首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Why in an age of advanced technology, should so many people still cling to an ancient belief? In part it must be because astrolo
Why in an age of advanced technology, should so many people still cling to an ancient belief? In part it must be because astrolo
admin
2018-08-25
73
问题
Why in an age of advanced technology, should so many people still cling to an ancient belief? In part it must be because astrology—claims to tell us something about ourselves, and all of us are interested in ourselves. I think it is because astrology is presented as if it were a science by its modern practitioner, and many people are misled by this.
In fact, astrology was never a science. It was not a hypothesis or theory developed to describe natural phenomena, and until fairly recent times, there was not attempt to test or verify its predictions. Astrology began approximately three thousand years ago in Babylonia; it was applied to monarchs and kingdoms, but not to individuals. It spread in the 6th century BC as far as India, where it flourishes today. The Egyptians, meanwhile, developed their own kind of astrology. But the astrology now practiced in Europe and America is that developed by the Greeks, who synthesized the ideas of the Babylonians and Egyptians and enriched them with concepts from their own fertile imaginations. The Greeks believed that the earth was composed of four elements, and the heavens of a perfect crystalline material. The planets themselves were variously thought to be gods, residences of gods, or at least manifestations of gods. The gods were immortal, but otherwise had the same attributes of anger, happiness, jealousy, rage and pleasure as we do. Now if what the gods’ thought was capricious(变化无常的), at least the planets were predictable in their movements. Because our own lot in life is so unpredictable, it must be purely at the mercy of gods. But if the gods are the planets, or somehow associated with them, then we have only to learn the rules of the motions of the planets to understand the whims of the gods and how they shape our own lives. So the belief developed that each of our lives is preordained by the precise configuration of the planets in the sky at the time of our birth.
Astrology could not, of course, have seemed as incredible to the ancients as it does to us. The role of the sun influencing our daily and yearly lives is obvious; it was a natural extension to attribute other powers to the other planets as well. It wasn’t until the time of Newton that we understood that the laws of Nature apply to the celestial worlds as well as to the terrestrial one. During antiquity, however, all great scholars believed in astrology.
What is the author’s purpose in writing the passage?
选项
A、To cast doubt on the origin of astrology.
B、To compare astrology with real sciences.
C、To point out the popularity of astrology.
D、To justify the incredibility of astrology.
答案
D
解析
首段首句和第2段首句都表明作者认为占星术并非science,末段首句更明确表明占星术incredible,由此可见,本文的写作目的是为了解释为什么占星术不可信。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/VFH7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
A、Itshouldberaisedbysoldiers.B、Itshouldberaisedquicklybyhand.C、ItshouldberaisedonlybyAmericans.D、Itshouldb
A、Ithasdecreased.B、Ithasbeenexaggerated.C、Ithasbecomebetterunderstood.D、Ithasremainedbasicallythesame.A短文开头提到,
A、Itisthelatestmodelofa3Dprinter.B、Itisaplasticwidelyusedin3Dprinting.C、Itgivesfashiondesignersroomforim
Musicians—fromkaraokesingerstoprofessionalviolinplayers—arebetterabletoheartargetedsoundsinanoisyenvironment,ac
Ifyoudidn’tknowanybetter,youmightthinkthatStar,Snuppy,CCandANDiwerejustabunchofinterestingnames.You’donly
FrustratedwithdelaysinSacramento,BayAreaofficialssaidThursdaytheyplannedtotakemattersintotheirownhandstoregu
IsitanywonderthatAmericaisalsoacountryofdangerouslyoverweightpeople?AccordingtoarecentstudybytheNationa
5WeekstoaStress-FreeLife[A]Whowillyoubethisyear?Willyoubeabetter,wiserversionofyourselfbythetimethe
TradingModernistforMcmansion[A]In1949W.ClintonBackusandhiswifehireda43-year-olddesignernamedGretaMagnusson
TradingModernistforMcmansion[A]In1949W.ClintonBackusandhiswifehireda43-year-olddesignernamedGretaMagnussonGr
随机试题
下列关于扁骨的叙述,正确的是【】
男性,45岁,行胃大部切除手术,用于术后止痛的药物选用
如果合同中对履行地点约定不明确,则合同的履约地为()。
影响碾压混凝土坝施工质量的因素主要有()。
归因理论是从______来阐述行为动机的。
Itisillegalforapublicofficialtoaskpeopleforgiftsormoney______favorstothem.
海曙区南门街道万安社区所辖的书香苑居民小区,座落在万安路西边,2002年2月落成后入住228户人家。新建成的住宅区,空气清新,花木繁盛,活动会所齐备,能够为居民提供良好的安居和休闲环境,是一个可实现封闭管理的小区。原来由经房物业公司负责物业管理,但由于各种
下图是网络地址转换NAT的一个示例根据图中信息,标号为③的方格中的内容应为
对长度为10的线性表进行冒泡排序,最坏情况下需要比较的次数为
Thedecision______,thenextproblemwaswhentostarttheproject.
最新回复
(
0
)