According to the passage, in a way physicists are____.

. Physicists have made new discoveries that challenge our ______ theories of the universe.

Other physicists like Max Planck, more senior and experienced than Einstein, were closing in on the answer, but Einstein got there first. ( ) A: Other physicists like Max Planck, more senior and experienced than Einstein, had started to examine the problem much earlier than Einstein did. B: Other physicists like Max Planck, more senior and experienced than Einstein, were getting closer to the answer, but Einstein solved the problem first.

In 1932, physicists engaged in studying the atom and its nucleus had only three particles to consider: the proton, the neutron ,and the electron.

Physicists have made new discoveries that challenge our（）theories of the universe. A: existed B: adapted C: accepted D: established

Many physicists hope that physics will ultimately () why the universe has the specific laws that it does. A: explanation B: explain C: explanatory D: self-explanatory

Prof. Hoffmann told Dr. Pan that Carl Sagan, who wasa professor of astronomy at Cornell University, would be the most important scientist in modern America, not because he was _____________, but because he taught Americans to be interested in space. A: the best astrophysicist B: the best quantum physicists C: the best nuclear physicist D: the best theoretical physicist

Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.To get a sense of how women have progressed in science, take a quick tour of the physics department at the University of California, Berkeley. This is a storied place, the ________36__________ of some of the most important discoveries in modern science—starting with Ernest Lawrence’s invention of the cyclotron (回旋加速器) in 1931. A generation ago, female faces were _____37______ and, even today, visitors walking through the first floor of LeConte Hall will see a full corridor of exhibits ______38______ the many distinguished physicists who made history here, ______39_____ all of them white males.But climb up to the third floor and you’ll see a ______40________ display. There, among the photos of current faculty members and students, are portraits of the _______41_________ head of the department, Marjorie Shapiro, and four other women whose research ________42_________ everything from the mechanics of the universe to the smallest particles of matter. A sixth woman was hired just two weeks ago. Although they’re still only about 10 percent of the physics faculty, women are clearly a presence here. And the real ________43________ may be in the smaller photos to the right：graduate and undergraduate students, about 20 percent of them female. Every year Berkeley sends its fresh female physics PhDs to the country’s top universities. That makes Shapiro optimistic, but also __________44__________ .“I believe things are getting better,” she says, “but they’re not getting better as ________45_________ as I would like.”A) circumstanceB) confidenceC) coversD) currentE) dealsF) differentG) exposingH) fastI) honoringJ) hopeK) presentlyL) rareM) realisticN) siteO) virtually