Can anyone please help me understand if my thought process is correct? (I did get the right answer):
Method - block of 4
“Prevailing” (although this is not given, I infered that the good reputation that scientists have is the prevailing phenomenon) vs “Recent evidence” are in contrast; the other pair is “pristine reputation” (before the recent evidence or in the past) and the blank should be in contrast to this, so something like “not pristine” or “tainted/ sully”
Now that we understand the sentence a bit better and blank 2 supports this idea, it should be something like “falsified” (basically something that supports the idea that now the scientists’ reputation has been sullied)