Ernest Rutherford: a Life in Science

Questions

1. Sequence Which of these happened first?

   Rutherford became head of the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge Rutherford won a scholarship to study at Cambridge University in England Rutherford won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry Rutherford showed that every atom has a tiny, heavy center called a nucleus
2. Sequence Which of these happened last?

   Rutherford won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry Rutherford showed that every atom has a tiny, heavy center called a nucleus Rutherford won a scholarship to study at Cambridge University in England Rutherford became head of the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge
3. Details In what year did this happen? "Rutherford became head of the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge."

   1929 1919 1871 1895
4. Timeline math How many years passed between these two events? First: "Rutherford won a scholarship to study at Cambridge University in England." Later: "He became head of the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge."

   34 24 23 48
5. Vocabulary In the passage, what does "nucleus" mean?

   growing different crops in a field from year to year to keep the soil healthy the tiny, heavy center of an atom an injury to the skin caused by heat, chemicals or electricity a legal document that says an invention belongs to the person who made it
6. Character traits Which word best describes Ernest Rutherford?

   forgetful careless lazy curious
7. Evidence Which detail from the passage shows that Rutherford was curious?

   His mother and wife were deaf, and he spent his life studying sound and teaching deaf students. He wondered how doctors could see inside the body in slices, not just in flat X-rays. He questioned why objects fall and why the Moon stays in the sky. He tested every idea with experiments, even when the results surprised everyone.
8. Main idea What is this passage mostly about?

   the life and work of Ernest Rutherford the life and work of Jane Goodall the life and work of Alexander Graham Bell the life and work of Marie Curie
9. Text structure How does the author organize the middle of the passage?

   by comparing two people in time order, from earlier events to later ones from most important to least important event as a problem and its solution

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