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次の英文を読んで下の設問に答えなさい。
All modern scientists believe that there is an order to the universe. That is, that physical things obey certain laws. If I hit a ball in a certain way, for example, then it will start to move in a certain direction with a certain speed. We say that the ball obeys the laws of motion. Although an ordered universe is necessary for scientific thinking, the idea of an ordered universe is much older than science.
The ancient Sumerians, who lived in what is today called Iraq, did not believe in an ordered universe. They believed the universe was ruled by gods, who did whatever they wanted to do without any reason. The Sumerians probably believed this because *unpredictable natural changes occurred in their land, such as floods, that they could not control. Perhaps because they found the universe unpredictable, (1)they tried to make up for it in their society. They had a strong sense of order and justice in the affairs of men, which they called me. The Sumerians and their successors, the Babylonians, had sets of laws to deal with many different situations. The name of one the Babylonian lawgivers, Hammrabi, is famous to this day.
Unlike the Sumerians, the ancient Egyptians had a strong feeling that the universe was ordered. This was probably due to the regularity with which the Nile River flooded every year, bringing water to the fields and crops. The sun also was extremely important to them, and it was even more regular in its movements than the Nile. (2)The Egyptians also believed in an orderly society, in which people acted as they were expected to. They viewed an orderly society as an extension of the order in the universe. They called this orderliness in the universe ma'at. At the end of any ceremony involving their gods, they held up a little statue of ma'at facing the statue of the god.
The Egyptians believed in a last judgment when they died, which decided whether they would dies forever or live forever in a sort of *hereafter. In this judgment, the god Osiris, judge of the dead, weighed the heart of the person who had just died against a feather representing ma'at. The heart had to weigh exactly what the feather did in order for the person to live forever.
The ancient people of India also believed in an order to the universe, which they called rita. Rita was protected by the god Varuna. Rita referred both to natural order and to order in society. Order in society was preserved by dharma, or duty. Everyone was supposed to follow dharma, that is, to do whatever was their duty. The Indians had an elaborate system of *caste, in which your birth determined the occupation you could follow and your relationship to other people. The highest caste was that of the priest. A person's duty depended on which caste he or she belonged to.
Although the people of Europe did not have anything that was the equivalent of ma'at, or rita, they too believed in an ordered universe. Both Christians and Jews believed in one God, a God whose laws were to be obeyed by the sun and stars as well as by men. (3)Many people think that this belief in divine law led to a belief in natural law and that this was the reason that modern science began in Europe. [釧路公大]
(注) *unpredictable 予報[予想、余地]できない *hereafter 来世 *caste カースト（インドの世襲的階級）
問１ 本文の無いようにあっているものは○、間違っているものは×で答えなさい。
(1) A ball obeying the laws of motion is an example of order in the universe.
(2) The Sumerians possibly developed an ordered society because the natural changes in their land were ordered.
(3) The flooding of the Nile River in Egypt was not predictable.
(4) The predictable movements of the sun was probably one reason why the Egyptians believed that the universe was ordered.
(5) In ancient India, order in society was achieved by everyone doing his or her duty.
(6) The Christians and Jews of Europe believed that heir god was responsible for the order of the universe.
問２ 下線部(1)〜(3)を日本語に訳しなさい。なお、(1)は it の指すものを明示して訳しなさい。
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管理人
- 04/9/21(火) -
