试题出自试卷《宁波大学2019年考博英语真题及答案解析》

The definition of aesthetic pleasure is a popular subject for many different fields. In the following, adapted from an article found in a science journal, a physicist discusses the unique perspective that his discipline allows him.
Since time immemorial, countless scholars have asked the question: What is beauty? As philosophers engage in weighty discourses, designers update the latest fashions, and artists create their masterpieces, what is considered beautiful changes at an alarming pace. Fifty years ago, the full-figured Marilyn Monroe embodied the American aesthetic value; today, a legion of Hollywood actresses vastly different in appearance from Marilyn’s have taken her place. However, aesthetic values not only differ from generation to generation, but do so along cultural lines as well. The conventions that govern painting and music vary greatly from East to West. Often, what is considered repellent to on civilization is the pinnacle of aesthetic appeal in another. Thus, when left to the sphere of human design, the search for an absolute definition of beauty remains an elusive one at best.
As fundamental physicists, my colleagues and I like to believe that we are involved in a search for a beauty that does not remain impervious to definition. The beauty that we search for is not that which is laid down through the work of people and subject to ephemeral tastes, but rather that which has been established by Nature. Those not involved with physics tend to think of it as a precise and predictive science — certainly not a field of study fit for the contemplation of the beautiful. Yet one of physics’ greatest gifts is that it allows its students to look past extrinsic appearances, into a more overwhelming beauty. As a human being, I am captivated by the visual appeal of a wave crashing on the beach. As a physicist however, I possess the ability to be captivated by the much deeper beauty of the physical laws that govern such a phenomenon. Where the non-physicist sees a lovely but inexplicable event, the well-schooled physicist is able to perceive a brilliant design.
In truth, since the day that Albert Einstein first proposed the notion that there might be one overarching physical theory that governs the universe, aesthetics have become a driving force in modern physics. What Einstein and we, as his intellectual descendants, have discovered is this: Nature, as its most fundamental level, is beautifully constructed. The remarkable simplicity of the laws that governs the universe is, at times, nothing short of breath-taking. And at every step, as new discoveries and technologies allow us to examine the physical world on deeper and deeper levels, we find that the beauty itself becomes more profound. As Einstein himself said, it would seem more likely that we should find ourselves living a “chaotic world, in no way graspable through thinking.” Yet here we are, closer than ever to a full understanding of the universe’s beautiful clockwork.
31. The reference to “Marilyn Monroe” in Paragraph 1 primarily serves to ______.
32. The author’s assertion in Paragraph 1 (“what is considered repellent…in another”) suggests that ______.
33. As used in Paragraph 2, the phrase “laid down” most nearly means ______.
34. The author uses the words “ephemeral” and “Nature” (Paragraph 2) in order to ______.
35. In the course of outlining the various gifts of physics, the author cites all of the following EXCEPT ______.