn, to see Tate flattened against the wall behind
him, his hands empty at his sides. "I'm sorry," Tate said miserably. "I
could have grabbed a spear or something, but—I just couldn't, not
even to save my own life. I—I halfway hoped they'd kill both of us."
Syme glared at him and spat, too enraged to think of diplomacy. He
turned and strode out of the cavern, carrying his right leg stiffly, but
with his feral, tigerish head held high.
He led the way, wordlessly, back to the wrecked sand car. Tate
followed him with a hangdog, beaten air, as though he had just
found something that shattered all his previous concepts of the
verities in life, and didn't know what to do about it.
Still silently, Syme refilled his oxygen tank, watched Tate do the
same, and then picked up two spare tanks and the precious black
suitcase and handed one of the tanks to Tate. Then he stumped
around to the back of the car and inspected the damage. The cable
reel, which might have drawn them out of the gully, was hopelessly
smashed. That was that.
They started off down the canyon, Syme urging the slighter man to
a fast clip, even though his leg was already stiffening. When they
finally reached a climbable spot, Syme was limping badly and Tate
was obviously exhausted.
They clambered wearily out onto the level sands again just as the
small, blazing sun was setting. "Luck," grunted Syme. "Our only
chance of getting near the city is at night." He peered around,
shading his eyes from the sun's glare with a gauntleted hand. "See
that?"
Following his pointing finger, Tate saw a faint, ephemeral arc
showing above a line of low hills in the distance. "Kal-Jmar," said
Syme.
Tate brightened a little. His body was too filled with fatigue for his
mind to do any work on the problem that was baffling him, and so it
receded into the back of his mind.
"Kal-Jmar," whispered Syme again.
There was no twilight. The sun dropped abruptly behind the low
horizon, and darkness fell, sudden and absolute. Syme picked up the
extra oxygen tank and the suitcase, checked his direction by a wrist
compass, and started toward the hills. Tate rose wearily to his feet
and followed again.
Two hours later, Kal-Jmar stood before them. They had wormed their
way past the sentry posts, doing most of the last two hundred
meters on all fours. With skill and luck, and with Syme's fierce,
burning determination, they had managed to escape detection—and
there they were. Journey's end.
Tate stared up at the shining, starlight towers in speechless
admiration. If the people who had built this city had been decadent,
still their architecture was magnificent. The city was a rhapsody
made solid. There was a sense of decay about it, he thought, but it
was the decay of supreme beauty, caught at the very verge of
dissolution and preserved for all eternity.
"Well?" demanded Syme.
Tate started, shaken out of his dream. He looked down at the black
suitcase, a little wonderingly, and then pulled it to him and opened
it.
Inside, carefully wrapped in shock-absorbing tissue, was a fragile
contrivance of many tubes and wires, and a tiny parabolic mirror. It
had a brand new Elecorp 210 volt battery, and it needed every volt
of that tremendous power. Tate made the connections, his hands
trembling slightly, and set it up on a telescoping tripod. Syme
watched him closely, his big body tensed with expectation.
The field was before them, shimmering faintly in the starlight. It
looked unsubstantial as the stuff of dreams, but both men knew that
no power man possessed, unless it was the thing Tate held, could
penetrate that screen.
Tate set the mechanism up close to the field, aimed it very delicately,
and closed a minute switch. After a long second, he opened it again.
Nothing happened.
The screen was still there, as unsubstantial and as solid as ever.
There was no change.
He stood then in the middle of the room, arms akimbo, his head
swimming with glory—and remembered suddenly that he was
hungry. He felt in the container of his helmet, extracted a couple of
food tablets, and popped them into his mouth.
They would take care of his needs, but they didn't satisfy his hunger.
No food tablets for him after this! Steaks, wines, souffles.... His
mouth began to water at the very thought.
And then the robot rolled on soundless wheels into the room. Syme
whirled and saw it only when it was almost upon him. The thing was
remarkably lifelike, and for a moment he was startled.
But it was not alive. It was only a Martian feeding-machine, kept in
repair all these millennia by other robots. It was not intelligent, and
so it did not know that its masters would never return. It did not
know, either, that Syme was not a Martian, or that he wanted a
steak, and not the distilled liquor of the xopa fungus, which still
grew in the subterranean gardens of Kal-Jmar. It was capable only of
receiving the mental impulse of hunger, and of responding to that
impulse.
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