A. Dale Carnegie was an American writer and lecturer, and the developer of famous courses in self-improvement ,salesmanship,corporate training,public speaking and interpersonal skills. Born in 1888 in Maryville, Missouri ，Carnegie was a poor farmer's boy. His family moved to Belton, Missouri when he was a small child. In his teens ， though still having to get up at 4 am every day to milk his parents' cows, he managed to obtain an education at the State Teacher's College in W arrensburg. His first job after college was selling correspondence courses. He moved on to selling bacon， soap， and lard(猪油) for Armour & Company. After saving 500, Dale Carnegie quit sales in 1911 in order to achieve a lifelong dream of becoming a lecturer. He ended up instead attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, but found lttle success as an actor. Later he got the idea to teach public speaking. In his first session， he suggested that students speak about something that made them angry ， and discovered that the technique made speakers unafraid to address a public audience. From its beginning, the Dale Carmegie Course developed. Carnegie had made use of the average American's desire to have more self-confidence. Perhaps one of Carnegie's most successful marketing moves was to change the spelling of his last name from " Carnagey" to Carnegie， at a time when Andrew Carnegie was a widely recognized name. Carnegie's works include Lincoln the Unknown(1932)，Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business( 1937), and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living ( 1948). His greatest achievement， however , was when Simon & Schuster published How to Win Friends and Influence People. The book was a bestseller from 1936. By the time of Carmegie's death, the book had sold five million copies in 31 languages , and there had been 450, 000 graduates of his Dale Carnegie Institute. Carnegie died at his home in New York in 1955. 1. What do you think of Dale Carmegie's childhood? A. Hard. B. Happy. . C. Lonely. D. Boring. 2. The Dale Carnegie Course laid emphasis on_______. A. giving people self-confidence B. helping people to get wealth C. teaching people speaking skills D. advising people to live happily 3. Why did Dale Carnegie change his last name? A. To get more help. B. To replace Andrew Carmnegie. . C. To become more famous. D. To avoid unnecessary confusion. 4. Which of the following is Dale Carnegie's most influential work? A. Lincoln the Unknown. B. How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. C. How to Win Friends and Infuence People. D. Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business. B. Barbara McClintock was one of the most important scientists of the 20th century. She made important discoveries about genes and chromosomes(染色体). Barbara McClintock was born in 1902 in Hartford，Connecticut. Her family moved to the Brooklyn area of New York City in 1908. Barbara was an active child with interests in sports and music. She also developed an interest in science. She studied science at Cormell University in Ithaca, New York. Barbara was among a small number of undergraduate students to receive training in genetics in 1921. Years later, she noted that few college students wanted to study genetics. Barbara McClintock decided to study botany, the scientific study of plants, at Cornell University. She completed her undergraduate studies in 1923. McClintock decided to continue her education at Cormell. She completed the master's degree in 1925.Two years later, she finished all her requirements for the doctorate degree. McClintock stayed at Cornell after she completed her education. She taught students botany. The 1930s was not a good time to be a young scientist in the United States. The country was in the middle of the great economic depression. Millions of Americans were unemployed. Male scientists were offered jobs. But female geneticists were not much in demand. An old friend from Cornell， Marcus Rhoades , invited McClintock to spend the summer of 1941 working at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. It is a research center on Long Island, near New York City. McClintock started a temporary job with the genetics department. A short time later， she accepted a perpetual position in the laboratory and got continual incomes. This gave her the freedom to continue her research without repeatedly asking for financial aid. By the 1970s, her discoveries had had an effect on everything from genetic engineering to cancer research. McClintock won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1983 for her discovery of the ability of genes to change positions on chromosomes. She was the first American woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize. 1. Why was McClintock awarded a Nobel Prize? A. Because she received a degree in genes and chromosomes. B. Because she contributed to the development of genetic engineering and cancer research. C. Because she made important discoveries about genes and chromosomes. D. Because she was the first American woman that studied genes and chromosomes. 2. When did McClintock get a doctorate degree? A. In 1921. B. In 1923. . C. In 1925. D. In 1927. 3. In the middle of the great economic depression in the US,________. A. young female scientists might have trouble finding a job B. male scientists were in great demand C. female geneticists were not in demand at all D. male scientists were out of work 4. What does the underlined word " perpetual" mean? A. Permanent. B. Difficult. C. Useful. D. Complex.