Allan Cormack: How One Life Changed the World

Questions

1. Sequence Which of these happened first?

   Cormack was made a member of a British society of arts Cormack helped equip ambulances with X-ray machines to treat soldiers in World War I Cormack published the mathematics behind CT scanning Cormack began part-time work as a physicist at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town
2. Details In what year did this happen? "Cormack shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine."

   1924 1989 1956 1979
3. Timeline math How many years passed between these two events? First: "Cormack published the mathematics behind CT scanning." Later: "He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine."

   15 17 26 16
4. Timeline math About how old was Cormack in 1979?

   50 55 60 67
5. Vocabulary In the passage, what does "X-ray" mean?

   growing different crops in a field from year to year to keep the soil healthy a solid whose tiny particles are arranged in a repeating pattern a pure substance made of only one kind of atom a kind of invisible light that can pass through the body to make pictures of bones
6. Character traits Which word best describes Allan Cormack?

   unkind lazy bored inquisitive
7. Evidence Which detail from the passage shows that Cormack was inquisitive?

   As a child he collected plants and became known as the 'plant doctor' for helping sick plants grow. He wondered how doctors could see inside the body in slices, not just in flat X-rays. He designed experiments with special flasks to prove where germs came from. His mother and wife were deaf, and he spent his life studying sound and teaching deaf students.
8. Main idea What is this passage mostly about?

   the life and work of Jane Goodall the life and work of Allan Cormack the life and work of George Washington Carver how to become a teacher
9. Text structure How does the author organize the middle of the passage?

   as a list of steps to follow from most important to least important event in time order, from earlier events to later ones as a problem and its solution
10. Author's purpose Why does the author end with the final paragraph?

    to tell a funny story to list every prize the person won to show that his work still matters today to describe where the person grew up

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