<p>Because of their spare, white appearance, ancient Greek statues in modern museums are often considered __________<strong><em>; yet newly unearthed antiquities showing traces of bright pigment are not so _</em></strong>_________.</p>
<p>(A)plain...ornate
(B)elaborate...spartan
(C)ostentatious...vivid
(D)austere..unadorned
(E)commonplace...unattainable </p>
<p>What does spare mean in this context?
And whats the answer? Thanks in advance CC!</p>
<p>Also…</p>
<p>From the earliest times, the complications inherent in deciphering the movements of planets in the night sky must have seemed a curse to baffled astronomers. In the long run, though, they proved a blessing to the development of cosmology, the study of the physical universe. Had the celestial motions been simple, it might have been possible to explain them solely in terms of the simple, poetic tales that had characterized the early cosmologies. Instead, these motions proved to be so intricate and subtle that astronomers could not predict them accurately without eventually coming to terms with the physical reality of how and where the Sun, Moon, and the planets actually move in real, three-dimensional space. </p>
<ol>
<li>The primary purpose of the passage is to</li>
</ol>
<p>(A) emphasize the importance of myth in ancient civilizations
(B) explain how an astronomical problem affected the development of a physical science
(C) predict the motions of planets outside of our solar system
(D) challenge the major achievements of some ancient astronomers
(E) compare celestial movements in different time periods</p>
<p>Help me understand this! thanks!</p>
<p>I believe spare, in this instance, means simple, unadorned. They are noting a contrast in the recent, more elaborate sculptures. So they want an answer that shows opposites…answer D would fit this- austere is similar to spare and not so unadorned would signal showier.</p>
<p>For your second post I would choose B…they are discussing how an earlier problem forced later scientists to delve deeper to explain the formerly unanswerable problems…this led to a physical science versus the earlier more philosophical views.</p>