Below, a passage is given with five blanks labelled (A)-(E). Below the passage, five options are given for each blank. Choose the word that fits each blank most appropriately in the context of the passage, and mark the corresponding answer.

Is our universe unique? From science fiction to science fact, there is a concept that suggests that there could be other universes besides our own, where all the choices you made in this life played out in alternate realities. The concept is known as a "parallel universe," and is a _(A)_ of the astronomical theory of the multiverse.

This thought _(B)_ the mind and yet, it is still _(C)_. The idea is pervasive in comic books, video games, television and movies. Notions of parallel universes or dimensions that resemble our own have appeared in works of science fiction and have been used as explanations for _(D)_.

Famously, physicist's Stephen Hawking's last paper before his death also dealt with the multiverse. The paper was published in May 2018, just a few months after Hawking's _(E)_. About the theory, he told Cambridge University in an interview published in The Washington Post, "We are not down to a single, unique universe, but our findings imply a significant reduction of the multiverse to a much smaller range of possible universes."