Science, as we think, was born when the Greek philosopher ( 哲学家 ) Thales ( about 640-546 B.C.) asked a difficult question: What makes up our universe?
No one had a ready answer, so Thales went on studying the earth around him, the sky and the stars. He saw so much water on earth and so much water falling from the sky as rain that he decided water must be the basic substance ( 物质 ) of the universe.
Other Greek thinkers became interested in this question. They suggested other answers. One said that because air lies around the earth, it must be air that makes up all things. Another said that fire, appearing in different forms, was the building block of the universe.
The Greek philosophers were feeling their way towards the ideas on which chemistry is based. Centuries later, scientists proved that the universe is made up of certain basic substances. But the list is much more plicated than the Greeks realized. We now know of 103 basic substances which we call “ elements ( 元素 )”.
【小题1】Thales, the famous Greek philosopher, died when he was about .A．94 years oldB．106years oldC．40 years oldD．46 years old【小题2】The meaning of the underlined word “plicated” in the last paragraph is “ ”.A．not difficult B．not simpleC．not famousD．not different【小题3】After reading the passage, we can be sure that .A．nothing ever changes in the universeB．Thales decided that the basic substance of the universe was airC．the universe is made up of four different substancesD．the early Greek thinkers did much valuable work for the progress of scienceA
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(答案→)A
解析：
【小题1】A 计算题。根据Thales ( about 640-546 B.C.)说明他出生与公元前640年，死于公元前546年，故活了大约94岁。A正确。
【小题2】B 猜测词义题。根据But the list is much more plicated than the Greeks realized. We now know of 103 basic substances which we call “ elements ( 元素 )”说明名单上列出来的物质的数量要比人们原来认为的要多得多，故该词应该指复杂，故B正确。
【小题3】D 推理题。根据文章3,4段说明希腊的思想家们做了很多的推测和想象，为科学的发展做了很大的贡献，故D正确。