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Reading Comprehension Passages - 2

1. MARIE CURIE

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.

Marie Curie was born in Poland in 1867. She was the youngest
of five children. Her father was a professor. When Marie
graduated from high school, she won a gold medal because
she had been a good student. Her sister invited her to come
to Paris and begin her studies. At the Sorbonne, the University,
she chose to study mathematics and physics. She had a
master’s degree in physics. She won a scholarship and was
able to study further to get a master’s degree in mathematics.
She later received a doctorate in physics. She got married to
Pierre Curie in 1895. Pierre and Marie began experimenting
and discovered two new radioactive elements. She named
one of them polonium and the other she named radium. They
worked for four years preparing a very small quantity of radium in order to prove there really was
such an element. In 1903, Pierre and Marie along with Henri Becquerel received the Nobel Prize
for discovery of radioactivity. In 1911, she was again awarded the Nobel Prize for discovery of two
elements - polonium and radium. In 1923, the French government gave her a pension of 40,000
francs a year, in recognition of her lifetime of work in France. Marie Curie became ill and died from
all her years of exposure to radium. Many people have benefited from the discoveries made by
Pierre and Marie Curie. The radiation which burned their skin while they worked with it, eventually
came to be used to kill cancer cells in patients suffering from cancer.
1. When and where was Marie Curie born?

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2. Why was she given a gold medal?

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3. What did she study at the university?

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4. Why did she receive the Nobel Prize?

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5. What is radium used for?

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