Background information！Before reading Text A, you may need the following information to help you with a better understanding.
Before reading Text A, you may need the following information to help you with a better understanding.
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) grew up as the son of a British noble. He attended a private school from age seven, and entered Harrow in 1888. He was not impressed with his education. Later he entered Sandhurst Royal Military College in 1893, after three attempts to pass the entrance test. He joined the army in 1895.
He was a British Conservative politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. Widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century, he served as prime minister twice (1940-1945 and 1951-1955). A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer, and an artist. He is the only British prime minister to have received the Nobel Prize for Literature (in 1953), and was the first person to be made an Honorary Citizen of the United States.
public school
In the UK, public school, also called independent school, is one of a relatively small group of institutions educating secondary-level students for a fee. It is independent of the state system in regard to endowment and administration. The typical great public school such as Eton, Harrow, and Winchester evolved from an institution founded by a single benefactor during the late European Middle Ages or the Renaissance. The curriculum from the beginning placed heavy emphasis on the Greek and Roman classics and continued to do so until well into the 20th century.
In the US, public schools generally refer to elementary or secondary schools, offered to all children by the government, and paid for, in whole or in part, by public funding from taxation. The term may also refer to institutions of post-secondary education funded, in whole or in part, and overseen by the government.
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein (1879-1955), born to a Jewish family in Germany, grew up in Munich and moved to Italy in 1894. As a boy, he was said to be slow in learning to talk, but later in his childhood he showed great curiosity about nature and a likewise great ability to solve difficult mathematical problems. After he left school, he went to Switzerland, where he graduated from university with a degree in mathematics. In 1905, Einstein published a series of papers which shook the whole scientific and intellectual world. For the theories he established in his papers, he won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. Among the important discoveries Einstein made in his life, the greatest is the creation of his famous Theory of Relativity. He was considered the greatest scientist of the 20th century and one of the greatest of all time. His discoveries and theories have greatly influenced science in many fields.
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison (1847-1931) was an American inventor, scientist and businessman. Edison had very little formal education as a child, attending school only for a few months. He was taught reading, writing, and arithmetic by his mother, but he was always a very curious child and taught himself much by reading on his own. This belief in self-improvement remained throughout his life.
He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large teamwork to the process of invention, and therefore is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory. He is credited with numerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications. Edison originated the concept and implementation of electric-power generation and distribution to homes, businesses, and factories – a crucial development in the modern industrialized world.
Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor (1930- ), is an American jurist who was the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served as an Associate Justice from 1981 until her retirement from the Court in 2006.
She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor of the US in 2009.
Stanford
Commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, it is an American private research university located in Stanford, California. Stanford is a founding member of the Association of American Universities, and one of the world's leading research and teaching institutions.
Its academic reputation, alumni, influence, and wealth have made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.