居里夫人

山東 孫啟祿

瑪麗·居里是第一個(gè)榮獲諾貝爾科學(xué)類獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)的女科學(xué)家，也是第一個(gè)兩度榮獲諾貝爾獎(jiǎng)的科學(xué)家。

體裁文章詞數(shù) 建議用時(shí)約3817分鐘人物傳記

難詞探意

1. obsessive /?b?ses?v/ adj. 著迷的

2. penniless /?penil?s/ adj. 窮困的

3. trivial/?tr?vi?l/ adj. 瑣碎的

4. extract/?ekstr?kt/ v. 提取；提煉

Only one person in history has received two Nobel Prizes in two different scientific fields.That person is Marie Curie. Outwardly shy and retiring, this obsessive genius was not only the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize, but the only woman to win twice for the discovery of radium and polonium (釙).

Marie was born on 7 November, 1867 in Warsaw. Aged 24, she moved to Paris, which was supposed to be a temporary move. Her plan was to gain her teacher's diploma and then return to Poland. But Parisian labs and loves changed the course of her life forever.

At first, Parisian life was a real challenge for a penniless student who was struggling to communicate in French and renting a tiny,freezing attic room where she piled all her clothing on her bed to keep warm at night.Finding work was also testing for a young girl in the male-dominated world of science. Marie repeatedly tried to find a job in a lab, but kept being met with rejection. Eventually she was given the chance to carry out some trivial tasks.But her technical proficiency immediately attracted attention, gaining the respect of her colleagues. It was while working in these labs that she met a certain scientist named Pierre Curie, later her husband.

In June 1898, Marie and Pierre extracted a black powder 330 times more radioactive than uranium (鈾), calling their discovery polonium.Marie was unashamedly open about the fact that her native Poland inspired the name. Six months later, the Curies announced they'd found another new chemical element, radium. In 1903, Becquerel and the Curies shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of so-called “radioactivity”. This was groundbreaking. No woman had ever won a Nobel Prize before. But just when the Curies seemed to be flying high, Pierre had a tragic accident and died instantly.

Sadly, Marie moved the family to the outskirts of Paris, where Pierre's father played a big role in helping to bring up his granddaughters. Torn between family and science,Marie continued to throw herself into her work.Marie died in 1934. Her death was almost certainly the result of over-exposure to radiation,as she was so obsessed with her work.

1. Why did Marie move to Paris?

A. To find a job.

B. To have a travel.

C. To search for her husband.

D. To gain a teacher's diploma.

2. What's the meaning of the underlined word“testing” in paragraph 3?

A. Boring. B. Challenging.

C. Interesting. D. Amazing.

3. What made Marie gain the respect of her colleagues?

A. Her poor living conditions.

B. Her independent personality.

C. Her technical performance.

D. Her relationship with Pierre Curie.

4. What's polonium named after?

A. A country.

B. A prize.

C. A black powder.

D. A famous person.

At first, Parisian life was a real challenge for a penniless student who was struggling to communicate in French and renting a tiny,freezing attic room where she piled all her clothing on her bed to keep warm at night. 起初，對(duì)于一個(gè)身無分文、用法語交流困難的學(xué)生來說，巴黎的生活是一個(gè)真正的挑戰(zhàn)，她租了一間小而冰冷的閣樓房間，在那里她會(huì)把所有的衣服都堆在床上以便晚上保暖。

【點(diǎn)石成金】該句中who引導(dǎo)定語從句，student是先行詞， 該定語從句中包含另一個(gè)由where引導(dǎo)的定語從句，room為先行詞。

愛因斯坦的《悼念瑪麗·居里》譯文節(jié)選

我幸運(yùn)地同居里夫人有二十年崇高而真摯的友誼。我對(duì)她的人格的偉大愈來愈感到欽佩。 她的堅(jiān)強(qiáng)，她的意志的純潔，她的律己之嚴(yán)，她的客觀，她的公正不阿的判斷——所有這一切都難得地集中在一個(gè)人的身上。她在任何時(shí)候都意識(shí)到自己是社會(huì)的公仆，她極端地謙虛，永遠(yuǎn)不給自滿留下任何余地。 由于社會(huì)的嚴(yán)酷和不平等，她的心情總是抑郁的。 這就使得她具有那樣嚴(yán)肅的外貌，很容易使那些不接近她的人發(fā)生誤解——這是一種無法用任何藝術(shù)氣質(zhì)來解釋的少見的嚴(yán)肅性。一旦她認(rèn)識(shí)到某一條道路是正確的，她就毫不妥協(xié)地并且極端頑強(qiáng)地堅(jiān)持走下去。