Multiple Choice, Single Answer (Reading) — practice #rmcsa-001

The Antikythera mechanism, recovered from a Roman-era shipwreck in 1901, is widely regarded as the earliest known analogue computer. Built around the second century BCE, this bronze device used a complex system of more than thirty interlocking gears to model the movements of the sun, moon, and planets. Operators could turn a hand crank to predict eclipses and track the timing of athletic festivals across the Greek calendar. For decades its corroded fragments puzzled scholars, who struggled to explain such precision in an ancient artefact. Modern imaging techniques, including X-ray tomography, finally revealed the hidden inscriptions and tooth counts. Researchers now believe the mechanism reflected sophisticated astronomical knowledge that was thought to have emerged only many centuries later. No comparable instrument of similar complexity has been found from the ancient world.