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Alfred Nobel – a Man of Contrasts.

Alfred Nobel, the great Swedish inventor, was a man of many contrasts. He was a son of a bankrupt, but became a millionaire. He was a scientist with love of literature and industrialist who was able to remain an idealist. He made a fortune¹ but lived a simple life. Cheerful in company he was often sad when he remained alone. A lover of mankind, he never had a wife or a family to love him. He invented a new explosive², dynamite, to improve the peacetime industries. However, it was used as a weapon of war.
A patriotic son of his native land, he died in a foreign country.

He was born in Stockholm on October 21, 1833, but moved to Russia with his parents in 1842. His father Emmanuel made there a strong position for himself in the engineering industry. Emmanuel invented the landmine³ and got plenty of money for it from government during the Crimean War, but then went bankrupt. Most of the family went back to Sweden in 1859.Four years later Alfred returned back too and began his own study of explosives in his father’s laboratory. He had never been to school or university but had studied privately. By the time when he was twenty he was a skilful chemist and an excellent linguist.

Like his father, Alfred was imaginative and inventive, but he had better luck in business. He was never really concerned with making money or scientific discoveries. He never expected any reward⁴ for what he had done. He was always searching for a meaning of life. He began to care about the whole mankind. He took every opportunity to help the poor. His greatest wish was to see an end to wars and peace between nations. He spent much time and money working for the cause until his death in Italy in 1896.

In his famous will⁵ Nobel wrote that he had left money to provide prizes for outstanding work in physics, chemistry, physiology, medicine, literature and peace. According to his will the capital was invested to form a fund. The money from this fund can be given to the candidates of any nationality, no matter if it is a Swede or not. Since Nobel’s death many greatest scientists, writers and public figures from different countries have become Nobel Prize winners.

Слова к тексту:

1. make a fortune – сколотить состояние

2. explosive – взрывчатый, взрывчатое вещество

3. landmine – воен. фугас

4. reward - награда

5. will – завещание

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