1 . 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.