题目解析：
本题为词汇题，根据所给单词trivial定位到第一段More important than the amount of time Herodotus computed, which turns out to be trivial compared with the age of Earth, was the notion that one could estimate ages of geologic features by determining rates of the processes responsible for such features, and then assuming the rates to be roughly constant over time.本句大致意思为：与地球的年龄相比，Herodotus这个人计算出来的时间量是trivial的，与其相比更重要的是一个概念，这个概念是一个人可以通过估计相应地理特征的某种过程的速度来估计地理特征的年龄……再以Herodotus为关键词定位这个time是什么，找到本段第三句，发现他是推测Nile Delta花了几千年形成的。根据常识，我们知道一个三角洲的年龄是不能跟古老的地球相比的，是远小于地球年龄的。这时候回到题目看选项，A相似的，B不准确的，C小的，D重要的，选C。
One of the first recorded observers to surmise a long age for Earth was the Greek historian Herodotus, who lived from approximately 480 B.C. to 425 B.C. He observed that the Nile River Delta was in fact a series of sediment deposits built up in successive floods. By noting that individual floods deposit only thin layers of sediment, he was able to conclude that the Nile Delta had taken many thousands of years to build up. More important than the amount of time Herodotus computed, which turns out to be trivial compared with the age of Earth, was the notion that one could estimate ages of geologic features by determining rates of the processes responsible for such features, and then assuming the rates to be roughly constant over time. Similar applications of this concept were to be used again and again in later centuries to estimate the ages of rock formations and, in particular, of layers of sediment that had compacted and cemented to form sedimentary rocks.
