首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
______ changed the speaker’s family fortunes drastically in his childhood.
______ changed the speaker’s family fortunes drastically in his childhood.
admin
2009-06-24
62
问题
______ changed the speaker’s family fortunes drastically in his childhood.
My enthusiasm for science stems from horrid experiences during the First World War. I was nearly six when it broke out, and it completely changed our family fortunes: from being well-off to penury; to hunger, squalor and disease. Seeking escape from the grim reality, I read avidly, mainly science fiction. Jules Verne fired my imagination. I dreamed that science would become the means to alleviate the miseries of life and to eradicate the scourge of war. Thus, my life-long outlook on science was formed: it should push forward the frontiers of knowledge but also serve human welfare. The odds against my becoming a scientist were immense. I had to work for a living and was thus unable to attend school, the normal path to university. Nevertheless, I taught myself, reading science textbooks, mainly in physics.
I was 20 when I heard about the Free University of Poland in Warsaw, where a school certificate was not an entrance requirement, and classes were in the evenings. I enrolled for the physics course, and upon its completion in 1932, was offered a post as an assistant in the Physics Department. The salary was barely enough to get by, but I was in seventh heaven: at long last, I had the opportunity to do scientific research.
The year 1932 was the mirabilis in physics, the start of spectacular advances in the new subject of nuclear physics. My laboratory was very poorly equipped: we had only 30 rug of radium as the source of radiation. But by making up for scarcity with skill, we were able to compete with Fermi’s team in Rome, which had a gram of radium. Among our main achievements was the discovery of the inelastic scattering of neutrons.
In February 1939, I was working on the scattering of neutrons by uranium, when I read the paper by Meitner and Frisch on the discovery of fission. It occurred to me (as it did to others) that several neutrons should be emitted at fission, and it did not take me long to confirm it experimentally. This opened fateful possibilities: a chain reaction leading to the release of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, but also to the atom bomb.
Work on a weapon of mass destruction went totally against my scientific ideals. I knew, however, that these ideals would be eradicated if, by the acquisition of the bomb, Hitler won the war. Throughout the summer of 1939, I agonized over this dilemma. My scruples were finally overcome by the outbreak of the Second World War. By that time I was in Liverpool on a year’s research fellowship, working with James Chadwick In November 1939, I put to him that we should start research on the feasibility of the atom bomb. My rationale was that the only way to prevent Hitler from using the bomb and winning the war, was for us too to have it and to threaten retaliation. It was never my intention that the bomb be used; we needed it to prevent its use.
After the research work in Britain established the scientific feasibility of the bomb, several of us were invited to join the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos. When, near the end of 1944, I learned that the German atom bomb project had been abandoned, I immediately resigned and returned to Liverpool.
I learned about the "success" of the Manhattan Project when the BBC announced the destruction of Hiroshima. The use of the bomb on a civilian population shocked me deeply, and had a decisive influence on the rest of my life.
My childhood dream about science has become reality to a large extent. On the whole, we are now much better off, and most of the betterment is due to advances in science and technology. But these very advances have also increased the dangerous outcomes of a war. A war-free world may seem utopian, but the alternative is unacceptable.
选项
答案
science and technology
解析
本题答案对应于独白最后一段第二句:On the whole, we are now much better off...in science and technology,题句只是与后一分句在表达上稍有不同。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/muTd777K
本试题收录于:
公共英语五级笔试题库公共英语(PETS)分类
0
公共英语五级笔试
公共英语(PETS)
相关试题推荐
SurveyFoundManyWomenMisinformedAboutCancerSixty-threepercentofAmericanwomenthinkthatifthere’snofamilyhist
TheFridge1.Thefridgeisconsideredanecessity.Ithasbeensosincethe1960swhenpackagedfoodfirstappearedwiththe
WhichstatementisNOTtrueofone-liners?Whatchangedfrom1968to1996?
HowcanBritainreacttothethreatscomingfromRussiaaswellasfromthedevelopingcountries?Thereisalimit,ofcourse,t
Accordingtothepassage,whichofthefollowinghaschangedthemostinthelast500years?ThousandsofIrishpeoplestarved
NewFoodsandtheNewWorldInthelast500years,nothingaboutpeople--nottheirclothes,ideas,orlanguages--haschanged
A.Kripike’sresearchtool.B.Dangersofhabitualshortagesofsleep.C.CriticismonKripke’sreport.D.Awayofovercominginsom
WhatisDaleKohler?
随机试题
为什么有些零件加工前需要划线?
注册会计师在实施审计工作的基础上出具的审计报告,应直接报送()
X线管中高速电子撞击靶面物质时其能量转化为X线的比例约是
癫狂发病与上述哪项有关( )。癫痫发病上述何项为主要病因( )。
旅游者要求转递的物品中若有(),导游人员应婉言拒绝,请其自行处理。
根据下列资料,回答下列问题。2014年,全国粮食播种面积112738.3千公顷,比2013年增加782.7千公顷。其中谷物播种面积94622.8千公顷(141934.1万亩),比2013年增加854.1千公顷,增长0.9%。全国粮食总产量60709.9
下列属于法律关系的是哪一项?()
党的十八大提出,面对资源约束趋紧、环境污染严重、生态系统退化的严峻形势,必须树立的生态文明理念包括()
阅读下列技术说明,根据要求回答问题1~问题3。[说明]某网络工程项目的分项工程之一机房建设可分解为15个工作(箭头线表示),根据工作的逻辑关系绘出的双代号网络图如图3-9所示,网络规划设计师在第12天末进行检查时,A、B、C3项工作已完成
AnotherexampleoftheexerciseofpowerbyCongresswastheactionittookduringtheReconstructionPeriodaftertheCivilWar
最新回复
(
0
)