听读 Chapter 7 Fame and Fortune

Chapter 7 Fame and Fortune

 The Nobel Prize is the highest honor a scientist can receive today. However, when Marie and Pierre received the letter saying they had won, it didn’t give them very many details. It didn’t say the king of Sweden would be there to hand out the award, and it didn’t tell them that they would be getting a huge amount of money—worth more than half a million dollars today! So Pierre did something shocking. He wrote back to the Nobel Prize committee and said they couldn’t come! He thanked them for the prize and explained that Marie was sick. The trip was too long, he said. They couldn’t possibly take the time to travel to Sweden. They were too busy teaching their classes. Pierre and Marie probably didn’t realize they were being rude. They also didn’t know what a big deal the Nobel Prize was. The prize had only been around for three years. The Curies were supposed to share the Nobel Prize with one other scientist, Henri Becquerel. Becquerel went to Sweden and accepted the award instead. When he gave his speech, he made it sound like he had done all the work. He hardly mentioned Marie and Pierre at all.

 Still, the Curies became famous over night. All the newspapers wrote about them. People were fascinated by Marie—a woman scientist!

 Newspaper reporters came to her house day after day. When Marie wasn’t home, the reporters talked to her daughter, Irene. They even wrote stories about the cat! The newspapers called Marie “Madame Curie.” Madame is the French word for “Mrs.” In a way, they were saying that Marie was only Pierre Curie’s wife—not famous on her own. Marie was known as Madame Curie for the rest of her life.

 Pierre hated the publicity. He hated anything that kept him from his work. For weeks, Marie and Pierre tried to avoid the reporters.

 When asked questions, they answered with just single words. “Yes.” “No.” One good thing came out of their fame. Now the Sorbonne was willing to give Pierrea job as a professor. Also, after all their years of begging, he and Marie were finally given a better lab.

 Meanwhile, the whole world was falling in love with radium. Why? Because it glowed in the dark! The glow seemed like a magic potion to many. People imagined it would cure illnesses—and they were partly right. Radium could help treat cancer, but the opposite was also true. Radium was making people sick, including Marie and Pierre. Rich people foolishly drank radium water every day until their jawbones broke into pieces! Actors and dancers put radium on their costumes so they would glow in the dark. Radium was painted on watches and clocks so the hands would glow. One make up company even put radium in their lip stick! All these radium products were hurting people. Radium hurt Marie and Pierre most of all because they handled it for so many years. Pierre’s hands were so damaged that he couldn’t even dress himself. His bones ached. Pain made it hard for him to walk.

 Marie was often weak, too. But by 1904, she was healthy enough to have another baby! On December 6, a baby girl was born. They named her Eve. For several months after winning the Nobel Prize, Marie and Pierre enjoyed life. They took vacations to the seashore. They bought some new clothes with their prize money, and ate a few fancy dinners out. Big chunks of the money were sent to Marie’s family in Poland. Life seemed good. Then one day in April 1906, something terrible happened—something that turned Marie’s life upside down forever.