Creativity is a frequent element in the mythology, philosophy, or

Creativity is a frequent element in the mythology, philosophy, or religion of many cultures, and it is fair to say that it is a malleable concept that has fascinated mankind for centuries. Among a manifold of definitions, creativity can be defined as a cognitive process to generate novel or unconventional solutions. This cognitive process relies on two essential mechanisms: (i) divergent thinking, which generates original, new ideas and (ii) convergent thinking, which logically evaluates a variety of possible solutions to find the optimal one. For instance, philosophers such as Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans contemplated beauty as an objective principle that maintains harmony, order, and balance. From beauty, however, it is only a small step to creativity—people admire the beauty of artifacts of various kinds but very often these artifacts are the product of a creative process undertaken by an artist. And, creativity and beauty are not restricted to the liberal arts only. Many theories in science are considered to be the outcome of an equally creative process and people often mention the elegance or beauty of a theory. In the more recent mid-1980s, for instance, science encountered a discourse with beauty and the creative forces in nature through chaos theory, the inspirational field of science that captured, among many other things, the dynamic of natural systems in images, called fractals, of astonishing beauty.

Creativity has had strong ties to computing for some time. The goal of web design, for instance, is not to add to the functionality of an application but to make an application aesthetically pleasing and accessible to its users. This does not mean that the production of computer code is a mundane task: on the contrary, many regard good coding as a highly creative activity. As another example, take the field of humanoid robotics where the physical appearance of a robot, its gestures, or its tone of voice may have an impact on user acceptance, e.g., in health care. Computational creativity, which is a relatively young field, relates to many of these issues. The field, which by its very nature is a multidisciplinary scientific endeavor, carries the vision to better understand human creativity and to construct, via computers and intelligent algorithms, artifacts demonstrating human-level creativity or tools that are able to support the creative processes of humans.

1. The passage indicates that the philosopher Pythagoras would agree with which of the following statements?

I. Beauty and creativity are essentially the same concept.
II. Beauty is a principle unaffected by interpretations of it that are conflicting.
III. A person’s well-being will be supported if he watches a beautiful sunset or witnesses an act of kindness.

A) I only
B) II only
C) I,II, and III
D) I and II only
E) II and III only

2. In the first paragraph of the passage, the author is primarily concerned with

A) summarizing the views of an important historical figure
B) analyzing the contradictions inherent in a hypothesis
C) drawing a parallel between two concepts
D) discussing the applications of a concept
E) establishing a system of classification

3. The author implies that which of the following is a likely argument from a reader in response to an assertion in the passage?

A) Web pages should be visually appealing as well as easy to use.
B) It is unlikely that robots, no matter how technologically advanced, will ever take the place of nurses.
C) Though remarkable for its beautiful images, chaos theory has few scientific applications.
D) Applying wisdom learned from ancient philosophers to modern computing is problematic.
E) Though computational creativity produces useful creative tools, working in the field can be monotonous.

4. It can be inferred from the passage that the author believes which of the following to be a likely result of computational creativity?

A) A popular web page that has several new features added to it.
B) An automated cash machine that dispenses cash 50% faster than its predecessor.
C) A new mobile phone that becomes part of a work of modern art.
D) A robot that can dispense the appropriate medication to a hospital patient.
E) An algorithm that successfully models the frequency of ocean waves.