Reading Comprehension Quiz

Marie Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1867. Her father taught physics and her mother was the head teacher of a girls’ school. Marie was a very intelligent student at secondary school, but she couldn’t go to university because she was a woman. So she worked as a governess for the children of a wealthy family and studied secretly at a university in Warsaw. Marie was extremely hard-working and she sometimes stayed awake all night to study. Why couldn’t Marie Curie go to university at that time?

• Because women couldn’t attend universities.

• Because she didn’t have enough money.

• Because she wasn’t intelligent enough.

• Because she worked as a governess.

At the university laboratory at the Sorbonne she met another scientist, Pierre Curie. They got married in 1895 and had two children. Pierre thought that Marie was a genius and he was happy to help her. Who did Marie marry?

• She married Nicolaus Copernicus.

• She married Alexander Fleming.

• She married Pierre Curie.

• She married Albert Einstein.

Marie and Pierre did a lot of important work on radioactivity and discovered radium and polonium. In 1903 they won the Nobel Prize for Physics and the used the prize money they collected to help needy students. Sadly, three years later Pierre died in a road accident, but Marie didn’t stop working. In fact, she won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1911. She is the only woman to win two Nobel Prizes. What did Marie and her husband discover?

• They discovered penicillin.

• They said that the earth went round the sun.

• They won the Nobel Prize for Physics.

• They discovered radium and polonium.

Together they did a lot of important work on radioactivity and discovered radium and polonium. In 1903 they won the Nobel Prize for Physics and the used the prize money they collected to help needy students. Sadly, three years later Pierre died in a road accident, but Marie didn’t stop working. In fact, she won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1911. She is the only woman to win two Nobel Prizes. What makes Marie Curie a great scientist?

• She helped needy students.

• She is the only woman to win two Nobel Prizes.

• She lost her husband in a road accident.

• None of the above.

Marie Curie stayed in France for the rest of her life. She tried to use her discoveries to help people who were ill in hospital. At that time people didn’t know that it was dangerous to work with radium. Marie became ill because of the radioactivity and died of cancer in 1934. In 1995 the French government moved the remains of Marie and her husband Pierre to the Pantheon, the building in Paris where people can visit the tombs of the most famous people in French history. How did Marie die?

• She became sick because of the radioactivity and died of cancer.

• She became ill after her husband death.

• She got infected with a disease from the people who were ill in hospitals.

• The reason is still unknown.

What do we call the room where scientists do researches and experiments in?

• A governess.

• An experience.

• A prize.

• A laboratory.

The word that means ‘a woman who teaches children in their home’ is a _______________.

• government

• governess

• scientist

• genius

______________ are places where they put important dead people.

• Prizes

• Tombs

• Remains

• Laboratories

The word that means ‘found or learned something that people didn’t know before is _____________.

• collected

• wealthy

• discovered

• extremely

The word that means ‘a person who is much more intelligent than other people’ is a _____________.

• awake

• wealthy

• needy

• genius