Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin

When Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin was ten years old, she watched her first crystals form on a string dangling in a glass of salt water. Many children before and since have done the same, but in Hodgkin's case, the sparkling geometric shapes {{U}}kindled{{/U}} a fascination that would lead her to world fame.
In 1964, nearly half a century later, Hodgkin received a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering the structures of penicillin and vitamin B₁₂ from photographic images of their crystals. She made the images with a technique called x-ray crystallography, which involves firing x-rays through a crystal to determine the arrangement of the atoms in it. It is a bit like determining the shape of a jungle gym from its shadow.
Born in 1910, Hodgkin spent the first few years of her life in Cairo, where her father was an official in the British colonial government. Most of her education had been at home, but once back at school in England, her keen interest in crystals won the attention of her schoolteacher. Hodgkin and a friend got special permission to join the boys studying chemistry. By age 12, she was doing chemistry experiments on rocks she found in her garden to see what they contained.
That summer, while visiting her father in Khartoum, Sudan, she met Dr. A. E. Joseph, a friend of her father's and a well-known soil chemist. Joseph took her on a tour of his laboratory. Pleased by her intense interest, he put together a small chemistry set for her, which she took back to England and set up in her mother's attic. It was her first laboratory.
Hodgkin enrolled at Oxford University, where she eventually specialized in x-ray crystallography. At the time, the analysis of the structures of even the simplest chemicals by x-ray crystallography required at least 30 sets of calculations, all done by hand. The work {{U}}demanded{{/U}} perseverance and diligence, and a good head for math. Under these conditions, Hodgkin flourished.
Seeking a greater challenge after college, Hodgkin went to Cambridge to study with a young crystallographer named J.D. Bernal. Together they solved some of the most complex chemical structures ever attempted, including {{U}}those{{/U}} of several vitamins and sex hormones. They took the first x-ray photographs of a protein—the stomach enzyme pepsin—showing that proteins form regular crystals.
In 1937, Hodgkin received her doctorate. Within a few months, she also married historian Thomas Hodgkin, taking his name. The Hodgkins were a two-career family, working in different towns and {{U}}commuting{{/U}} on alternate weekends to see each other. Dorothy Hodgkin remained at Oxford, where she continued her research, taught university classes, and raised three children.
When the demand for penicillin soared during World War Ⅱ, chemists all over the world raced to determine its structure. Experimental chemists used chemical reactions. Structural chemists, such as Hodgkin, used crystallography. Despite daunting calculations, Hodgkin and her students at Oxford completed the structure in 1949, beating the experimental chemists and establishing x-ray crystallography as an indispensable tool in biochemistry. Even as Hodgkin was finishing her analysis of penicillin, however, she had already begun a study of B₁₂, widely used to treat pernicious anemia. In 1957, she published the structure of this 180-atom molecule.
A. [■] When she was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1964, she told a group of students at the ceremonies in Stockholm, Sweden, that she hoped her position as the only woman to receive the prize that year "will not be so very uncommon in the future, as more and more women carry out research in the same way as men".
B. [■] But what was perhaps Hodgkin's greatest success came after the Nobel Prize, when she tackled the biggest molecule of her career. Insulin, a protein that regulates the body's sugar storage, contains over 1000 atoms.C. [■] A deficiency in or insensitivity to insulin causes diabetes, a complex disease that causes suffering in several hundred million people worldwide. Hodgkin solved the structure of insulin in only five years. D. [■] Her achievement proved that proteins have regular shapes, and it spawned research that ultimately led to effective treatments for diabetes.

单选题 The word it in Paragraph 2 refers to______.

• A. Testing out the structures of penicillin
• B. Testing out the structures of vitamin B₁₂
• C. Determining the arrangement of the atoms in a crystal
• D. Firing x-rays through a crystal

单选题 The word {{U}}kindle{{/U}} in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to______.

• A. produce
• B. interest
• C. improve
• D. arouse

单选题 In Paragraph 2, why does the author mention a jungle gym?

• A. To show that chemistry elements take the shape of a jungle sometimes.
• B. To indicate that there are many differences between chemistry and other fields.
• C. To demonstrate that studying chemistry is very hard due to its indirectness and uncontrollability.
• D. To indicate that it is very difficult to determine the arrangement of the atoms in a crystal.

单选题 The word {{U}}demanded{{/U}} in Paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to______.

• A. pleaded
• B. visited
• C. required
• D. decided

单选题 The word those in Paragraph 6 refers to______.

• A. vitamins
• B. complex chemical structures
• C. sex hormones
• D. x-ray photographs

单选题 Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

• A. She hoped that no other women could ever win the Nobel Prize in the future.
• B. She hoped that more and more women could be actively engaged in chemistry study.
• C. She hoped that it would be a common phenomenon for women to win the Nobel Prize in the future.
• D. She is suitable and qualified for this job. She hoped that in the future more and more women could conduct research, as men have.

单选题 The word {{U}}commuting{{/U}} in Paragraph 7 is closest in meaning to______.

• A. communicating
• B. traveling
• C. inflating
• D. wandering

单选题 All of the following are mentioned as the key factors which contribute to her success in her career EXCEPT______.

• A. analytic ability
• B. mathematical capacity
• C. endurance
• D. diligence

单选题 According to the passage, what can be inferred about women's participation in science during Hodgkin's time?

• A. It had been improving a bit more than before.
• B. It had been the same as before.
• C. There were few women in science at that time.
• D. A great many women had participated in science.

单选题 In Paragraph 7, what can be inferred about the relationship between chemists and demand of the time?

• A. They tried to solve the urgent problems of the time.
• B. They are mostly employed by the government.
• C. They know how to remain useful in changing times.
• D. They are afraid of losing touch with the world.

单选题 The whole life of Hodgkin could be summarized as all of the following EXCEPT

• A. diligent and persevering
• B. busy and fruitful
• C. uncomfortable and uninteresting
• D. happy and satisfied

单选题 Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.
She nevertheless went on striving for success in new research fields.
Where would the sentence best fit?

• A. Square Ａ.
• B. Square Ｂ.
• C. Square Ｃ.
• D. Square Ｄ.

问答题 {{B}}Directions: {{/B}}An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. {{B}}This question is worth 2 points. {{/B}}
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin led a fruitful life and her success can be attributed to overcoming numerous hardships combined with her natural talents

· · ·

A. Unlike other children, she led a childhood which was full of opportunities to do chemistry experiments.
B. Her studies at Oxford and Cambridge university laid a solid foundation for her great achievements later in life.
C. After college, she carried on with more challenging research at Oxford university.
D. In the 1950s and 1960s, she discovered the structures of penicillin and insulin, which were the greatest achievements in her life.
E. In 1937, she received her doctorate and married Thomas Hodgkin.
F. A past event with an old friend contributed to her future life in chemistry to some degree.