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
2010-12-04
66
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.
Many people are misled by astrology because it is presented by the practitioners as ______.
选项
A、a theory that can describe natural phenomena
B、a magical key to understanding themselves
C、an ancient belief that had long been applied to monarchs
D、a mysterious power beyond the explanation of science
答案
A
解析
首段末句表明人们受占星术的误导是因为占星术看起来像一门科学,而根据第2段开头两句可知,科学应该包括某种可验证的假说或理论,A中的theory与原文提到的science意义最为相近,为本题答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/Yis7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
Tobereallyhappyandreallysafe,oneoughttohaveatleasttwoorthreehobbies,andtheymustallbereal.Itdoesn’tmatte
Clothesplaya【B1】______roleintheconclusionswereachbyprovidingcluestowhopeopleare,whotheyarenot,andwhotheyw
Clothesplaya【B1】______roleintheconclusionswereachbyprovidingcluestowhopeopleare,whotheyarenot,andwhotheyw
A、Theywerelessabletojudgecorrectlythantheaveragestudents.B、Theydidbetterthantheaveragestudentsinthegroup.C、
Manyworkersdependonplans【B1】______bytheiremployerstohelppayfortheirretirement.Therearetwomajorkindsofretirem
A、Inagrocerystore.B、Inabank.C、Inabookstore.D、Inapostoffice.A综合推断题。对话中提到了商店会员卡、刷卡消费、给杂货打包等,再结合男士最后所说的,在美国的杂货店里确实得做
Bythemid-nineteenthcentury,theterm"icebox"hadenteredtheAmericanlanguage,buticewasstillonlybeginningtoaffectt
A、Thechildrenaretooyoungtobenefitfromcitylife.B、Evenadultsthemselvescannotgoeverywhereinthecity.C、Thereisa
Thedetectiveandhisassistanthavebegunto_______themysteriousmurder.
随机试题
会计制度全面设计的调查研究应遵循的重要原则是___________。
根据变配电所布置的有关要求,下列做法正确的是()。
感知价值是顾客在综合产品或服务质量和价格后对其所获利益的主观感受,一般情况下,在一定的质量下,价格越低,顾客的感知价值越()。
根据党的十八大报告,建设社会主义文化强国,要做到()。
在一组数据11、11、11、11、13、13、13、17、17、18中,中数是()
共享单车的异军突起,可能让社会治理有点措手不及。它随停随走、高效循环,切实有效地解决了出行中的“最后一公里”问题。但难题与惊喜一同到来,远超市场需求的投放以及乱停乱放,导致道路资源紧张;城市道路规划,与骑行人次的爆发不匹配;沉淀的押金数目越来越庞大,也可能
WhatcanbesaidaboutthereportbytheNationalAcademyofSciences?
Inherpresentation.PenelopewantstoWhichkindoftrainingisNOTmentionedinthepresentation?
Thispartistotestyourabilitytodopracticalwriting.Youarerequiredtowriteanoticebasedonthefollowinginformation
A、Theworkingmanlaidafirmfoundationforthewholenation.B、Thelandhasanabundanceofnaturalresources.C、TheUnitedSta
最新回复
(
0
)