Excerpt from “Marie Sklodowska Curie”
by Mary Rosetta Parkman
Paragraph 1 The child who used to delight in experiments with light waves in her father’s laboratory was interested in the strange glow which Professor Becquerel had found that the substance known as uranium gave off spontaneously. Like the X-rays, this light passes through wood and other bodies opaque1 to sunlight. Madame Curie became deeply interested in the problem of the nature of these Becquerel rays and their wonderful properties, such as that of making the air a conductor for electricity. One day she discovered that pitchblende, the black mineral from which uranium is extracted, was more radioactive (that is, it gave off more powerful rays) than the isolated substance itself, and she came to the conclusion that there was some other element in the ore which, could it be extracted, would prove more valuable than uranium.

At last their toil was rewarded, and two new elements were separated from pitchblende—polonium, so named by Madame Curie in honor of her native Poland, and radium, the most marvelous of all radioactive substances. A tiny pinch of radium, which is a grayish white powder not unlike coarse salt in appearance, gives out a strange glow something like that of fireflies, but bright enough to read by. Moreover, light and heat are radiated by this magic element with no apparent waste of its own amount or energy. Radium can also make some other substances, diamonds for instance, shine with a light like its own, and it makes the air a conductor of electricity. Its weird glow passes through bone almost as readily as through tissue paper or through flesh, and it even penetrates an inch-thick iron plate.

Paragraph 12 Everybody wondered at the courage and quiet power with which Madame Curie went out to meet her new life. She succeeded to her husband’s professorship, and carried on his special lines of investigation as well as her own. The value of her work to science and to humanity may be indicated by the fact that in 1911 the Nobel Prize was again awarded to her—the only time it has ever been given more than once to the same person.

At home, she tried to be a good mother. She took her children, Irene and Eve, for walks in the evening, and while she sewed on their dresses and knitted them mittens and mufflers, she told them stories of the wonderland of science.

“Why do you take time to write down everything you do?” asked Eve one day, as she looked over her mother’s shoulder at the neat notebook in which the world-famous scientist was summing up the work of the day.

“Why does a seaman keep a log, dearie?” the mother questioned with a smile. “A laboratory is just like a ship, and I want things shipshape. Every day with me is like a voyage—a voyage of discovery.”

“But why do you put question marks everywhere, Mother!” persisted the child.

It was true that the pages fairly bristled with interrogation points.3 Madame Curie laughed as if she had never noticed this before. “It is good to have an inquiring mind, child,” she said. “I am like my children; I love to ask questions. And when one gets an answer—when you really discover something—it only leads to more questions; and so we go on from one thing to another.”

When Madame Curie was asked on one occasion to what she attributed her success, she replied, without hesitation: “To my excellent training: first, under my father, who taught me to wonder and to test; second, under my husband, who understood and encouraged me; and third, under my children, who question me!
Which statement summarizes the text?

A.
Madame Curie and her husband worked tirelessly in the field of scientific research. She set an example of curiosity and passion for her children.

B.
Madame Curie is the only scientist to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize twice in a lifetime. She is still rather unknown, despite having achieved this honor.

C.
Madame Curie’s skills in research exceeded her husband’s skills. Her fame was the root of many of their disagreements.

D.
Madame Curie’s success was due to her husband’s presence at her side during research. Together they taught their children how to conduct experiments and write papers.

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24-04-2024
English

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Excerpt from “Marie Sklodowska Curie”
by Mary Rosetta Parkman
Paragraph 1 The child who used to delight in experiments with light waves in her father’s laboratory was interested in the strange glow which Professor Becquerel had found that the substance known as uranium gave off spontaneously. Like the X-rays, this light passes through wood and other bodies opaque1 to sunlight. Madame Curie became deeply interested in the problem of the nature of these Becquerel rays and their wonderful properties, such as that of making the air a conductor for electricity. One day she discovered that pitchblende, the black mineral from which uranium is extracted, was more radioactive (that is, it gave off more powerful rays) than the isolated substance itself, and she came to the conclusion that there was some other element in the ore which, could it be extracted, would prove more valuable than uranium.

At last their toil was rewarded, and two new elements were separated from pitchblende—polonium, so named by Madame Curie in honor of her native Poland, and radium, the most marvelous of all radioactive substances. A tiny pinch of radium, which is a grayish white powder not unlike coarse salt in appearance, gives out a strange glow something like that of fireflies, but bright enough to read by. Moreover, light and heat are radiated by this magic element with no apparent waste of its own amount or energy. Radium can also make some other substances, diamonds for instance, shine with a light like its own, and it makes the air a conductor of electricity. Its weird glow passes through bone almost as readily as through tissue paper or through flesh, and it even penetrates an inch-thick iron plate.

Paragraph 12 Everybody wondered at the courage and quiet power with which Madame Curie went out to meet her new life. She succeeded to her husband’s professorship, and carried on his special lines of investigation as well as her own. The value of her work to science and to humanity may be indicated by the fact that in 1911 the Nobel Prize was again awarded to her—the only time it has ever been given more than once to the same person.

At home, she tried to be a good mother. She took her children, Irene and Eve, for walks in the evening, and while she sewed on their dresses and knitted them mittens and mufflers, she told them stories of the wonderland of science.

“Why do you take time to write down everything you do?” asked Eve one day, as she looked over her mother’s shoulder at the neat notebook in which the world-famous scientist was summing up the work of the day.

“Why does a seaman keep a log, dearie?” the mother questioned with a smile. “A laboratory is just like a ship, and I want things shipshape. Every day with me is like a voyage—a voyage of discovery.”

“But why do you put question marks everywhere, Mother!” persisted the child.

It was true that the pages fairly bristled with interrogation points.3 Madame Curie laughed as if she had never noticed this before. “It is good to have an inquiring mind, child,” she said. “I am like my children; I love to ask questions. And when one gets an answer—when you really discover something—it only leads to more questions; and so we go on from one thing to another.”

When Madame Curie was asked on one occasion to what she attributed her success, she replied, without hesitation: “To my excellent training: first, under my father, who taught me to wonder and to test; second, under my husband, who understood and encouraged me; and third, under my children, who question me!
Which statement summarizes the text?

A.
Madame Curie and her husband worked tirelessly in the field of scientific research. She set an example of curiosity and passion for her children.

B.
Madame Curie is the only scientist to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize twice in a lifetime. She is still rather unknown, despite having achieved this honor.

C.
Madame Curie’s skills in research exceeded her husband’s skills. Her fame was the root of many of their disagreements.

D.
Madame Curie’s success was due to her husband’s presence at her side during research. Together they taught their children how to conduct experiments and write papers.

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