Question

What can we learn from the special, very successful people in the world who make the impossible possible?

Lesson 1: Ways of creative thinking are needed

Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg both dropped out of college. They prefer to teach themselves because they like to develop their own ways of thinking. They think standard ways of teaching might stop people from being creative and having new ideas.

Lesson 2: The answer might not be what you expect

Find your answers from facts — not start with an expectation of what you will find. Stephen Jacobsen from Northwestern University believed what he was taught: that water on Earth came from icy comets(彗星) or planets which hit into Earth.

However, by studying a special rock, he discovered that it acts like a sponge(海绵). This suggests that Earth's water may have come from inside, driven to the surface to form the oceans, by geological activity.

“I had a pretty hard time making others believe it,” he said. “But thinking about the fact that you may the first person to see something for the first time doesn’t happen very often. When it does, it’s amazing.”

Lesson 3: A little luck goes a long way

Years of planning went into a recent achievement in space travel. The European Space Agency’s “Philae”, a robot landing craft, met up with Comet 67P, which is 480 million kilometers away. The trip from Earth by “Philae” had taken ten years!

The scientists had no idea what the surface of the comet would be like. If the landing failed, it would be impossible to get information from the spacecraft. Twenty years of work would have been wasted.

When “Philae” tried to land, it bounced(弹起) away from the comet’s icy surface twice. Luckily, however, “Philae” landed successfully and began sending information back to Earth.

1.Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg didn’t finish college because_________.

A. they preferred to learn by themselves

B. they needed standard ways of teaching

C. their teachers didn’t like their new ideas

D. their teachers weren’t able to teach them

2.In Lesson 2, the writer mainly wants to tell us that _________.

A. we should get answers from facts

B. we can believe what we are taught

C. it’s hard to make others believe something

D. an expectation can help get an answer in research

3.The example “Philae” in Lesson 3 shows that _________.

A. Comet 67P is not far away from Earth

B. it took “Philae” 20 years to reach Comet 67P

C. “Philae” landed on Comet 67P with a little luck

D. scientists know nothing about the surface of Comet 67P

4.The best title for this passage is ______.

A. Ways of discovering B. Lessons for success

C. Ways of being special D. Lessons for experiments

Answer 1