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iBT Practice 2

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Solar Eclipses

( It’s the middle of the afternoon, but suddenly it is very dark outside. Terrified,

people look up into the sky and see a black sun. What is happening? It is an eclipse.
An eclipse happens when the moon passes in front of the sun and blocks its light. This
makes it look like the sun has gone dark, but really it is just the shadow of the moon.

5 ( Today, eclipses are not terrifying events because we understand their causes,
but for thousands of years, many people feared eclipses. For example, the ancient

Chinese believed eclipses were caused by a dragon eating the sun. A They believed
that if they made lots of noise and shot arrows into the sky, they could scare the dragon

away. B This was so important to them that the Chinese emperor had two
10 astronomers*. C Their job was to forecast when an eclipse would happen. D When the

two astronomers failed to forecast one eclipse, the Chinese emperor was so angry he
had them killed.
The ancient Greeks thought their gods caused eclipses when they got angry.

One time, two Greek armies, the Lydians and Medes, were fighting a bloody war. During
15 the battle, there was an eclipse. The two armies were so frightened that they stopped

fighting and made peace.
Today, we know that these beliefs are not true, but they are still very valuable.
Ancient societies did not have good calendars. But they were afraid of eclipses, and they

recorded them in their histories. Today we can use eclipses to learn the exact dates of

20 events in history. For example, we know that the war between the Lydians and Medes
ended in 585 B.C. because we know the eclipse happened in that year.

*astronomer: a scientist who studies the stars

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