GMAT reading comprehension - From the Beginning, Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was Convinced about the Basic Astronomical Verities.

Reading passage question

From the beginning, Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was convinced that the basic astronomical verities must have a geometrical interpretation. This conviction has been shared by all the great natural philosophers, from Pythagoras to Einstein—the conviction that the cosmos was laid out according to a mathematical design and that this design is "simple" and accessible to human intelligence. For Kepler, mathematics meant the pure geometry of the Greeks.

His early scientific career is especially interesting because the ideas that seemed to him to be the most significant, and which he tried to 10 exploit for the rest of his life, appear to a modern reader to be almost completely mad. It was the fact that he could never get them to work that drove him to make the series of astronomical discoveries that appear to us to be so significant.

God was for Kepler a master Greek geometer, and the "book of the world" must therefore be contained among the theorems of Euclid. One theory was that there are only five "perfect solids." A perfect solid (the most familiar example is the cube) is a solid all of whose faces are "perfect" plane figures (in the cube, these figures are squares). The other perfect solids are the tetrahedron, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron. There were known to be six planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, in order of increasing distance from the sun, around which, Kepler believed, the planets moved in circular orbits.

Carrying on with his geometry, he considered a universe in which a cube, a tetrahedron, a dodecahedron, an icosahedron, and an octahedron would be arranged concentrically, one inside another; the orbit of Mercury would be fitted within the first of these perfect solids, the orbit of Venus outside it, and outside each of the other solids the orbit of another planet. This, he thought, might make it possible to calculate the interplanetary distances and also explain why there were no more than six planets.

With the superior vision of hindsight, it is all too easy for us to pass judgment on the weakness of Kepler's youthful notion. (Apart from anything else, we know that there are nine planets.) In fact, however, had Kepler's mysticism not also been coupled with a fanatic obsession to make his theory fit the observed facts quantitatively, he might as well have gone down in scientific history as just another visionary crank, along with the more unenlightened alchemists who abounded at that time.

It is interesting to note that Newton also devoted his "spare" time to alchemy. What would have driven this man of science, this father of our modern physics, to spend his free time trying to turn base metals into gold? Undoubtedly, this fact shows us that the desire for wealth often trumps the pursue of pure science, even in the most noteworthy of individuals. This combination of mysticism and devotion to the "facts" as he knew them was Kepler's great strength. Einstein characterized the

interrelation between mystic intuition and the need to deal with hard facts as a formula that "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."

“From the beginning, Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was convinced that the basic astronomical verities must have a geometrical interpretation.”- is a comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension. This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 3 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for the purpose of testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Solution and Explanation

1. Which of the following statements most nearly captures the author‘s central argument as articulated in the passage?

1. The originality of Kepler‘s early scientific work can be fully appreciated by studying its influence on the mature work of Newton and Einstein.
2. Kepler's early beliefs were often erroneous, but his mysticism coupled with an attachment to scientific fact led to many of his later, key discoveries.
3. Kepler laid the groundwork for our current understanding of the universe in his early studies of the pure geometry of the Greeks.
4. An investigation of Kepler's youthful work yields relatively few clues about the method he employed in his most remarkable work.
5. Kepler‘s early beliefs were more accurate compared to his later beliefs

2. The passage suggests that which of the following scientific beliefs held by Kepler in his youth was, in fact, correct?

1. The planets are arranged concentrically, within perfect solids.
2. The orbit of the planets are circular.
3. The number of perfect solids is equal to the number of planets
4. There is an underlying order to the cosmos which is accessible to the human intelligence.
5. Humans can never fully understand the mysteries of the universe

3. The author quotes Einstein in the sixth paragraph. His primary purpose in doing this is to:

1. suggest that Kepler's thought was misconstrued by Einstein.
2. clarify a difference between scientific and religious thought.
3. indicate the extent of Einstein's personal admiration of Kepler.
4. emphasize a particular attribute of Kepler's own method and outlook.
5. point out a flaw in Kepler‘s methodolgy

4. Which of the following statements is implied by the author in paragraphs five and six?

1. The history of science is full of scientists who have failed to esteem what was of greatest significance in their own work.
2. It is during periods of youthful enthusiasm that the fundamental guidelines to the most important scientific discoveries nearly always emerge.
3. Such is the paradox of the human personality that, despite such problems, Kepler became one of the most determined seekers of cosmic harmony in history.
4. Kepler, too, was aware of the dangers of pure speculation conducted without taking into consideration observed phenomena
5. It is very easy to blame Kepler for his weaknesses bur perhaps not very appropriate to do so

Suggested GMAT Reading Comprehension Samples

• The Professionalization of the Study of History in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Conventional Wisdom has it that Large Deficits in the United States Budget Cause Interest Rates to Rise GMAT Reading Comprehension
• In a New Book About the Antiparty Feeling of the Early Political Leaders of the United States GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The System of Patent-Granting, Which Confers Temporary Monopolies for the Exploitation of New Technologies GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Traditional Social Science Models of Class Groups in the United States are Based on Economic Status GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Solar Ponds are Bodies of Water in Which Circulation is Incomplete and There is a Very High Salt Concentration that Increases with Depth GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Ethnohistoric Documents from Sixteenth-Century Mexico Suggesting that Weaving and Cooking were the Most Common Productive Activities for Aztec Women GMAT Reading Comprehension
• A Recent Study has Provided Clues to Predator-Prey Dynamics in the Late Pleistocene Era GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The Black Death, a Severe Epidemic that Ravaged Fourteenth Century Europe GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The United States Government has a Long-Standing Policy of Using Federal Funds to Keep Small Business Viable GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Comparable Worth, as a Standard Applied to Eliminate Inequities in Pay GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Some Historians Contend that Conditions in the United States During the Second World War GMAT Reading Comprehension
• More Selective than Most Chemical Pesticides in that they Ordinarily Destroy only Unwanted Species GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Historians have Identified Two Dominant Currents in the Russian Women's Movement of the Late Tsarist Period GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Citing the Fact that the Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita was Higher in 1997 GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The General Density Dependence Model can be Applied to Explain the Founding of Specialist Firms GMAT Reading Comprehension
• In the 1980's, Astronomer Bohdan Paczynski Proposed a Way of Determining Whether the Enormous Dark Halo Constituting the Outermost Part of the Milky Way Galaxy GMAT Reading Comprehension
• The United States Hospital Industry is an Unusual Market in that Nonprofit and For-Profit Producers Exist Simultaneously GMAT Reading Comprehension
• Although the Industrial Union Organizations that Emerged Under the Banner of the Congress of Industrial Organizations GMAT Reading Comprehension
• According to P. F. Drucker, The Management Philosophy Known as Total Quality Management GMAT Reading Comprehension