Английский для бакалавров. Макеева М.Н - 14 стр.

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The Nobel Prizes are annual
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international awards
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bestowed by Scandinavian committees in
recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will
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of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor
of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895. The prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine,
Literature, and Peace were first awarded in 1901. The Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway, while the
other prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden. Each Nobel Prize is regarded as the most prestigious award
in its field. In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank instituted an award that is often associated with the Nobel prizes, the
Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The first such prize was
awarded in 1969. Although it is not an official Nobel Prize, its announcements and presentations are made
along with the other prizes.
Alfred Nobel was born on 21 October 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden, into a family of engineers. He was a
chemist, engineer, and inventor. In 1894 Nobel purchased the Bofors iron and steel mill, which he made into
a major armaments manufacturer. Nobel also invented ballistite, a precursor to many smokeless military
explosives, especially the British smokeless powder cordite. Nobel was even involved in a patent
infringement
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lawsuit over cordite
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. Nobel amassed a fortune during his lifetime. Most of his wealth was
from his 355 inventions, of which dynamite is the most famous.
In 1888 Alfred was astonished
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to read his own obituary, titled ‘The merchant of death is dead’, in a
French newspaper. As it was Alfred's brother Ludvig who had died, the obituary
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was eight years
premature. The article disconcerted
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Nobel and made him apprehensive about how he would be
remembered. This inspired him to change his will. On 10 December 1896 Alfred Nobel died in his villa in
San Remo, Italy, from a cerebral haemorrhage
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. He was 63 years old.
To widespread astonishment, Nobel's last will specified that his fortune be used to create a series of
prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind" in physics, chemistry, peace, physiology or
medicine, and literature. Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime. The last was written over a year
before he died, signed at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris on 27 November 1895.
First prizes. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen received the first Physics Prize for his discovery of X-rays.
Once the Nobel Foundation and its guidelines were in place, the Nobel Committees began collecting
nominations for the inaugural prizes. Subsequently
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they sent a list of preliminary candidates to the prize-
awarding institutions. Originally, the Norwegian Nobel Committee appointed prominent figures including
Jоrgen Lоvland, Bjоrnstjerne Bjоrnson and Johannes Steen to give the Nobel Peace Prize credibility. The
committee awarded the Peace Prize to two prominent figures in the growing peace movement around the
end of the 19th century: Frédéric Passy was co-founder of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and Henry Dunant
was founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Nobel Committee's Physics Prize shortlist
cited Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen's discovery of X-rays and Philipp Lenard's work on cathode rays.
The Academy of Sciences selected Röntgen for the prize. In the last decades of the 19th century many
chemists had made significant contributions. Thus, with the Chemistry Prize, the Academy "was chiefly
faced with merely deciding the order in which these scientists should be awarded the prize". The Academy
received 20 nominations, eleven of them for Jacobus van't Hoff. Van't Hoff was awarded the prize for his
contributions in chemical thermodynamics.
Nominations. Nomination forms are sent by the Nobel Committee to about 3000 individuals, usually in
September the year before the prizes are awarded. These individuals are often academics working in a
relevant area. For the Peace Prize, inquiries
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are sent to governments, members of international courts,
professors and rectors, former Peace Prize laureates and current or former members of the Norwegian Nobel
Committee. The deadline for the return of the nomination forms is 31 January of the year of the award.
The Nobel Committee nominates about 300 potential laureates from these forms and additional names. The
nominees are not publicly named, nor are they told that they are being considered for the prize.
All nomination records for a prize are sealed
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for 50 years from the awarding of the prize.
4. In pairs or small groups scan this text and make questions
for the answers below. Then discuss your answers.

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