听读 Chapter 2 The Secret School

Chapter 2 The Secret School

Rested and older now, Maria was eager to start college,but there was only enough money in the family for one student at a time.

 Her brother Jozef was already in medical school.Maria and her sisters would have to wait their turns. Besides, Warsaw University didn ’t let girls in!

 For the next year, Maria decided to study on her own. She longed to be a scientist like her father. How would she ever learn science  without teachers and laboratories and classrooms?

 Luckily, there was a very clever woman who could help. The woman’s name was Jadwiga Dawidowa. Jadwiga knew that many young Polish women wanted to study, even if it meant risking punishment and breaking the Russian rules. Jadwiga started a secret university! At first, the classes were taught in private homes. The smartest scientists and writers in Warsaw volunteered to teach. Later, Jadwiga secretly moved the classes to bigger buildings. The classes had to keep moving—flying from place to place—so the Russian police wouldn’t find out. Soon it became known as the Flying University!

 Maria and her sister Bronia took classes at the Flying University.Still, they both dreamed of attending a real university someday, but where? The best choice was the Sorbonne, a famous university in Paris,France.It was probably the best school in Europe, and it accepted women.

 Maria and Bronia came up with a plan. They would take turns! Bronia would go to Paris first to study. Maria would stay in Poland to earn money for them both. After Bronia graduated from the Sorbonne, it would be Maria’s turn.

 Maria took a job as a governess. At the age of eighteen, she left her beloved father and home behind to live with a rich family in the countryside. Her job as governess was to teach the children in that family. One of her students was a girl a year older than Maria! At first, Maria liked the job. She had her own big room. There was plenty of food and the parents were kind to her. They invited her to parties and treated her almost like a member of the family. In her free time, she read math and science books.

 One day, something happened that changed everything. Maria met the oldest son in the family. His name was Kazimierz, or Kaz for short.

 Maria and Kaz fell in love, but when his family found out, they forbade him to marry her. Why? Because she was only a governess! Even though she was smart, educated, and had good manners, they thought she was more like a servant. She wasn’t good enough to marry their son. From that moment on, Maria was miserable. She hated living and working for people who looked down on her, but she had to keep her pledge to Bronia. For another year or more, she kept thejob, hating it all the time. After that, Maria worked as a governess for another family, then she returned home to study at the Flying University again. Finally her sister Bronia wrote to her from Paris.

 Bronia had finished her schooling and had married a man who happened to have the same name as Maria’s old boy friend—Kazimierz! Bronia and her Kaz invited Maria to come live with them so she could attend the Sorbonne. In 1891, Maria boarded a train for Paris.When she arrived, she would begin to use a new name—Marie. It was the French version of Maria. A whole new life was about to begin.