Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :
A superstition is a belief, usually born out of fear, which is contrary to reason and cannot be proved by experience. For example, the heavenly bodies have mystified and    frightened people for ages. So most of the superstitions arose about them. A comet was a mysterious thing. People began to believe in the superstition that a comet was a sign that war or plague was coming. The moon has mysterious od quality about it. People began to believe that if you gazed at the moon for a long time you would be "moonstruck". In fact, the word "lunatic" comes from the Latin word 'luna', meaning moon.
Because ancient people could not understand the behaviour of animals, they built up superstitions around them. A black cat crossing your path was a sign of bad luck. The hoot of an owl is a sign of death approaching, and so on. Sailors, who are constantly battling with the forces of nature, have always had many superstitions. For instance, winds and storms bring danger, so they have a superstition about them. Lom Many sailors believe that whistling will raise a wind or storm.

Even today, the custom of christening a ship by breaking of bottle of wine over its prow is a throwback to an old superstition. The god of the sea was Neptune, and the wine was considered a sacrifice to Neptune. Because people have to deal so much with numbers, they have developed superstitions about lucky and unlucky numbers. Hence, number 13 is still considered unlucky by some.