1 . Dr. Tatiana Erukhimova is a physics professor at Texas A&M who aims to show her students, especially the young women, that there are no limits.
Only 25% of physics undergraduate students are female. Perhaps it is because boys grow up playing with machines and making drawings of fast cars and rocket explosions. But girls are just as curious about the way the world works — they just haven’t jumped into the culture of chemical reactions, energy and magnetic force with as much enthusiasm. That is, until they see one of Tatiana’s videos showing the science behind real life’s magic. Tatiana is really one of the few living female examples they could follow.
Her videos get millions of views. She is a ball of energy with a short haircut, a Russian accent and a lively personality that makes physics accessible to the younger audience. Young girls are attracted to Tatiana’s attractive demonstrations the way they flock to pop concerts. This is real. This is science they can participate in. This is an open door to endless possibilities.
“These short clips are the spark that inspires,” Tatiana says with so much excitement that it lights up the room. Everything she does involves students. She believes the magic in learning is when your peers are part of the demonstration, when you are part of the teaching process.
“She wants everything to be a celebration of science,” says one of Tatiana’s former students. And indeed, the classroom is in a party atmosphere, with students cheering when amazed by Newton’s law of motion, demonstrated by a spinning bicycle wheel held upright by the professor. It’s hard to tell who is more delighted, Tatiana or her students. She is an attraction for female students who are graduating college and working in the sciences in higher numbers than ever before.
Dr. Tatiana’s story began in Russia and her parents were both physicists. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Tatiana moved to Texas with her husband, also a physicist. They both teach at Texas A&M, and when Tatiana isn’t in the classroom, she is doing outreach with schoolchildren, amazing them with spinning lights that soon form words, liquid oxygen that shrinks objects and chemical reactions that expand matter to 10 times its size. But most importantly, she is expanding the audience of female physicists.
1. According to the passage, why do girls sometimes hesitate to jump into the culture of physics?| A．Lack of interest in chemical reactions. |
| B．Cultural differences in curiosity. |
| C．Absence of female role models. |
| D．Fear of liquid oxygen demonstrations. |
| A．They were made by a female physician. |
| B．They feature engaging demonstrations. |
| C．They are meant for Tatiana’s homeland. |
| D．They have received millions of likes online. |
| A．Appealing to students with fascinating demonstrations. |
| B．Teaching students some difficult physics concepts. |
| C．Explaining the history of Newton’s law of motion. |
| D．Encouraging girls to attend parties and pop concerts. |
| A．Female Professor Rejecting Gender Barrier |
| B．Russian Physicist and Female Scientists |
| C．Physics Professor Stimulating Girls’ Passion |
| D．The Significance of Online Short Videos |
注意：词数100左右。
参考词汇：杂交水稻 hybrid rice
Let the Scientific Spirit Live on
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3 . During his first years at Cambridge University, Stephen Hawking’s life was full of color. He felt as if the world was in his hands and he had a promising future. But to his surprise, his life changed. A rare disease stood in the way of his university life. When he went to see a doctor, he got the saddest news of his life. He had motor neurone disease (运动神经元病), a disease that causes the muscles to become weaker and ends in paralysis (瘫痪).
For someone in his 20s, with lots of promise and dreams, it was no doubt terrible news. What was worse, the doctor told him that the average life expectancy for people with his disease was no more than two years. In one moment, his world broke into pieces. But rather than feel sorry for himself, he made peace with life. He accepted that he wouldn’t live long, but he wanted to make his life brighter. He continued studying physics and later, as we know, he made great contributions to the field.
When he lived past the average life expectancy of two years, he surprised everybody. And more surprisingly, he lived for decades more. During those years, he got married and became a father to three children. On March 14, 2018, Hawking died in Cambridge, UK at the age of 76.
Stephen Hawking didn’t stop when he had difficulties. He contributed to the world with his strong will. He is seen as the greatest scientist since Albert Einstein. Without a doubt. his life was still colorful and meaningful.
1. What does the phrase “stand in the way of...” mean?| A．to walk in a special way | B．to try to stop something |
| C．to make one look like something | D．to help somebody do better in something |
| A．He went to see the most famous doctor in the field. |
| B．He accepted that he should live peacefully. |
| C．He decided to help more people like him. |
| D．He tried to make the best of his life. |
| A．He never got married. | B．He adopted three children. |
| C．He went on studying physics. | D．He died at the age the doctor guessed. |
| A．He was a great man with a strong will. | B．He gave up in the face of difficulties. |
| C．He lived a colorful and meaningful life. | D．He made great contributions to the world. |
4 . Throughout history scientists have risked their health and their lives in their search for the truth.
Sir Isaac 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, nothing long-lasting did. 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. Again he escaped suffering permanent damage, though he had to spend some days in a darkened 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 praise for them. He was a very clever scientist, but his one failing was a curious habit of tasting a little of every substance he worked with. This risky practice finally caught up with him, and in 1786 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 (火山口) on the moon, and how they were formed, and later did research into the comets of the planet Jupiter. In 1997 he and his wife were in the Australian desert where they went every year to search for places where comets might have hit the earth. While driving in the Tanami desert, normally one of the emptiest places in the world, another vehicle crashed into them and Shoemaker was killed on the spot. Some of his ashes (骨灰) were sent to the moon aboard the Lunar Prospector spacecraft and left there — he is the only person who has had this honor.
1. What does the underlined word “permanent” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．Brief. | B．Slight. |
| C．Lasting. | D．Ordinary. |
| A．Tasting chemicals. | B．Staying in the empty lab. |
| C．Experimenting in darkness. | D．Working together with others. |
| A．He was buried in the Tanami desert. |
| B．Some of his ashes were placed on the moon. |
| C．One comet of Jupiter was named after him. |
| D．A spacecraft carrying him traveled around Jupiter. |
| A．special honors | B．great achievements |
| C．famous experiments | D．suffering in the job |
