Universidad Austral de Chile UNIT 4 – Scientists and Research

Centro de Idiomas
CIDI 052 - 2016 LINUS PAULING
Prof. Oriana Saldivia
Prof. Margarita Villalón

biological – university - chemistry - discoveries - medicine

- molecules - Nobel - physics - science - solve

A) Read the following text and fill in the gaps with an appropriate word from the box.
Who was Linus Pauling and what did he do?
Linus Pauling was the only person who has ever won two (UNSHARED) ________ Prizes. If
you are interested in ___________, you may know that he won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1954. Then again, you might recognize
his name because of his INVOLVEMENT with anti-nuclear movements in the 1950s and 1960s - and his Nobel Peace Prize In 1962 for
his campaign to stop open air nuclear testing. And a lot of people who are interested
in health and alternative ______________know him as "the vitamin C man" because he shocked the world of science in
the 1970s by suggesting that enormous amounts of vitamin C can keep us healthy.

The scientist
After finishing his _______________ course in chemical engineering, Pauling worked in physical _____________ in the 1920s and 1930s.
He was interested in the way that molecules are connected in crystals, and used physical techniques, such as X-rays, to study them. He
also applied the ideas of quantum _____________ (a radical new science at the time) to the study of chemistry. He used
these new theories to _________ problems that had never been explained before. His work at that time LED TO a lot of the
drugs, plastics and synthetic fibres that we know today.
Because of his interest in the way that _______________behave, Pauling slowly became more involved in ______________
chemistry, rather than physical chemistry. Through the 1930s and 1940s he began to work with organic substances, especially proteins.
He made _______________about the structure of proteins which were very important for medicine.
For example, they were able to DEVELOP an artificial substitute for blood plasma. They also made important discoveries about some
types of genetic disease, such as sickle cell anaemia. Many people believe that he was near to discovering the structure of DNA at
that time.

B) Continue reading and answer the questions below

The Campaigner for Peace

Pauling worked with the US government during World War 2 and helped to develop conventional weapons and explosives. But in
1945, when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, everything changed for him. He began to study the effects of
radiation on the human body - the structure of the molecules and the way that they could be passed from generation to generation. He
became convinced that radioactive explosions had a terrible effect on living molecules and that using nuclear weapons, or even open
air nuclear tests, would do terrible things to people and the environment for years and years to come. Pauling believed that the US
government was hiding the truth from the people, and that it was his moral DUTY to tell people about what he had discovered. He
began to speak publicly in favour of peace, disarmament, and the end of nuclear war.
This was not popular in the USA in the 1940s and 1950s. He was accused of being anti-American and a communist and he lost friends,
SUPPORT and his job as a university professor. The US State Department took away his passport. They only gave it back in 1954
when he won the Nobel Prize for chemistry and had to travel to Sweden to receive the prize. But Pauling continued his campaign against
the nuclear bomb. In 1957 he organised a petition calling for an end to open air nuclear testing. Over 11,000 scientists SIGNED it. As
a result of this, he was given the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962. A year later, in 1963, the first ever Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed.

'The Vitamin C Man'

Pauling continued to speak against war but also became interested in using vitamins and minerals to fight disease. In 1970 he
published a book called Vitamin C and the Common Cold, saying that Vitamin C can fight colds. He shocked everyone in the world
of medicine and science by recommending enormous amounts of the vitamin – over 15 grams a day. (Pauling himself took 18 grams of
Vitamin C every day - that is 300 times the recommended amount!). Many people today take vitamins and mineral pills but, at that time,
his ideas were shocking.
Even today some do not agree about the benefits of Vitamin C, especially the 'mega' amounts that Pauling recommended. The
scientific community didn't want to know him anymore. He was called 'an embarrassment' and 'a madman'. The situation became even
worse when he began to speak about the importance of Vitamin C in fighting cancer. But Pauling said that his experiences as a peace
campaigner had taught him how to fight, and he continued to talk about his ideas until his death in 1994 at the age of 93. He founded the
Linus Pauling Institute of
chemistryand Medicine, which carries on his work today.
C) Match the highlighted-bold words from the text to their definition below.
1. (an) illness of people, animals, plants, etc., caused by infection or a failure of health rather than by an
accident.
2. a common infection esp. in the nose and throat which often causes a cough, a slight fever and
sometimes some pain in the muscles.
3. a document signed by a large number of people demanding or requesting some action from the government or
another authority, or law a formal letter to a court of law requesting a particular legal
action.
4. a planned group of esp. political, business or military activities which are intended to achieve a
particular aim.
5. an order forbidding something, esp. officially.

6. any of a group of natural substances which are necessary in small amounts for growth and good health
and which must be obtained from food or pills as they cannot usually be produced by the body.
7. any of a large group of chemicals which are necessary to and found in all living things.

8. deoxyribonucleic acid the chemical at the centre of the cells of living things which controls the
structure and purpose of each cell and carries genetic information during reproduction.
9. heat, light, or elementary particles - the simplest parts of matter produced by an object.
10. the act of reducing or giving up weapons.
11. the simplest unit of a chemical substance, usually a group of two or more atoms.
12. weapon which uses the power produced when the nucleus of an atom is divided or joined to another
nucleus.

D) Choose the best answer to each of the questions below:

1. Why was Linus Pauling an unusual chemist in
4. Why did the US State Department take
the 1930s?
away Pauling's passport?
a. He studied molecules
a. They thought his ideas were anti-American.
b. He used quantum physics in chemistry
b. They didn´t want him to go to Sweden to receive the
c. He invented new types of plastic.
Nobel prize for Chemistry.
c. He was organizing a petition against nuclear
2. What did Pauling discover in the 1940s?
weapons.
a. The structure of DNA.
b. The causes of genetic disease.
5. Why did Pauling win the Nobel Peace Prize?
c. How proteins are constructed.
a. Over eleven thousand scientists voted for him.
b. He campaigned against open air nuclear testing.
3. Why did Pauling think the nuclear bomb was a
c. He organized the Nuclear Test Ban treaty in 1963.
bad thing?
a. He thought all weapons were wrong.
6. How did Pauling shock the scientific
b. He studied what radiation did to molecules.
community in the 1970s?
c. He thought it was an immoral weapon.
a. He said that what we eat can help to keep us healthy.
b. He said that everyone should take a lot of vitamin C.
c. He said that vitamin C will cure cancer.

E)Infer the meaning of the CAPITALIZED-BOLD words from the text. Complete the chart.
Then, match the words below the chart to their synonym word in context.
WORD IN PART OF SPEECH CLUES IN THE TEXT WHAT I INFER
CONTEXT (word (Spanish equivalent,
category) definition, explanation,
synonym)
UNSHARED

INVOLVEMEN
T
LED TO

DEVELOP

DUTY

SUPPORT

SIGNED

Participation: Backing: Resulted in:

Script, audio file, and some exercises taken from: learnenglish.britishcouncil.org