How do I determine if a neural network can be computed by a network that contains only an input layer and an output layer?
You are asked whether we can mimic the given neural network with a new network that contains only a input layer and an output layer, which in turn means whether $a_5$ can be represented as a linear combination of $x_1, x_2, x_3, x_4$. Since every action the neural net does is linear it can be represented as a smaller one without a hidden layer.

Let's calculate the weights

$$a_5 = (a_1*\theta_9 + a_2*\theta_10 + a_3*\theta_11 + a_4*\theta_12)*C $$
$$a_5 = ((x_1*\theta_1 + x_2*\theta_2)*\theta_9*C + (x_1*\theta_3 + x_2*\theta_4)*\theta_{10}*C + (x_3*\theta_5 + x_4*\theta_6)*\theta_{11}*C+ (x_3*\theta_7 + x_4*\theta_8)*C)*\theta_{12}*C $$
$$a_5 = C^2 * (x_1*(\theta_1*\theta_9+\theta_3*\theta_{10}) + x_2(\theta_2*\theta_{9}+\theta_4*\theta_{10}) + x_3(\theta_5*\theta_{11}+ \theta_7*\theta_{12}) + x_4(\theta_6*\theta_{11}+\theta_8*\theta_{12})) $$

So our weights are:
$$&lt;\theta_1*\theta_9+\theta_3*\theta_{10},\theta_5*\theta_{11}+ \theta_7*\theta_{12} , \theta_2*\theta_{9}+\theta_4*\theta_{10}, \theta_6*\theta_{11}+\theta_8*\theta_{12}&gt; $$
and our activation function is multiplication by $C^2$