501 Critical Reading Questions

(Sean Pound) #1
in Parliament, and was president of the Royal Society from 1703 until
his death in 1727. Sir Isaac Newton was knighted in 1705 by Queen
Anne. Newton never married, nor had any recorded children. He died
in London and was buried in Westminster Abbey.


  1. Based on Newton’s quote in lines 6–10 of the passage, what can
    best be surmised about the famous apple falling from the tree?
    a. There was no apple falling from a tree—it was entirely
    made up.
    b.Newton never sits beneath apple trees.
    c. Newton got distracted from his theory on gravity by a fallen
    apple.
    d.Newton used the apple anecdote as an easily understood illus-
    tration of the Earth’s gravitational pull.
    e.Newton invented a theory of geometry for the trajectory of
    apples falling perpendicularly, sideways, and up and down.

  2. In what capacity was Newton employed?
    a. Physics Professor, Trinity College
    b.Trinity Professor of Optics
    c. Professor of Calculus at Trinity College
    d.Professor of Astronomy at Lucasian College
    e.Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge

  3. In line 36, what does the term clockwork universemost nearly mean?
    a. eighteenth-century government
    b.the international dateline
    c. Newton’s system of latitude
    d.Newton’s system of longitude
    e.Newton’s Laws of Motion

  4. According to the passage, how did Newton affect Kepler’s work?
    a. He discredited his theory at Cambridge, choosing to read
    Descartes instead.
    b.He provides an explanation of Kepler’s laws of planetary
    motion.
    c. He convinced the Dean to teach Kepler, Descartes, Galileo, and
    Copernicus instead of Aristotle.
    d.He showed how Copernicus was a superior astronomer to
    Kepler.
    e.He did not understand Kepler’s laws, so he rewrote them in
    English.


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