Read carefully the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
The men of the
seventeenth century who invented the modern scientific method had an advantage
over their predecessors in a new mathematical technique. But, in addition to
this technical advance, there was another advantage almost more important.
Before their time, observation had been haphazard; and baseless traditions were
accepted as if they were recorded facts. The laws which we invented to account
for phenomena were not legitimate inferences from observation, but were
infected by a belief that nature conformed to human tastes and hopes and fears.
The heavenly bodies were supposed to move in circles or complications of
circles, because the circle appealed to aesthetic laste as the perfect figure. Pestilences
and earthquakes were sent to punish sin. Refreshing rain was sent as the reward
for virtue. Comets foretold the death of princes. Everything on earth and in
the heavens had references to Man or to aesthetic taste which closely resembled
those of human beings.
The scientific
temper abandoned this point of view. To find out how nature works, we must
forget our own hopes and fears and tastes, and be guided only by careful
investigation of facts. Although this may now seem a simple idea, it was in
truth, revolutionary. When Kepler discovered that the planets moved in
ellipses, not in circles or epicycles, he dealt a death blow to the
interpretation of nature through the medium of human emotions. The essence of
scientific attitude thus inaugurated is this : Nature does what it does, not
what we should wish, nor yet what we should fear, but something blandly unconscious
of our existence. :
Questions:
1. Which of the
following statements conform to what the passage?
A. Men of the
sixteenth century
(i) believed
that earthquakes were sent to punish sinners.
(ii) believed
that heavenly bodies moved in circles because of gravitation.
(iii) believed
that nature acted in accordance with man’s tastes hopes and fears.
(iv) believed
that comets foretold the death of Kings.
B. Men of the
seventeenth century
(i) believed in
the careful observation of facts to find out how nature works.
(ii) believed
that rain was a reward for virtue.
(iii) believed
that nature functions with any reference to human hopes or fears.
(iv) accepted
baseless traditions as recorded facts.
2. Why did,
according to men of the pre-scientific era, earthquakes occur?
3. What is the
essence of the scientific attitude with reference to natural phenomena?
4. Who are the
men who are thought to be embodiments of Western culture?
5. To whom does
‘a tiny minority’ refer?
