11+ English Stage 1 (Test M)

Few individuals have altered our understanding of the universe as profoundly as Marie Curie. Yet, the story behind her monumental discoveries is not one of gleaming, modern laboratories, but of tenacious perseverance in the face of formidable obstacles. Born Maria Skłodowska in Poland, a country where women’s access to higher education was severely restricted, her ambition to study science was, from the outset, an act of defiance.

To fund her dream, she worked for years as a governess, saving every spare coin to eventually join her sister in Paris. There, she enrolled at the prestigious Sorbonne. Living on a meagre diet of bread and tea, she threw herself into her studies with ferocious intensity, often studying so late that she would faint from exhaustion. Her dedication paid off; she graduated top of her class in physics. It was in Paris that she met Pierre Curie, a fellow scientist who recognised in her not just a brilliant mind, but a shared, unwavering passion for discovery.

Their life’s work would centre on the mysterious rays emitted by uranium, a phenomenon discovered by Henri Becquerel. The Curies hypothesised that these rays were not a result of a chemical reaction, but an intrinsic property of the uranium atoms themselves. They called this property “radioactivity.” To test their theory, they needed to isolate the unknown element they believed was responsible. The only available source was a plentiful but low-grade ore called pitchblende.

Their laboratory was little more than a dilapidated wooden shed with a leaky roof and dirt floor – a far cry from the sophisticated facilities of their peers. For four years, in this rudimentary shelter, the Curies performed gruelling physical labour, stirring huge vats of boiling pitchblende with a heavy iron rod. It was back-breaking, monotonous work. They endured freezing winters and sweltering summers, all the while handling hazardous materials whose true danger was not yet understood.

Slowly, painstakingly, they refined tonnes of the black ore, their quest culminating in the isolation of two new elements. The first they named Polonium, after Marie’s beloved homeland. The second, which emitted a faint, ethereal blue glow in the dark, they called Radium. This luminous discovery illuminated not just their squalid shed, but the very secrets of matter itself. Marie Curie had not only succeeded against the odds; she had opened a door to the atomic age, proving that the most powerful forces could be unlocked by the most unstoppable determination.