【推荐1】Albert Einstein was probably the most famous scientist of the twentieth century. He changed scientific thinking in the modern world. He is generally considered as the greatest physicist who ever lived. What’s more, he devoted a lot of his time and energy to working for human rights and progress.

In 1933, while Einstein was visiting England and the United States, the Nazi government of Germany took all his things away, including his position and his citizenship. Einstein then settled down in the United States. In 1934, Einstein, who loved peace — afraid of a world in which only Hitler would have an atomic bomb (原子弹) — tried hard to persuade President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a famous letter to have the United States start uranium (铀) research. That Germany, after all, had no bomb, and that the first bomb would fall on Japan, could not have been expected. After the war, Einstein never stopped working for peace and reducing the number of soldiers in the world.

Although he wasn’t connected with any accepted religion (宗教), Einstein felt that trusting in a personal God was too special an idea to be suitable to the God at work in this universe, but he never believed that the universe was one of chance or disorder. The universe to him was one of pure law and order. He once said, "God may know everything, but he is not hateful."

1. From the passage we know that______________ .

A．no scientist is as great as Albert Einstein during this century

B．Albert Einstein was likely to be the greatest scientist of his time

C．Albert Einstein made the first atomic bomb for the United States

D．Albert Einstein gave up his German citizenship for political reasons

2. If Einstein had known that Hitler had no atomic bomb and that the first atomic bomb would fall on Japan, he would_______________ .

A．have continued his scientific research

B．have won another Nobel Prize for Physics

C．not have advised starting uranium research in the U.S.A.

D．not have moved to the U.S.A.

3. Einstein__________ in 1933.

A．visited England and the U.S.A.

B．advised the United States to start uranium research

C．became a man without citizenship

D．both A and C

4. Einstein believed that everything in the universe________________.

A．was kept in order by its own law

B．had nothing to do with each other

C．happened in an irregular way

D．was made by the personal God

【推荐2】阅读下面短文，根据题目要求回答问题。

CaoYuan proved he was special at age 14 when he was enrolled in the University of Science and Technology of China’s School of the Gifted Young, which is a special school to nurture (养) teenagers into world-class talents.

But Cao himself didn’t think he was special. He often stressed that he was just an ordinary kid who loved reading about science and doing experiments.

But there is other evidence that Cao is a bit different. On Dec. 19, the now 22-year-old doctoral candidate in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the US, was named one of the 10 people who mattered this year by the journal Nature. It was for discovering a “magic angle” in graphene sheets that he has opened up a new field of superconductor physics （超导体物理学）.

Graphene, first discovered in 2004 is a material made of a single layer of carbon atoms. It’s the thinnest and strongest material in the world. Cao’s work shows that when two layers of graphene are cooled to 1.7 C above absolute zero (-273^oC) and rotated (旋转) to a “magic angle” of 1.1 degrees, the upper layer of graphene exhibits nonconducting behaviors.

However, Cao found that these electrons (电子) could flow in the graphene sandwich freely---as if they were travelling through a superconductor when small amounts of electrons were added to the structure.

The discovery is exciting. “One can imagine making a superconducting transistor out of graphene, which you can switch on and off, from superconducting to insulating,” Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, Cao’s professor at MIT, told Science Daily.

But why was Cao able to make the discovery? Both his high school physics teacher Huang Jiatang and Jarillo-Herrero attribute it to Cao’s capacity for independent learning and interest in doing experiments.

Huang said that he remembered that as a young kid Cao had a strong ability to study on his own, a love for hands-on experiments and was unafraid to challenge teachers and ask difficult questions.

Cao seems to be a highly inquisitive young man. Jarillo-Herrero told Nature that Cao’s hobbies include photographing the night sky using homemade cameras. “Every time I go in Cao’ office, it’s a huge mess, with computers taken apart and pieces of telescope all over his desk”, he said.

But even with such convincing proof, Cao still sees himself as an ordinary college student. “After all, we are all humans, with flaws and emotions,” he said.

1. List two factors that lead to Cao’s achievement.
2. Why was Cao Yuan listed “Person of the Year” by the journal Nature?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
Cao Yuan discovered graphene and opened up a new field of superconductor physics.
4. Do you think you have any talent? Why or why not? (about 40 words)

【推荐3】Eight years before his death in 1896, Alfred Nobel was surprised to read an obituary (讣告) in the local newspaper. It was a strange obituary, for it told Alfred Nobel, the man who was reading it, that he was dead. The newspaper had confused Alfred with his brother, Ludwig, who had recently died.

Nobel was shocked to read that he had passed away, and he was also annoyed by the title of his obituary: “The Merchant of Death is Dead”. Alfred was an armaments manufacturer (武器制造商), and a very rich and successful one. This incident got him thinking about his reputation. What would people think of him after his real death? Would they really say, “That was a man who profited from killing”？

It was this thought that led him to leave his huge amount of money for the founding of the famous Nobel prizes. His aim was to support the ongoing quest (追求) for excellence in the sciences and literature, and the ideal of peace. The first awards were given out in 1901, and since then thousands of men and women have been honored.

The awards let the world know about developments that may have a huge effect, on our lives. Of the most famous awardees, think about Polish chemist Marie Curie, who was the first woman to win a Nobel, in 1903. Sometimes, the prizes are controversial. There is often protest (抗议) at the award of the peace prize when not everyone thinks that the awardees deserve the award. Even the award for literature has sometimes been criticized, although it is often because the award committees neglect important writers. The highly influential novelists James Joyce and Marcel Proust, for example, were never honored by the Swedish Academy.

Still, for the most part the awards don’t cause many complaints. Alfred Nobel founded the prize to recognize those who have had “the greatest benefit on mankind” and few would disagree that most of the prize winners have made contributions that deserved to be honored and remembered.

1. How did Alfred Nobel feel when he read the obituary in the newspaper?

A．Amused and understanding.	B．Sad and worried.
C．Shocked and upset.	D．Surprised and confused.

2. What did Alfred Nobel decide to do after reading the obituary?

A．Stop producing any killing weapons.

B．Donate all his money to charity.

C．Pursue excellence in the sciences.

D．Use his money to set up the Nobel prizes.

3. Why are James Joyce and Marcel Proust mentioned in the article?

A．To prove the influence of the Nobel prizes on literature.

B．To show the controversy of some Nobel prizes.

C．To explain the standard of giving out the Nobel prizes.

D．To give examples of influential Nobel prize-winners.

4. What is the author’s opinion toward Nobel prizes?

A．There are too many controversial winners.

B．There should be more female winners.

C．They have honored many worthy winners.

D．The committees should be more selective.