Mary Curie

Manya Sklodowska was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1867. When she was nineteen years old she began to work as a governess in the rural town of Szczuki. Five years later she enrolled in the University of Paris. Few years later she received her licence és sciences physiques, the French equivalent of a master’s degree in physics.

In 1894 she went to France’s Society for the Encouragement of National Industry to study the magnetism of steels and she got her degree in mathematics, after that she met Pierre Curie, the man who married her in the following year.

At the age of thirty, Mary Curie began her investigation of “Becquerel rays” as her doctoral thesis and her husband joined her work. Soon they announced the discovery of polonium and radium. Then, she began her four-years effort to prepare a pure sample of radium.

By the time she received her doctorate in physics from the University of Pans, Pierre Curie, Henri Becquerel and Mary shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of radioactivity

After eleven years of marriage, Pierre died when a horse-drawn wagon ran over him in a busy Paris street. After that the University of Paris selected Mary Curie to succeed her husband as professor of physics, and she became the university’s first female professor.

When she was forty four, France’s Academy of Sciences refused to grant Curie membership because she was a woman. Next, she won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of radium and polonium.

When World War I started, Mary Curie began setting up a network of portable and hospital-based X-ray machines to treat wounded soldiers. Finally, when World War I ended, Curie officially opened the Radium Institute of the University of Paris.

Three years later, she did her first visit to United States to raise money for the Radium Institute.

Eventually, in 1934, Mary Curie died of leukemia caused by radiation poisoning at the age of 67 in France.

Opinion Essay

I think that money shouldn't be spent on space exploration and makin space machine either.

Firs of all, the space is infinity and, in my opinion, it's impossible tho know all of the space.
In addition, I hate waste money for explore space. There are more important things to do that explore. For example, help poor people that every day are killed, invest this money to education, public health...

Secondly, spent money on space exploration it's a whim of rich people that havn't got anithing to do.
People that spent money on space exploration are dreamy people because we, people of the world, wouldn't go to live in another planet.

To sum up, I feel angry because there are people that need help and there are another type of people that spend money wrongfully.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

1. Write a short biography of Thomas Hardy( 5 lines ). Do not copy and paste it from internet. Use your own language

Thomas Hardy was an English poet and novelist. He was born in Dorset, England in 1840 and he died in 1928 in Dorset too.
His father was stonemason and local builder. His mother taught him until he was eight years old. In 1849 he went to his first school at Bockhampton.
Thomas studied to be an architect and he enrolled as a student at King's College in London but he didn't like London and in 1867 he returned to Dorset and he decided to dedicate his life to writing.

2. Although the places that appear in Hardy's novels actually exist, in many cases he gave the place a fictional name. For example, Hardy's hometown of Dorchester he called Casterbridge in his books. Find some information about Marlott, Shaston, Chaseborough, Tantridge and Sandbourne: situation, real names, inhabitants ...

Sandbourne
Description: It is a large coastal town in the Borough of Bournemouth in Dorset ( England). The town was founded by Lewis Tregonwell in 1810 and grew steadily and became a proper town in 1870, when the railway came.
Real name: Bournemouth
Population: :163,444

Marlott:
Description: Is a village in the Blackmore Vale area of north Dorset ( England). The village of scattered houses and farms is situated on a low limestone ridge above the River Stour, across the valley from Stalbridge.
Real name: : Marnhull
Population: 1,951

Chaseborough:
Description: Is a village in East Dorset( England).The town is situated on chalk downland called Cranborne Chase, part of a large expanse of chalk in southern England.
Real name: Cranborne
Population: : 779


*All Population are in 2001
*Information: Wikipedia
3. Part I : The Maiden

-Write about Tess sad story of her stay at Tantridge
In Tantridge Tess worked very hard on Urberville's house.
The worst problem that she had is that her "cousin" brought her in the ancient part of the forest called Chase and violated her.
-Watch the video number 1 and relate it to the novel
The video number 1 relates to chapter 5 of the novel, when Alec showed to her how to whistle the tunes that his mother wanted and Tess learns to whistle. On the video I can watch when the women started a quarrel with Tess because she was jealous of the attention that Alec was giving to Tess. And at the end of the video there is the scene of the forest but on this video it seems that Tess doesn't resist him.

4.Part II: Maiden no more

-Two years have passed since Tess left Tantridge. Write a summary of the main events that took place during these two years.
-She worked during the harvest to earn money for her family.
-She had a son but one night little Sorrow died.
-She decided to look for work away from Marlott so that she could make a fresh start.

-Why do you think Tess called her baby Sorrow?
Because Sorrow means "pena, tristesa" and those are the feelings that she had for her son.

5.Part III: A new life


-With all the information you get from chapters 8,9 and 10, write a description of Angel Clare
Angel Clare is a young man from a good family. He is the son of the parson and his brother are parsons too. He likes playing the harp.
Angel Clare wants to become a farmer and he has the plan to go to Brazil or Australia and have a big farm in a new country.

-Angel asks Tess: "Why are you crying ?" and she answers : " I don't know". Why do you think she is crying?
Because she knows that she will never stay with Angel Clare although she wants to.

-Watch video number 2 and relate it to the story : " This is the moment when ..."
This the moment when Tess wrote a long letter to Angel, explaining himwhat had happened in Trantridge and put the letter under Angel's door.
The next day Angel didn't say anything about the letter and Tess decided to check what had happened with the letter, she opened the door of Angel's bedroom and saw that the letter was under the carpet. It means that Angel hadn't seen the letter.

6.Part IV: Consequences

-Do you think Tess chose the right moment to tell Angel the truth?
No, I think that she should have told Angel the truth before the ceremony, when Angel asked her: "Will you be my wife?" at the Talbothays Dairy.

7.Part V : The Woman pays

-Comment on Angel's reaction. Should he have forgiven her? Is it a question of prejudice or lack on confidence on Tess' part?
He can't believe what Tess said to him. He changed his behavior, his words became cold.
Yes, it is a question of prejudice because he believed that when a man married a women, women must be pure and a simple girl. And when he discovers the truth, he think that Tess is not that at all.

- "I couldn't lie to him " ( pag.44 ). Are love and lies compatible?
In my opinion,love and lies are compatible because you must be honest with your girl/boyfriend but it is not necessary to tell your partner all your secrets, most of them yes but not all of them. I think that you must have your secrets that you don't want tell to anybody.

-Do Tess' parents really worry about her unhappiness ? What do they actually worry about?
No they don't. They worry what the people will say because her father thinks that people will laugh at them again.

8.Part VI : A changed Man

-Why does Tess finally surrender and sucumb to Alec's powers?
Because she and her family needs help and Alec lied to Tess telling her that Angel wouldn't return.
The only way that Tess had to continue whit her life was accepting Alec's help.

-Would you judge her for such a decision?
No I wouldn't. If I were in her position I would do the same.

9.Part VII : Tess' fate

-Write a short summary of chapter 18 ( 5-10 lines )
Finally Angel returned and his father gave him the second letter of Tess. He decided to write to Tess but a few days later he got an answer from Tess' mother. On the Tess' mother letter, she explained that they don't live in Marlott and that she cannot tell to him where Tess was staying.
After that, he received a letter from Izz and Marian warning that Tess was in a trouble and she needs his help. Finally, Angel found Tess staying at Mrs. Brooks' house. When he met Tess, she said that now she stays with Alec and she didn't want to see him anymore.
Angel went back with his head lowered and suddenly he looked back and he saw Tess running toward him along the road. Tess explained him that she killed Alec because he had lied her.
The two lovers walked down the road and they decided to find for a boat that took them out of the country. They were very tired and decided to sleep down at Stonehenge. When they awoke, there were two policemen and Tess went with them. In July Tess was hanged.