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考点规范练39(选修8 Modules 1-3) 考点规范练第78页 .阅读理解 Renaissance is a French word.It means “rebirth”.It’s a strange name for a period of history.What was it that was “reborn” during the Renaissance? To answer this question,we need to look back at the time of the Roman Empire.At this time Roman artists,scientists and writers influenced by Greek ideas were the world’s most advanced.They had become skilled observers of the natural world around them,and had become experts in studying animals,plants,the human body or the stars and planets.They wrote down their ideas about what they saw,and based their theories about the world on their observations. During the fourth and fifth centuries the Roman Empire slowly broke down.Many of the Romans’ art and sculptures were destroyed and some manuscripts(原稿) were lost as well.But most importantly,some of the ancient attitudes were lost.A questioning approach to the world was replaced by an unquestioning one. Why did this happen?One reason was to do with the influence of the Christian Church.Through the thousand years following the fall of the Roman Empire,the Church controlled many aspects of life including education and learning.The Church ran all the universities and thought that the aim of a university should be to teach old ideas more clearly,not to introduce new ones.The scholars in the universities were expected to study God and heaven from the Bible and ancient books,rather than the world around them. | 
