  The mode-coupling theory of the glass transition predicts the time evolution
of the intermediate scattering functions in viscous liquids on the sole basis
of the structural information encoded in two-point density correlations. We
provide a critical test of this property and show that the theory fails to
describe the qualitatively distinct dynamical behavior obtained in two model
liquids characterized by very similar pair correlation functions. Because we
use `exact' static information provided by numerical simulations, our results
are a direct proof that some important information about the dynamics of
viscous liquids is not captured by pair correlations, and is thus not described
by the mode-coupling theory, even in the temperature regime where the theory is
usually applied.
