This passage is adapted from Dante Alighieri’s “Canto II” of Paradiso from The Divine Comedy, first published in 1320, translated here by H.F. Cary. 1 - All who in small ships have sailed, eager to follow us and listen on the adventurous track of my proud keel that singing cuts it way, return backward with speed and revisit your own shores. Do not put out to the open sea, where losing me, you might enter a deep, bewildering maze. The way I passed through had not yet been run: Minerva breathed the gale, Apollo guided me, and another Nine to my rapt sign revealed the arctic beams. You other few, who have outstretched your necks, are timely for the food of angels, on which shore here they live, yet never know fullness. Through the deep brine, you fearless may put out your vessel, marking well the broad furrow before you in the wave, that returned equally on both sides. Those glorious ships that passed over to Colchos, who wondered not as you will do, when they saw Jason following the plough.
2 - The natural, perpetual thirst, that drew us toward the realm of God’s own formation, bore us swiftly to behold Heaven.
3 - Beatrice gazed upward, and I gazed upon her, and in such space as on the notch of a dart is placed and then loosened, flies, I saw I had arrived where wondrous things engaged my sight. When she, to whom no work of mine was hidden, turned to me with a countenance glad as it was fair, spoke to me, she said: “Gratefully direct thy mind to God, through whom to this first star of Heaven we come.”
4 - To me it seemed as if a cloud had covered us: translucent, solid, firm, and polished bright. It was like diamond, which the sun’s beam had smote within itself as the ever-being jewel received us, like the way a ray of light receives something, and rests unbroken. If I then was of a corporeal frame, and it understood my weak thoughts, how could one dimension thus endure. If my mortal body entered this heavenly realm, how much more must the desire inflame us to behold that holy essence, by which we discover how God and our natures are joined together! There will be that which is seen through faith, not shown by proof, but what is in itself intelligibly plain, even as the truth that man at first believes.
5 - I answered: “Lady! With thoughts devout, such as I can best frame them, I give thanks to Him who has removed me from the mortal world. But tell me, I pray, where do these gloomy spots on my body come from, which below on earth give rise to talk of Cain and his story?”
6 - She smiled somewhat, then spoke: “If mortals err in their opinion, when not unlocked by the key of sense, surely the weapon of keen wonder ought not to pierce them. You find the wings of reason to pursue the flight of the sense are short. But whatever your own thought is, declare it.”
7 - Then I responded: “What are these various heavenly bodies above us, both dense or rare, caused by?”
8 - She then resumed: “You certainly will see the falsehood of your belief overwhelmed if you listen well to the arguments which I will bring unto them. The eighth sphere of Heaven displays numberless lights, which in kind and size may be observed in many ways; if it was its rarity or density that were the cause of its array of light alone, then one single virtue would be distributed in all spheres. Different virtues require different fruits of formal principles.”
This passage has been excerpted and adapted from the original, including minor punctuation changes, spelling changes, and other modifications that have not substantially changed content or intent. The narrator begins the passage by discussing sailors in order to Not Answered A) give detailed directions to those who may come after. B) contrast the virtues of explorers with the virtues of scholars. C) warn away those who might seek to follow in his path. D) invoke the benevolence of the gods. In Paragraph 3, Sentence 1 the phrase, “in such space as on the notch of a dart is placed and then loosened, flies” is Not Answered A) an analogy meant to explain a difficult concept. B) a metaphor meant to evoke an intense emotion. C) an allusion meant to remind the reader of a prior detail. D) a simile meant to demonstrate the passage of time. In Paragraph 4, Sentence 3, the word “corporeal” most closely means Not Answered A) physical. B) punishment. C) psychic. D) prohibitive. In Paragraph 4, Sentence 4, the author determines that Not Answered A) his mortal body is somehow able to exist in the heavenly realm. B) he is no longer within his mortal body. C) he is in danger. D) he has been permanently transformed. Based on this passage, which of the following best describes how the narrator feels? Not Answered A) He is wary and concerned. B) He is delirious and fearful. C) He is mindful and grateful. D) He is nonchalant and calm. Which lines in the passage best support the answer to the previous question? Not Answered A) Paragraph 1, Sentence 4 (“You other . . . fullness”) B) Paragraph 3, Sentence 2 (“When she . . . come”) C) Paragraph 5, Sentence 2 (“With thoughts . . . world”) D) Paragraph 6, Sentence 1 (“She smiled . . . them”) From the passage, one can infer that Not Answered A) The narrator and Beatrice are strangers to each other. B) The narrator and Beatrice have left Earth. C) The narrator and Beatrice are traveling through a mountainous area. D) The narrator and Beatrice are adept sailors. In Paragraph 8, Beatrice Not Answered A) shares some details about her origins with the narrator. B) answers the narrator’s question about their surroundings. C) makes an argument about ethics. D) puts forward a scientific hypothesis that will be tested. faith : sufficient :: Not Answered A) wonder : proof B) knowledge : plain C) reason : insufficient D) sense : flight Minerva : propulsion :: Not Answered A) Hades : destination B) Zeus : king C) Heracles : hero D) Apollo : navigation Science This passage is adapted from the preface of Johannes Kepler’s Dioptrics, first published in 1611 and translated by Edward Stafford Carlos. The Sidereal Messenger of Galileo has been for a long time in everybody’s hands, so any reader may briefly weigh the chief points of that Messenger and see the nature and the value of the discoveries made by the aid of the telescope.
Actual sight testified that there is a certain bright heavenly body which we call the moon. It was demonstrated from the laws of optics that this body is round; also astronomy, by some arguments founded upon optics, had built up the conclusion that its distance from the earth is about sixty semi-diameters1 of the earth. Various spots showed themselves in that body, and the result was a dubious opinion among a few philosophers, derived from Hecatæus’ account of the stories about the island of the Hyperboreans, that the reflected images of mountains and valleys, sea and land, were seen there.
But now the telescope places all these matters before our eyes in such a way that he must be an intellectual coward who, while enjoying such a view, still thinks that the matter is open to doubt. Nothing is more certain than that the southern parts of the moon teem with mountains, vast in size, and that the northern parts, inasmuch as they are lower, receive in most extensive lakes the water flowing down from the south.
Now our very eyes, as if a new door of heaven had been opened, are led to the view of matters once hidden from them. But if it should please anyone to exhaust the force of reasoning upon these new observations, who does not see how far the contemplation of nature will extend her boundaries when we ask, “What is the use of the tracts of mountains and valleys, and the very wide expanse of seas in the moon?” and “May not some creature less noble than man be imagined such as might inhabit those tracts?”
With no less certainty also do we decide by the use of this instrument even that famous question—whether the earth can move (as the theory of the planets greatly requires) without the overthrow of all bodies that have weight, or the confusion of the motion of the elements? For if the earth were banished from the center of the universe, some fear lest the water should leave the orb of the earth and flow to the center of the universe. And yet, we see that in the moon, as well as in the earth, there is a quantity of moisture occupying the sunken hollows of that globe; and although this orb revolves actually in the ether and outside the centers not merely of the universe, but even of our earth, yet the mass of water in the moon is not at all hindered from cleaving invariably to the orb of the moon and tending to the center of the body to which it belongs.
The followers of the Samian philosophy (for I may use this epithet to designate the philosophy originated by the Samians, Pythagoras, and Aristarchus) have a strong argument against the apparent immobility of the earth provided in the phenomena of the moon. For we are taught by optics that if any one of us were in the moon, to him the moon, his abode, would seem quite immovable, but our earth and sun and all the rest of the heavenly bodies movable, for the conclusions of sight are thus related.
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This passage has been excerpted and adapted from the original, including minor punctuation changes, spelling changes, and other modifications that have not substantially changed content or intent. Which of the following best describes the purpose of the passage? Not Answered A) The author attempts to defend Galileo’s discoveries against accusations from the church. B) The author comments on celestial discoveries made with the help of the telescope. C) The author refutes Galileo’s latest work The Sidereal Messenger and offers a competing theory. D) The author discusses the most important technological breakthroughs in astronomy in the past year. Which of the following might the author describe as an “intellectual coward”? Not Answered A) A writer who hid
the truth about the moon's features. B) A philosopher who refuses to accept new evidence. C) A scientist who does not use the telescope. D) A student who is afraid to ask questions.
Which of the following statements best summarizes the author's view on the moon's features? A) The moon is a barren wasteland with no significant features. B) The moon has mountains, valleys, and seas that can be observed through the telescope. C) The moon is an illusion created by the atmosphere of the Earth. D) The moon's features are irrelevant to the study of astronomy.
In the passage, the author uses the phrase "new door of heaven" to suggest that: A) The telescope has opened up new possibilities for understanding the universe. B) The moon is a gateway to other celestial bodies. C) The heavens are now accessible to everyone. D) The discoveries made are divine revelations.
The author mentions the "followers of the Samian philosophy" to: A) Highlight the historical context of astronomical theories. B) Criticize those who oppose the movement of the Earth. C) Support the idea that the Earth is immovable. D) Suggest that ancient philosophers were wrong about the moon.
Based on the passage, one can infer that: A) The author believes that the telescope has revolutionized astronomy. B) The author is skeptical of the scientific method. C) The author thinks that philosophers are more important than scientists. D) The author is indifferent to the discoveries made by Galileo.