Entry Exam Category: College Admission Exams
Course: Accuplacer
Exam: Accuplacer Reading Passage-Based Practice Test
Practice Question
Extract
From the earliest times, the complications inherent in deciphering the movements of planets in the night sky must have seemed a curse to baffled astronomers. In the long run, though, they proved a blessing to the development of cosmology, the study of the physical universe. Had the celestial motions been simple, it might have been possible to explain them solely in terms of the simple, poetic tales that had characterized the early cosmologies. Instead, these motions proved to be so intricate and subtle that astronomers could not predict them accurately without eventually coming to terms with the physical reality of how and where the Sun, Moon, and planets actually move in real, three-dimensional space.
The passage indicates that ancient astronomers were 'baffled' because:
Answer Choices
- A: Their observations disproved the poetic tales of early cosmologies
- B: They lacked the mathematical sophistication needed to calculate astronomical distances
- C: Their theories of planetary movements were more complicated than the movements themselves
- D: They could not reliably predict observable celestial phenomena
Correct Answer: D
Rationale: The passage states that the motions of the planets were so intricate and subtle that astronomers could not predict them accurately without understanding their true physical movement in space. This difficulty in prediction is what baffled ancient astronomers. The other choices either overstate, introduce unrelated ideas, or contradict the passage.