The Light Ages

What is suggested in lines 15-21?

• The well-known geniuses like Einstein and Newton weren’t as ‘ahead of their time’ as people would like to think.

• That most well-known scientists only became famous through working long and hard, not by just having a revelation.

• The most famous inventors and scientists didn’t really invent the things they were known for.

• The famous stories about well-known scientists are nothing but fantasy.

Answer explanation

The writer suggests here that the great discoveries made by people like Einstein, Newton and Archimedes were not made as suddenly as the stories suggest. The writer states that science and scientific discoveries are made thanks to thousands of anonymous scientists making their ‘own tiny contribution to the development of science’ (lines 28-29), and that these unknown discoveries are used by others who then occasionally make this final discovery that becomes a major breakthrough which causes them to become famous. These major scientists aren’t ‘ahead of their time’; they just use the information supplied to them by dozens of (anonymous) others.

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John of Westwyck (line 22) is mentioned because:

• he was of more importance than some of the big inventors we always hear about.

• he invented a machine that is still used to this day.

• he was the first to recognise the importance of maths and astronomy.

• he is one of the unknown scientists who together helped science develop.

Answer explanation

John of Westwyck (line 22) is mentioned because he could be one of the scientists who helped someone else achieve a major scientific breakthrough. Even though most people don’t know his name, he helped create some scientific instruments that helped the development of maths and astronomy, and his inventions probably led to other breakthrough inventions. So, he is just an example of the anonymous scientists who helped the ‘big names’ make their breakthroughs.

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What’s meant by the ‘translation movement’ (line 68)?

• The shift from Latin as the main language of science to English.

• The attempt to explain scientific findings to a language that was understood by all citizens.

• The drive to translate non-European and/or older scientific works.

• The shift from a focus on European thinking to a more global world view with foreign cultural influences.

Answer explanation

The ‘translation movement’ is a rather literal one in this case: it’s about (Western and Southern) European scientists translating older scientific works or works from scientists from foreign countries. It shows that despite general belief that medieval people dismissed everything foreign or un-Christian, many scientists actually showed great interest in ‘heathen’ scientific works and wanted to learn from them.

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‘[W]e’re just projecting our own prejudices onto them’ (lines 91-92). Which prejudices would that be?

• The idea that people in the Middle Ages were ignorant and unable to do scientific research properly.

• The idea that the medieval world was unwilling to accept information from other cultures.

• The idea that people in the Middle Ages were unwilling to share information with people from other cultures and countries.

• Our idea that medieval people were unable to get access to information from other countries or cultures.

Answer explanation

The ‘prejudice’ we’re projecting onto them is the idea that people in the Middle Ages were unwilling to learn from people from other countries and cultures: that they were ‘insular and parochial’ and only focused on their own ideas and beliefs. The examples given here show that people in the Middle Ages had no problem at all with studying and learning from scientific works from people from other countries or cultures: they just wanted to learn.

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What’s the function of lines 109-121?

• To provide new arguments to support the statements made in lines 95-108.

• To illustrate the information given in lines 95-108.

• To put the information given in lines 95-108 in perspective.

• To contradict the information given in the previous paragraph, lines 95-108.

Answer explanation

This paragraph makes clear that the ‘strange’ things medieval people believed weren’t that strange really: that they all had their use, even if we consider that use strange. It also makes clear that we have no right being condescending about them not knowing certain things: even though we should have known certain things, we never did anything about them (as the lead example shows) and therefore suffered the consequences. In lines 95-108 you can read that we usually associate the Middle Ages with a time of ignorance: the writer wants to make clear that even though people in fact did believe some strange things, these beliefs had their uses and that we are guilty of some pretty stupid ideas and practices too.

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Why does the writer mention alchemy and astrology?

• Because both these ridiculed studies have led to great inventions.

• Because these studies are indeed reasons not to take medieval scientists seriously.

• Because these studies clearly had an important cultural, moral and psychological function.

• Because those are just studies that came from scientists misunderstanding scientific findings from Greek, Roman and Arab culture.

Answer explanation

The writer makes clear here that it’s easy to make fun of the fact that medieval scientists considered astrology and alchemy ‘real’ scientific studies. But, he says, even though you may be right in saying that these studies weren’t exactly scientific, they did help science develop, because for astrology, people studied the skies in detail and made many interesting observations about the movements of stars and planets, and when studying alchemy the basis for modern chemistry was laid. So, both studies led to improvement of ‘real’ scientific research.

What does the writer say in lines 149-155?

• That many ideas of today’s scientists will seem silly in the future too.

• That scientists today still benefit from the findings of their medieval colleagues.

• That today’s scientists miss out on a lot of discoveries because they don’t have an open mind.

• That a lot of great discoveries were made accidentally.

Answer explanation

The writer makes clear here that what happened while medieval scholars studied alchemy and astrology isn’t something that extraordinary: here, he makes clear that many new inventions were also done more or less by accident, while scientists were working on something else.

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PARADE: combine this word from the text with one of the following, so as to complete this sentence:

History is an ................. ................. of societies rising and falling.

• amateur

• childlike

• endless

• leading

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NOTORIOUS : combine this word from the text with one of the following, so as to complete this sentence:

I wouldn’t trust him if I were you. He’s a ... ... .

• child

• liar

• scientist

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SCHOLAR: combine this word from the text with one of the following, so as to complete this sentence:

Please welcome Farhana Mahmuda, a(n) ... ... in the field of Middle-Eastern philosophy.

• notorious

• amateur

• leading

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