Concept:The passage is about Stephen Hawking's life story, arranged in a logical order of events and contrasts.
Explanation:The first sentence (S1) talks about how few scientists inspire people outside academia.
Sentence P logically follows S1 because it introduces Stephen Hawking as one of those rare scientists.
Sentence R comes next: it sets up the contrast – as a young graduate student at Cambridge, his odds of future success seemed very low.
Sentence S then gives the first setback: at age 20, he was denied working with the famous Fred Hoyle for his PhD.
Sentence Q follows with another devastating news: he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and given only two years to live.
The sixth sentence (S6) concludes by saying that not many would have survived such a disease, let alone excelled.
Thus the correct sequence of the four middle sentences is P, R, S, Q – which is option D.
Answer:Option D (P R S Q)