中国网站品牌栏目（频道）
Physicists at the CERN research center in Geneva, Switzerland achieved high-power collisions of sub-atomic particles on Tuesday in their attempt to create mini-versions of the Big Bang that led to the birth of the universe 13.7 billion years ago.
The experiment at CERN, which stands for the European Center for Nuclear Research, in creating a record for the energy of particle conditions, will allow researchers to examine the nature of matter and the origin of stars and planets.
"This is a major breakthrough. We are going where nobody has been before. We have opened a new territory for physics," said Oliver Buchmueller, one of the key figures on the $9.4 billion project.
The collisions took place at a record total collision energy of 7 billion billion electron volts (eV) and at a nano-fraction of a second slower than the speed of light in CERN's 27 km (16.8 mile) Large Hadron Collider (LHC), about a hundred meters (330 feet) below the Swiss-French border.
During the coming months and years, CERN scientists expect the project to lift the veil on some of the mysteries of the cosmos - how matter was created to mass after the fireball of the Big Bang and what is the dark, or invisible, matter that makes up an estimated 25 percent of the universe.
Questions:
1. What collided in the laboratory at the CERN research center?
2. What do the initials CERN stand for?
3. What’s the price tag for this project?
Answers:
1. sub-atomic particles.
2. European Center for Nuclear Research.
3. $9.4 billion.
（中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑）
About the broadcaster:
Renee Haines is an editor and broadcaster at China Daily. Renee has more than 15 years of experience as a newspaper editor, radio station anchor and news director, news-wire service reporter and bureau chief, magazine writer, book editor and website consultant. She came to China from the United States.
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