Passage Summary: Clocks are unusual because they started out very complicated and became simpler over time. The first clocks were built to track the stars and planets, and they only told time as a side effect. Eventually, people cared more about the time than the stars, so the extra astronomical parts were removed.

Reasoning: Early clocks were highly complex because they were designed for astronomical prediction, whereas later clocks became simpler as they focused primarily on timekeeping.

Analysis: The stimulus presents a historical shift where the primary function of a device changed, leading to a reduction in mechanical complexity. We are looking for a deduction that follows from the fact that astronomical functions were the source of complexity, not timekeeping itself. A strong inference would be that the mechanical complexity of early clocks was not actually required for the purpose of keeping track of time.