Read the text below. For questions (23-32) choose the correct answer (A, B, C or D). Write your answers on the separate answer sheet.
Voynich Manuscript
Named (23)________ the Polish-American antiquarian bookseller Wilfrid M. Voynich, who acquired it in 1912, the Voynich Manuscript is a detailed 240-page book written in a language or script that is (24)________ unknown. Its pages are also filled with colorful drawings of strange diagrams, odd events and plants that do not seem to (25)________ any known species, adding to the intrigue of the document and the difficulty of deciphering it. The original author of the manuscript (26)________ unknown, but carbon dating has revealed that its pages were made sometime (27)________ 1404 and 1438. It has been called “the world’s most mysterious manuscript.”
Theories abound about the origin and nature of the manuscript. Some believe it was (28)________ to be a pharmacological encyclopaedia, to address topics in medieval or early modern medicine. Many of the pictures of herbs and plants (29)________ that it may have been some kind of textbook for an alchemist. The fact that many diagrams appear to be of astronomical origin, (30)________ with the unidentifiable biological drawings, has even (31)________ some fanciful theorists to propose that the book may have an alien origin.
One thing most theorists agree on is that the book is unlikely to be a hoax, given the (32)________ of time, money and detail that would have been required to make it.