58 a) Fill in the gaps. Refer to the "How to deal with structural clozes" in "Learning strategies" to help you.
Secrets of an Ancient Computer
Computers go back farther in history than you might imagine. A mysterious mechanism found in a 2,000-year-old Greek shipwreck may have been used to calculate the positions of planets, predict when eclipses were to occur, and solve other astronomical problems.
Known as the Antikythera mechanism, the device is about (1 ... size of a shoebox. When (2) ... was found underwater about 100 years ago, the mechanism was (3) ... poor shape. (4) ... metal pieces had congealed into one mass, then broken into pieces.
People (5) ... studied what was left of the mechanism suspected that it (6) ...
something to do with astronomy. To find (7) ... more, researchers recently used advanced imaging methods, including X-ray computer tomography, to look inside the metal fragments and to check for ancient writing on the device.
The researchers discovered (8) ... the mechanism had at least 30 bronze gears with as many as 225 teeth, likely all cut (9) ... hand.
This fresh look provided clear evidence that the device could have (10) ... used to compute eclipses of the sun and moon. A lunar eclipse occurs (11) ... the moon passes into Earth's shadow, and a solar eclipse occurs (12) ... the moon passes between the sun and Earth.
Scientists suspect that the mechanism (13) ... also able to show the motions of the planets. A user could pick a day in the future and, using some sort of crank, work out a planet's position on (14) ... date.
With the added information, the researchers came up with a new model for how the mechanism operated. All (15) ... findings show that the Antikythera mechanism was perhaps 1,000 years ahead of anything else discovered from its time period.
b) Read the text again. Say what the ancient device is like:
• How old is it?
• Where was it found?
• How big is it?
• What could it do?
Secrets of an Ancient Computer
Computers go back farther in history than you might imagine. A mysterious mechanism found in a 2,000-year-old Greek shipwreck may have been used to calculate the positions of planets, predict when eclipses were to occur, and solve other astronomical problems.
Known as the Antikythera mechanism, the device is about (1 ... size of a shoebox. When (2) ... was found underwater about 100 years ago, the mechanism was (3) ... poor shape. (4) ... metal pieces had congealed into one mass, then broken into pieces.
People (5) ... studied what was left of the mechanism suspected that it (6) ...
something to do with astronomy. To find (7) ... more, researchers recently used advanced imaging methods, including X-ray computer tomography, to look inside the metal fragments and to check for ancient writing on the device.
The researchers discovered (8) ... the mechanism had at least 30 bronze gears with as many as 225 teeth, likely all cut (9) ... hand.
This fresh look provided clear evidence that the device could have (10) ... used to compute eclipses of the sun and moon. A lunar eclipse occurs (11) ... the moon passes into Earth's shadow, and a solar eclipse occurs (12) ... the moon passes between the sun and Earth.
Scientists suspect that the mechanism (13) ... also able to show the motions of the planets. A user could pick a day in the future and, using some sort of crank, work out a planet's position on (14) ... date.
With the added information, the researchers came up with a new model for how the mechanism operated. All (15) ... findings show that the Antikythera mechanism was perhaps 1,000 years ahead of anything else discovered from its time period.
b) Read the text again. Say what the ancient device is like:
• How old is it?
• Where was it found?
• How big is it?
• What could it do?
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