One of the most famous aromatic (1)_______in organic chemistry is benzene, whose molecules each (2) __________ six carbon atoms and six hydrogen atoms: but what is benzene's molecular structure? Today, the answer to this question is well known, but during much of the nineteenth century it was a profound (3) ___________ .
One night, after yet another fruitless (4) ________ to discover the structure, German chemist Friedrich August Kekulc fell asleep and dreamed a bizarre dream in which the various atoms of benzene were jumping all around him, combining and recombining in a dizzy phantasmagoria of shapes. (5)___________ right before his amazed eyes, they (6) ___________ to form an ourobouros - a snake-like dragon that (7) _____________ its own tail in its mouth, forming a ring. Instantly, Kekule awoke and knew that (8)________ he had found the answer: the six carbon atoms of benzene were (9) _______ to one another not in a line, or in a series of branched connections, but in a closed ring! And he was (10) ____________ .
