39.
Indeed, in the Middle Ages in Europe, calculating by hand and eye was sometimes seen as producing a rather shabby sort of knowledge, inferior to that of abstract thought.
Babylonian astronomers created detailed records of celestial movements in the heavens, using the resulting tables to sieve out irregularities and, with them, the favour of the gods. (①) This was the seed of what we now call the scientific method ―a demonstration that accurate observations of the world could be used to forecast its future. (②) The importance of measurement in this sort of cosmic comprehension did not develop smoothly over the centuries. (③) The suspicion was
due to the influence of ancient Greeks in the era’s scholasticism, particularly Plato and Aristotle, who stressed that the material world was one of unceasing change and instability. (④) They emphasized that reality was best understood by reference to immaterial qualities, be they Platonic forms or Aristotelian causes. (⑤) It would take the revelations of the scientific revolution to fully displace these instincts, with observations of the night sky once again proving decisive. [3점]
* celestial: 천체의 ** sieve: 거르다
40. 다음 글의 내용을 한 문장으로 요약하고자 한다. 빈칸 (A), (B)에 들어갈 말로 가장 적절한 것은? [3점]
Experiments suggest that animals, just like humans, tend to prefer exaggerated, supernormal stimuli, and that a preference can rapidly propel itself to extreme levels (peak shift effect). In one experiment, through food rewards rats were conditioned to prefer squares to other geometric forms. In the next step, a non-square rectangle was introduced and associated with an even larger reward than the square. As expected, the rats learned to reliably prefer the rectangle. Less predictable was the third part of the experiment. The rats were offered the opportunity to choose between the rectangle they already knew and associated with large rewards and another rectangle, the proportions of which were even more different from those of a square. Interestingly, rats picked this novel variant, without undergoing any reward-based conditioning in favor of it. A possible explanation is thus that they chose the larger difference from the original square (i.e., the exaggeration of non-squareness).
In an experiment, after first establishing an (A) to squares, and then to non-square rectangles, rats were seen to pursue (B) rectangularity even without any additional reward.
(A) (B) (A) (B)
① inclination …… severe ② opposition …… familiar
③ inclination …… vague ④ opposition …… unexpected
⑤ attachment …… subtle