Many different reasons have been cited to explain the mystery of Stonehenge. To this day, noone has the definitive answer to the question of why Stonehenge was built. It remains an unsolvedmystery. A variety of explanations involving magic, religion and science have appeared over theyears. Perhaps the first person to come up with a story to explain Stonehenge was Geoffrey ofMonmouth. In the mid-12th century, his book "History of the Kings of Britain", inspired by thefictional King Arthur story, treated it like historical fact. According to Geoffrey, the monument'sbluestones came from Africa and were transported by ancient giants to Ireland and placed in acircular formation there called the “Giant's Circle”. Later, when the king of Britain wanted to builda memorial to some brave heroes, Merlin, the king's magician, suggested that he move thebluestones from Ireland to its current site, and used his magical powers to accomplish the task.
         In 1620, King James I of England asked Inigo Jones, a building designer to investigate theorigins of Stonehenge. Jones said that he traced the history of the site to the Romans who arrived inEngland in the first century A.D. He finally concluded that Stonehenge was the remains of anancient Roman temple built for the worship of Coelus, the god of the sky. This was later proved tobe just a product of Jones' rich imagination. In 1740, Dr. William Stukeley, a doctor and part-timehistorian, published a book stating that visitors from the Middle East called Druids had builtStonehenge in 460 B.C. as a place of worship. Later research proved that the site was far older thanthat.
         In 1901 Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer wrote a paper saying that Stonehenge was constructed insuch a way that its avenues lined up with the movements of the sun and the moon. Lockyer was awell-known scientist who started the journal Nature, highly respected by the international scientificcommunity today. He suggested that Stonehenge had been built in 1800 B.C. by the same peoplewho built the Egyptian temples since their walls were constructed in a similar fashion. Althoughlater researchers showed that his ideas about who built Stonehenge and when it was built werewrong, they agreed that it was probably designed to be a sort of ancient computer used to predictthe movements of the moon.
【題組】44. What is the purpose of the reading?
(A) To state the most likely explanation for the building of Stonehenge.
(B) To offer alternative explanations for the building of Stonehenge.
(C) To provide scientific proof of the origins of Stonehenge.
(D) To explain the role of religion and magic in historical research.