2 . Throughout history scientists have risked their health and their lives in their search for the truth.

Sir Issac Newton，the seventeenth century scientist was very smart, but that didn’t stop him from doing some pretty stupid things. In his laboratory in Cambridge, he often did the strangest experiments. Once, while testing how light passes through lenses(晶状体), he put a long needle into his eye, pushed it to the back, and then moved it around just to see what would happen. Luckily, there was no lasting bad effect. On another occasion, he stared at the sun, for as long as he could bear, to discover what effect this would have on his sight. To escape suffering permanent damage, he had to spend some days in a dark room before his eyes recovered.

In the 1750s,the Swedish chemist Karl Scheele, was the first person to find a way to produce phosphorus(磷). He, in fact, discovered eight more chemical elements, including Chlorine(氯)，though he didn’t get any place for them. He was a very clever scientist, but he had a strange habit of tasting a little of every substance he studied. This risky practice finally caught up with him. In 1 786,he was found dead in his laboratory, surrounded by a large number of dangerous chemicals, any of which might have been responsible for his death.

Eugene Shoemaker was a respected geologist, he spent a large part of his life studying craters(陨石坑), and how they were formed, and later the research into the comments of the plane Jupiter. In 1997, he and his wife were in the Australian desert. where they went every year to search for places where comets(彗星)might have hit the earth. While driving in the Tanami desert, one of the most open places in the world, another vehicle rushed into them, and Shoe maker died on the spot. Some of his ashes(骨灰)were sent to the moon by the Lunar Prospect or, a spacecraft. and he is the only person who has this honor.

4 . Johannes Gutenberg

Johannes Gutenberg, born around the year 1400 in Germany, is widely regarded as the inventor of the modern printing press. Before about 1450, most books were written or copied by hand. This made them extremely time-consuming to produce and expensive to buy. But in 1455 Gutenberg developed a machine which could print multiple copies of the same book. Gutenberg did not achieve financial success as a result of his breakthrough, but his invention helped to spread knowledge across Europe and was a major factor in the Renaissance.

Louis Braille

Born in France in 1809, Louis Braille became blind at the age of three after an accident in his father’s workshop. When he was ten, he earned a place at a special school for blind children in Paris. In 1821, Charles Barbiera, a former soldier, visited the school and talked about a code that he’d invented which allowed soldiers to share information on the battlefield without speaking. Impressed by this idea, Louis worked on his own code to help the blind read. The code that Louis invented has become standard throughout the world.

Samuel Morse

Samuel Morse, born in 1791 in Massachusetts, USA, started his career not as an inventor but as an artist. He had great artistic talent and soon became well-known for his portraits, but he also had a passion for new technology. In 1832, while travelling home by sea from Europe, he overheard a conversation about electromagnetism, and this gave him the idea for a new form of communication-the electric telegraph. Although other inventors had developed similar machine, Morse’s worked better and he applied for and got the patent in 1837.

Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell, a pioneer in the field of telecommunications, was born in 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Perhaps because of his mother’s hearing problems, Bell had a particular interest in the education of deaf people. This led him to invent the microphone. Bell was not the only inventor working in this field, but his lawyer managed to secure the all-important patent which gave Bell ownership of the idea.

5 . Characteristics of an excellent scientist

The dictionary defines a scientist as a person having professional knowledge on one or more sciences, especially natural science or physical science.    1     Let’s look at some characteristics of an excellent scientist.

Curiosity

An excellent scientist must be very curious about things. Scientists such as Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse discovered things mainly because they wanted to know how things work.    2    

Patience

Becoming a scientist takes a long time.     3     Even if you think you have received some education on science, you still have a lot of scientific research to do. If you’re an instant-gratification type of person, this may not be the best choice for you.

Ethical (道德的) qualities

In order to truly discover and use knowledge for the greater good, a scientist must have a desire to improve people’s life as well as the environment, since they are linked and they can affect one another in the long run.     4     Sticking to an old belief contradicted with evidence is dishonest. However, that belief shouldn’t be changed without powerful evidence.

Working habits

    5    He/She can work well alone or in groups, depending on what’s needed and also needs to communicate thoughts on paper and verbally. Networking connects him/her with colleagues working on similar projects where he/she may discover something new.

6 . As is known, Albert Einstein was one of the greatest scientists of all time. He was also a really great person.

Einstein learned from making mistakes

    1    , someone asked him what he needed. He said he needed a desk, some paper and pencil. He also needed a basket to hold his mistakes. This shows that he knew even the cleverest man in the world can only learn by making mistakes.

    2    

Many children wrote letters to ask him for help with their homework. One day, he wrote a letter to a young girl to tell her not to worry about her Maths homework because he thought Maths was difficult too.

Einstein considered time to be important

He never wore socks because he thought putting on socks was a waste of time as people already wore shoes. He also thought remembering things found in books was not worth it.     3    . He knew what was worth remembering. It is true that if we are going to do great things in our lives, we cannot waste time.

Einstein liked to joke too

In one exam, a student asked him why all the questions were the same as last year’s. Einstein replied the questions were the same, but the answers were different.     4    !

When Einstein was a child, his teachers used to say he was not clever. However, Einstein kept working hard and surprised the world with his achievements.     5    , we should think of him. So, never be discouraged!

At age 5，Lin Qiaozhi lost her mother，    1     death affected her deeply. So at age 18, she decided to study medicine despite     2     (complain) from her brother. After graduating from Peking Union Medical College with the Wenhai Scholarship, the     3     (high) prize given to     4     (graduate), she     5     (hire) as a resident physician in the OB-GYN department of the PUMC Hospital and later was named     6     chief resident physician. Several years later, she was sent to study in Europe and then the US where she was invited to stay by her colleagues but she     7     (reject) their offer.

In1941, Lin Qiaozhi became the first Chinese woman ever     8     (appoint) director of the OB-GYN department of the PUMC Hospital. In1954, she was elected to the first National People's Congress. However, despite all these important positions, she was more interested in tending patients,     9     (publish) medical research on care for women and children, and training the next generation of doctors. Though Lin Qiaozhi never married, she was known     10     the “mother of ten thousand babies", having delivered over 50,000 babies in her lifetime.