居里夫人

山東 孫啟祿

瑪麗·居里是第一個榮獲諾貝爾科學類獎項的女科學家，也是第一個兩度榮獲諾貝爾獎的科學家。

體裁文章詞數 建議用時約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，對于一個身無分文、用法語交流困難的學生來說，巴黎的生活是一個真正的挑戰，她租了一間小而冰冷的閣樓房間，在那里她會把所有的衣服都堆在床上以便晚上保暖。

【點石成金】該句中who引導定語從句，student是先行詞， 該定語從句中包含另一個由where引導的定語從句，room為先行詞。

愛因斯坦的《悼念瑪麗·居里》譯文節選

我幸運地同居里夫人有二十年崇高而真摯的友誼。我對她的人格的偉大愈來愈感到欽佩。 她的堅強，她的意志的純潔，她的律己之嚴，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人的身上。她在任何時候都意識到自己是社會的公仆，她極端地謙虛，永遠不給自滿留下任何余地。 由于社會的嚴酷和不平等，她的心情總是抑郁的。 這就使得她具有那樣嚴肅的外貌，很容易使那些不接近她的人發生誤解——這是一種無法用任何藝術氣質來解釋的少見的嚴肅性。一旦她認識到某一條道路是正確的，她就毫不妥協地并且極端頑強地堅持走下去。