1 . Born on her family’s farm in Ray, North Dakota, Mary Sherman Morgan had been helping her father with farm work before she could attend the small-town schoolhouse. Being a few years behind didn’t hold her back and she graduated from high school with honors. Aware of her intelligence, she ran away from Ray to attend Minot State University as a chemistry major, where her skill was evident.
The outbreak of World War II resulted in a national shortage of chemists and scientists. In spite of the fact that she was still a student and a woman, she was offered a job as a chemical analyst due to her talents, producing explosives(爆炸物)for the wartime effort. She put her degree on hold and moved to Ohio, taking on the dangerous job of analyzing unstable chemicals to produce weapons.
After the war ended there was a fall in demand for explosives, so she made a move to the field of aeronautics, moving to California to work for NAA(North American Aviation). The only woman out of 900 engineers, she was soon promoted to a role which involved calculating the performance of rocket propellants(推进剂)and designing speciality fuels to work with different engines. However, never having returned to complete her degree, she was not afforded the rank or higher pay of an engineer, even though she had all the skills and knowledge of one.
Her experience with propellants meant that when NAA was tasked to find a fuel capable of lifting the redesigned Redstone missiles into space, Mogan was appointed technical lead on the project. National pride was on the line, so Morgan set about investigating fuels. After countless trails, she finally designed her own mixture, which was named Hydyne.
Hydyne tested well with the Redstone missiles and subsequently other aircraft(飞行器), such as Jupiter-C rockets, proving to be a quick solution to getting to space without a total rocket redesign. The fuel made the first successful US satellite launch possible, even if Morgan silently slipped away from her success, retiring to focus on her family and leaving her chemistry career behind.
1. What do we know about Mary?| A．She attended school while helping with farm work. |
| B．She was offered a job as a chemistry analyst after graduation. |
| C．She shifted her working focus as the domestic demand changed. |
| D．She launched the first US satellite before retiring from her career. |
| A．Analyzing chemicals. | B．Producing explosives. |
| C．Mixing and saving fuels. | D．Designing and building aircraft. |
| A．Her discovery of Hydyne. | B．Her rank as an engineer. |
| C．Her special knowledge in fuels. | D．Her sense of national pride. |
| A．Caring and determined. | B．Courageous and creative. |
| C．Intelligent but sensitive. | D．Accomplished but proud. |
People around the globe have been mourning the death of Chinese scientist Yuan Longping,
Born in Beijing in 1930, Yuan devoted his entire life
Having spent over five decades in hybrid rice research, Yuan has helped China work a great wonder—
Russell is a woman scientist who first saw the dangers of X-rays for pregnant women. She was born
4 . Throughout modern history, there has perhaps never been a scientist as iconic (标志性的) as Stephen Hawking.
On March 14, the British physicist passed away at his home in Cambridge, England. Since then, many people have expressed their condolences on social media. Whether be was educating the world with his knowledge of the universe, or making fun of himself in TV shows like The Simpsons, it's hard to imagine what the world will be like now Hawking is no longer in it.
Hawking was an icon for many reasons, but he will be best remembered for his work in the field of science. Building on German scientist Albert Einstein's work. Hawking explained his belief that space started with the Big Bang, and will end with black holes. This proposal kicked off a series of investigations, including into the origin of the universe itself. "This complex set of law can give us the answers to questions like how did the universe begin," Hawking wrote in his 2010 work The Grand Design. "Where is it going and will it have an end? If so, how will it end?"
His work in science abide, he also managed to overcome many difficulties in his personal life. While studying for a postgraduate degree in cosmology at Cambridge University, he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 21. His illness left him paralyzed and he was told he only had a short time to live. However, he went on to become one of the greatest minds the world has ever known. "I felt it was very unfair — why should this happen to me," he wrote in his 2013 memoir. "At the time, I thought my life was over and that I would never realize the potential I felt I had. But now, 50 years later, I can he quietly satisfied with my life."
Hawking leaves behind a great legacy. His signature book A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes published in 1988, became one of the world's best-selling science publications. He inky no longer be with us, but Hawking will continue to inspire the world for generations to come. As he once said himself, "Look up at the stars and not down at your feet."
1. What can we know about Stephen Hawking from the passage? ______| A．He left us humans a priceless legacy, A Brief History of Time. |
| B．He was born with a disease which left him paralyzed. |
| C．He was well-known as an icon only for his achievement in science. |
| D．He always complained life was unfair to him after he became paralyzed. |
| A．answer for | B．set off |
| C．put forward | D．lead to |
| A．Just do what you love and believe in, and success will come naturally. |
| B．However tough life may seem,be curious and there is always hope ahead. |
| C．Be determined and confident rather than keep feeling frustrated all day |
| D．You cannot improve your past,but you can improve your future. |
5 . October 31, 2009, California
Tsien Hsue-shen, PhD’39, one of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, died on October 31, He was 98.
Tsien, born in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, graduated from the National Qinghua University in 1934 and in August of 1935 he left China to study at the Massachusetts Institute Technology. In 1936 he went to the California Institute of Technology to commence graduate studies. Tsien obtained his doctor degree in 1939 and would remain at Caltech for 20 years, becoming the Goddard Professor and establishing a reputation as one of the leading rocket scientists in the United States.
In 1943, Tsien and two others in the Caltech rocketry group drafted the first document to use the name Jet Propulsion Laboratory. During the Second World War, he was amongst the other scientists participated the "Manhattan Project". After World War II he served as a consultant to the United States Army Air Force. During this time, Conlonel Tsien worked on designing an intercontinental space plane. His work would inspire the X—20Dyna-Soar which would later be the inspiration for the Space Shuttle. In 1945 Tsien Hsue-shen married Jiang Ying, the daughter of Jiang Baili—one of the Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek’s leading military strategists. But in 1950, the Chinese-born scientist was accused of harboring Communist sympathies and stripped of his security clearance.
In September 1955, he was permitted to leave for China, where Tsien resumed his research, founded the Institute of Mechanics, and went on to become the father of China’s missile program, a trusted member of the government and Party’s inner circle, and the nation’s most honored scientist, Tsien retired in 1991 and has maintained a low public profile in Beijing, China. The PRC government launched its manned space program in 1992 and used Tsien’s research as the basis for the Long March rocket which successfully launched the Shenzhou V mission in October of 2003. The elderly Tsien was able to watch China’s first manned space mission on television from his hospital bed.
In his late years, since the 1980s, Tsien devoted himself to spirituality research, and advocated scientific investigation of traditional Chinese medicine, Qigong and ""special human body functions".
1. The underlined word "commence" in this passage probably means ________.| A．make up | B．get | C．begin | D．promise |
| A．45 | B．28 | C．24 | D．34 |
a. his later life b. return to China
c. career in the U. S. A d. his early life and education
| A．a-b-c-d | B．d-c-b-a | C．d-b-c-a | D．c-b-d-a |
| A．Tsien Hsue-shen got a doctor’s degree in 1939. |
| B．Tsien Hsue-shen married Jiang Ying, the daughter of Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shen. |
| C．Tsien Hsue-shen has made a contribution to the Space Shuttle. |
| D．Tsien Hsue-shen was interested in traditional Chinese medicine, qigong and "special human body funcitions" in his later life. |
