Just as astrology was for centuries

[rschunti]

Pls explain how to get to the correct answer in below question:-
Just as astrology was for centuries----faith, countering the strength of established churches, so today believing in astrology is an act of----the professional sciences.
(A) an individual.. rebellion by
(B) an accepted.. antagonism toward
(C) an underground.. defiance against
(D) a heretical.. support for
(E) an unknown.. concern about

[bkc]

Pls explain how to get to the correct answer in below question:-
Just as astrology was for centuries----faith, countering the strength of established churches, so today believing in astrology is an act of----the professional sciences.
(A) an individual.. rebellion by
(B) an accepted.. antagonism toward
(C) an underground.. defiance against
(D) a heretical.. support for
(E) an unknown.. concern about

IMO B.....pls let me know the Official Answer.

[rschunti]

The Official Answer is (C) an underground.. defiance against. What is the reason for this Official Answer. Why other options are wrong?

[Wanna1600]

Why do I feel the answer to this should be B?

[jitun]

Pls explain how to get to the correct answer in below question:-
Just as astrology was for centuries----faith, countering the strength of established churches, so today believing in astrology is an act of----the professional sciences.
(A) an individual.. rebellion by
(B) an accepted.. antagonism toward
(C) an underground.. defiance against
(D) a heretical.. support for
(E) an unknown.. concern about

As in the first part of the sentence it is given "countering the strength of established churches" the first word must be -ve. Now the second part is connected to the first part by the word "so". So the second part of the sentence also has the same connotation. so the second word is also -ve. Only C satisfies this condition.

[mali]

i think the more important factor here is that the sentence starts with the word "just".
Hence, what astrology was before ( a rebel against the established churches) continues to be now. The only difference is what it stands against now are not the churches but the professional science.

[chacy1600]

Just as astrology was for centuries----faith, countering the strength of established churches, so today believing in astrology is an act of----the professional sciences.

First, we know that the implications of both the first and second blanks are going to be similar. However astrology was associated with faith in the past, is the same way astrology is associated with professional sciences today.

Second, we know from common sense that astrology (note: not astronomy) has is viewed negatively by professional sciences. Therefore, we are looking for two negative associations for these two blanks.

(A) an individual.. rebellion by

This answer is illogical. Rebellion BY the professional sciences? Astrology is not even a part of professional sciences, therefore could not be a rebellion by those professional sciences. In addition, "an individual faith" doesn't really have the negative implication we are looking for.

(B) an accepted.. antagonism toward

"Accepted" would be positive - so this one is out.

(C) an underground.. defiance against

If astrology was an "underground faith" in the past, then it was probably that way because it was viewed negatively by the churches. Ding ding! Let's see if the other one fits..

... so today believing in astrology is an act of "defiance against" the professional sciences.

Yep, that makes sense too. We have both negatives that we were looking for, and the sentence now reads logically.

(D) a heretical.. support for

"Support for" the professional sciences would be a positive - so it doesn't work.

(E) an unknown.. concern about

"Unknown faith" doesn't really make sense, and it doesn't have the negative implication we're looking for. Astrology being an act of "concern about" the professional sciences doesn't really make any sense at all either. Using these two in the sentence also leads to an illogical statement, as "unknown faith" and "concern about professional sciences" don't relate, as our cue words "Just as" and "so" told us that they should.

[smbabu]

chacy1600, Thank you very much for your nice explanation. rschunti, i am also glad to you for the post. i did not know why the ans was C, but i did it correctly. i always except such type of interesting post. bye-

[Riyad Mohammad]

underground means describes an activity that is secret and usually illegal. now i hope it is more clear to everyone about the answer C

[Fahad Ali]

i think the more important factor here is that the sentence starts with the word "just".
Hence, what astrology was before ( a rebel against the established churches) continues to be now. The only difference is what it stands against now are not the churches but the professional science.

Perfect explanation

thanks a lot