86. Albert Einstein: Intelligence Personified

  WPM:

The amazing Albert Einstein was not born in the United States, but he lived most of his adult life in America after leaving his home country Germany. The theoretical physicist and scientist is considered one of the most intelligent human beings ever to walk the face of the earth. He is credited with developing the General Theory of Relativity that is one of the pillars of modern science. He was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in physics largely based on this theory. He is best known for his famous equation of E=MC squared, his mass-energy equivalence formula.

Born in Germany on March 14, 1879, Einstein showed great talents and abilities from an early age. He was visiting the United States in 1933 when Adolf Hitler took power in his homeland. Because of Hitler's treatment of Jewish people, Einstein, who was a Jew, decided not to return to Germany, and to make the United States his home. He became a U.S. citizen in 1940.

It was Einstein who first conceived of a nuclear fission weapon that he felt Germany was on the verge of discovery. He urged President Franklin D. Roosevelt to begin development of a similar weapon, but also felt it was best not to use it. His warning about the Nazis served the president well, and the Manhattan Project was born. This project was designed to develop a nuclear weapon in the United States in case Hitler unleashed his own weapon. Einstein was a life-long pacifist. He spoke of the purity of science, and how it should be used for the betterment of Humankind, and not for creating weapons of mass destruction. Because of his high IQ, Einstein's name has become synonymous with intelligence in the United States.

Vocabulary   Comprehension   Cloze   Dictation





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