根据课文完成下面这篇短文。
高中英语课文"Who questions much, shall learn much, and remember much."
-Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
It seems obvious now how we acquire knowledge and understanding. To start __________, you need questions. Then, to find answers, you observe the world around you and study the facts. ________ that you consider possible answers and test each to find the right ones. Although today we are more accustomed to_______(type) a few key words into a search engine and ________(wait)for the Internet to spit the answer out for us, modern scientists and thinkers are still solving the world`s problems with this type of analysis -- ________(luck) for us.
However, in the 17th century when Francis Bacon suggested that this type of thinking was the way _________ gain knowledge, he was going against the ________(view) of the day.
Bacon __________(hold)an important rank under King James (1566-1.625) of England but his true interest was not the day to day bureaucratic details of the government, but the _________(worth) search for knowledge. This was certainly not the interest of most people in his day. At that time, people believed more in religion _________ in facts and people like Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who proved scientific ideas such as "the Earth is not the centre of the universe", were often punished by the church with no one coming to their _________(defend). The church and many people tended to ignore the facts and were unwilling to challenge ________ they had always comfortably believed. They preferred to make assumptions about the world _______(base) on the experience of others. In fact, when Galilei proved that the Earth was not the centre of the universe, instead of believing him, people _______(choose) to believe views that were almost years old!
It is not _________(surprise) that people wanted to believe these ancient views as they had been put _______ by the great philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC). He said that the Earth ________ be the centre of the universe because it felt like the Earth was standing s
till. Galilei _________(agree). At first, people approved ________ his studies and urged him to continue, but later when he proved Aristotle wrong, they ________(grow)angry and put him in prison. They didn`t want to challenge what they`d always thought was true.
This also shows how people didn`t want to search for their ________ understanding or educate __________. And this is still often true today. People feel that if someone important and __________(respect)says that something is right, then it must be _____________. But even though Aristotle was a great man _______ inspired many great scientists and philosophers after him, he was wrong at ___________(time). And Galilei too__________ mistakes. He is now known _________ the father of astronomy but he believed that the earth moved round the sun in a perfect circle. He was wrong. Therefore our understanding of the world around us is ___________(constant) growing and changing. In other _________(word), we learn more every day and __________ of us can ever sit back and say, "We know it all".
We_________(need) thank the great men of the past for the wisdom to know that we do
n`t know it all and probably never will, for that would mean a world _________ questions. So much of our knowledge and understanding of the world today is due to people like Bacon and Galilei, _________ were brave enough to step out from the shadows of conventional _________(think) in order to find the kingdom of knowledge that _________(today) civilisation is built upon. These men knew that knowledge and understanding are things to fight _________; more vital to a man, and more ___________(benefit)to mankind, some might say, than all the money in the world.
"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them."
-- Galileo Galilei
(1564-1642)
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