单选题 .  In general, the ancient Romans were a practical people. They cared less about philosophy and pure mathematics than     41    . The Romans were     42    the ancient engineers and architects. They were     43    students of Greek geometry (几何学) and trigonometry (三角学), and applied their knowledge     44    the construction of fine bridges, roads, aqueducts(渠道), and public buildings.
    They knew about the     45    of iron ore, but they used the iron they produced mainly     46    spears, swords, and shields,     47    for building construction.
    While the Romans     48    practical wonders, they did very little theoretical-scientific     49    . Because of their     50    wars, many of their inventions were     51    improvements in the design of Greek weapons with which they were     52    .
    There are two reasons     53    the Romans neglect of philosophy and pure mathematics. Firstly they were apparently     54    busy conquering nearby nations and     55    them into a rapidly growing empire to waste much time     56    abstract thinking.     57    , they were handicapped by the rigidity of their numerical system (Try to multiply XI by LVII or to divide CXLIII by IX; it simply cannot be done     58    pencil and paper.). The Romans did all of their arithmetic on     59    —the ancient counterpart of the modern computing machine. Their number system     60    the study of pure mathematics.41.