When I was at university, I studied very hard. But a lot of my friends did very l    work. Some just did enough to pass the exams. Others didn’t do quite enough. Fred Braines was such a student. He spent more time drinking in the T   House than working in the library.
Once at the end of the term, we had to take an important test in Chinese. The test had 100 questions. Beside each question we had to write “True” or “False”. While I was studying in my room, Fred was watching TV. Fred usually worried a lot the night before a test. But on that night he looked very e   . Then he told me of his idea.
“It’s very simple. There are 100 questions and I have to get 50 right to pass the test. I will take a coin into the examination room. I haven’t studied a Chinese book for months, so I will toss (抛) the coin. In this way, I’m sure I’ll get h    of the questions right.”
The next day, Fred came happily into the examination room. As he sat tossing a coin for half an hour, he wrote down his answers. Then he left, half an hour b    the rest of us.
The next day, Fred met his Chinese teacher at the school gate. “Oh, good,” he said. “I am sure you have got the r    of the test. Did I pass the test? ”
The teacher looked at him and smiled, “Ah, it’s you, Braines. Just a minute. ” Then the teacher reached his pocket and took out a coin. He threw it into the air, caught in his hand and looked at it. “I am sorry, Braines, you f   ! ”

On May 2, 2012, Ashok Gadgil became the winner of the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation (全球创新奖). Each year, the honor is given to an inventor who has made a big difference in the lives of people in developing countries. Gadgil is a professor and physicist at the University of California, Berkeley. He spent thirty years helping people in need. His inventions have helped more than 100 million people around the world. “I chose to focus on problems where my knowledge of science  could help,” Gadgil said.
In the 1990s, Gadgil designed his first life-saving invention after more than 10,000 people died from Bengal cholera (孟加拉霍乱) because of the clean water crisis (危机) in India. His invention uses ultraviolet light to kill deadly disease-carrying germs (细菌) from drinking water. It costs just one cent to clean five liters of water (about 21 cups). So far, the invention has provided safe drinking water for more than five million people in India and other developing countries.
Gadgil’s another important invention is the Berkeley-Darfur Stove (炉具). The long and violent war in Darfur, Sudan, has caused many people to move to foreign countries and live in refugee camps (难民营). They are given food aid. But people still have to travel a long distance five times a week to gather firewood to cook meals. This can be dangerous because of street violence in the area. To avoid danger, some spend much of their money used to feed their families buying firewood.
The stove Gadgil created cuts fuel usage by 55%. That means people wouldn’t have to leave the camps to find firewood as often. The invention also helps to save homes more than $300 a year. About 125,000 people and their families have been helped.
As a professor, Gadgil encourages his students, “Be optimistic (乐观的) when you try a hard problem,” he says. “It’s when you solve a large problem that you can have a big influence on the world.”
小题1: Ashok Gadgil was given the honor because _______.

A．he was a famous professor and physicist at UC, Berkeley

B．he improved the lives of people in developing countries

C．he spent thirty years helping people in need

D．he developed useful inventions with his team

小题2:Which of the following statements about Gadgil is TRUE?

A．He helped about 125,000 people in India.

B．He spent lots of money on his inventions.

C．He used his knowledge to help people in need.

D．One of his inventions could cure Bengal cholera.

小题3:What do people benefit from the Berkeley-Darfur Stove?

A．They can sell stoves to make a living.

B．They can save both time and money.

C．They can be protected from diseases.

D．They can cook their food easily.