In the following sentences there are gaps. Each gap should be filled with ONE word. The word must make sense in the context and fit in grammatically and stylistically. Click on the “Correct Answer” button to compare your response with the correct one. Please note that there may be other correct answers than the one provided. If you believe your response is right, even if it does not correspond with the suggested correct answer, ask your teacher for guidance.
Sentence 1
Very little happened in science between the time of the ancient Greeks and the 17th century, or so we are told at school. However, ____________________ because Western Europe was languishing in the Dark Ages does not mean there was stagnation elsewhere. Indeed, in the Arabic peninsula, this was the Golden Age of science.
Sentence 2
Probably the most influential scientist of this period was Ibn al-Haytham, who was born around 965 in ____________________ is now Iraq. Ibn al-Haytham is increasingly being recognised as the father of the scientific method, a title which has long been attributed to the 17th century scientists Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes.
Sentence 3
The scientific method is the process of acquiring knowledge through observation, which continues to be used in the advancement of science to this ____________________.
Sentence 4
Ibn al-Haytham was the first scientist to correctly ____________________ for how we see objects.
Sentence 5
That is, that the ‘emission theory’ put forward by Plato, Euclid and Ptolemy, ____________________ light shines from our eyes onto the objects that we see, was false.
Sentence 6
He correctly identified that we see objects as a ____________________ of light entering our eyes.
Sentence 7
Al-Haytham conducted many more scientific experiments, and these studies ____________________ the way for the later work of the great Renaissance physicists, including Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton.
- Only use one word.
- Do not forget that contractions (like don’t or isn’t) count as two words.
- Pay attention to the clauses and words around each gap, as these will help you identify which part of speech is missing. For example, if the gap is after a verb, is it possible a dependent preposition is missing? If the gap follows a comma, could the missing word be a relative pronoun? If the gap appears at the beginning of a sentence, could the missing word be a linking word such as However or Furthermore?