When John Gurdon was 15, he ranked last out of the 250 boys in his grade at biology. He also came in last for every other science subject. His teacher wrote in a _____ , "I believe he has ideas about becoming a _____; form his present performance this is quite foolish. "

Luckily the teacher's words didn't _____ Gurdon's love for science. He kept working hard. He went to labs earlier and left _____ than anyone else. Finally he realized his dream.

On Oct. 8, 2012, 64 years later, the British professor _____ the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka had contributed to the research and therefore _____ the award.

Gurdon got the honor _____ his research into cells and cloning. When he was studying at Oxford, he did some _____ on cells. He took a cell from an adult frog, moved its genes _____ , and put them into an egg cell. The egg cell then ______ into a clone of the adult frog. His research ______ for the first time that every cell in the body contains the same genes.

At that time, many people couldn't ______ Gurdon's idea. But later it helped to ______ Dolly the sheep in 1996, the first cloned mammal in history. It also led to important findings in the ______ use of cells. For example, cells from someone's skin can ______ into any type of tissue in the body. This is good news for those ____ who have diseased or damaged tissue.

Gurdon always remembers the ______ he had when he was 15. He even puts the report on his desk as a daily ______ to himself.

"When you have problems, like an experiment which doesn't work, it's ______ to remind yourself that perhaps you are not so good at your job and the teacher may be ______ ," he said.

However, the facts suggest Gurdon is pretty good indeed.

   Isaac Asimov is one of the most famous science fiction（科幻小说）writers of all time. He moved from Russia to the United States in 1923.He was a teacher at Boston University and began writing science fiction stories in 1939.His most famous works are the Foundation books and the Robot stories. He died in 1992 at the age of 72.

"There are not many people who have invented a useful scientific term，and although I did it unknowingly，I am not going to let anyone in the world forget it，"said Isaac Asimov. He was talking about the word "robotics" —the study of robot behaviour.

Asimov wrote several stories about robots between 1940 and 1990.One of the special features of the robots in these stories was that they were programmed to follow the Three Laws of Robotics.

The First Law: A robot must not hurt a human being，or allow a human being to be hurt.

The Second Law: A robot must obey orders by human beings unless these orders conflict（冲突）with the First Law.

The Third Law: A robot must protect itself unless this conflicts with the First or Second Law.

In Asimov's stories，the robots must follow these laws so that they do not attack the humans that created them.

Some scientists think the Three Laws of Robotics are hard to realise in real life. On the other hand，some say that the laws are great for science fiction but completely useless in real life. For example，if the laws really worked，robots couldn't be used in wars，as this would break the First Law. Since the army is one of the biggest supporters for robotic research，it is very unlikely that an attempt to follow these rules will happen.

According to Asimov，one thing is certain："Robots are changing the world and driving it in directions we cannot clearly foresee（预见）."

   Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga，Spain in 1881.When he died in 1973，he was ninety-one years old. But he still took up his paints and brushes to start a new picture as if he were seeing things for the first time，which is why we have called him the youngest painter. Young people are always trying new things and new ways of doing things. They don't hesitate to attempt one thing after another. Eager to experiment, they welcome new ideas.

When he was over ninety this great painter still lived his life like a young man. He was still restlessly looking new ideas and new ways to use his artistic materials. No one knew what to expect from him next. No one could be sure what kind of picture he would produce. If he had painted a picture of you, it might have looked exactly like you. Or it might have been all lines, squares, circles and strange-colored shapes. It might not have looked like human at all.

At such times Picasso was trying to paint what he saw with his mind as well as with his eyes. He put in the side of the face as well as the front. He may have painted it flat, as though it had no depth. Sometimes he seemed to paint just as a child painted, simply for his own pleasure. He didn't imitate others.

Most painters discover a style of painting that suits themselves and stick to that, especially if people admire their pictures. But Picasso was like a man who had not yet found his own particular style of painting. He was still struggling to find perfect expression for his own uneasy spirit.

The first thing one noticed about him was the look of his large, wide-open eyes. Gertrude Stein, a famous American writer who knew him in his youth, mentioned this hungry look, and one can still see it in pictures of him today.

Picasso painted a picture of Gertrude Stein in 1906. She visited the painter's studio eighty or ninety times while he painted her picture. While Picasso painted they talked about everything in the world that interested them. Then one day Picasso wiped out the painted head on which he had worked for so long. "When I look at you I can't see you any more!" he said.

Picasso went away for the summer. When he returned he went at once to the unfinished picture in the corner of his studio. Quickly he finished the face from memory. He could see the woman's face more clearly in his mind than he could see it when she sat in the studio in front of him.

Picasso was often attacked for this new, sometimes frightening style. It produced pictures like some of our worst dreams. The camera has made it unnecessary for painters to make exact representations of what they see. A camera can reflect real life more exactly. What great paintings give us is a view of life through one man's eyes, and every man's view is different.