Passage FourDuring his lifetime Alfred Nobel reaped millions of dollars in profits from his invention and manufacture of high explosives. Some of these greatly increased the killing power of weapons and so made war more terrible. Nobel, nevertheless, left much of his fortune for the promotion of world peace as well as the advancement of scientific knowledge and the encouragement of literary achievement.Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on Oct. 21,1833. Alfred was a sickly child. He was educated at home. Instead of going to high school he traveled widely. He learned chemistry and mechanical engineering in private studies and study abroad. At 21, he joined his father and brother in St. Petersburg. The father had begun some experiments with nitroglycerin but had abandoned them, Alfred resumed these experiments and invented a blasting cap, made of fulminate of mercury, to fire a charge of nitroglycerin. The cap was a very important development.Although still sickly, Nobel took charge of the family business. In 1863 he returned to Sweden and set up a small factory to make nitroglycerin. A year later a terrific explosion destroyed the plant and killed five people. One was his youngest brother, Emil. Nobel, however, refused to give up his work and moved the plant to a barge moored in a lake. Further tragedies occurred. In 1866, after disastrous explosions at world ports, many nations forbade their vessels to carry nitroglycerin. Nobel then sought to make the explosive safer to handle. He found the answer in dynamite.The invention made Nobel wealthy. He spent the next ten years setting up plants in the United States and Europe. In 1876 he patented blasting gelatin, a combination of guncotton and nitroglycerin. In1878 he and his brothers developed oil fields in Russia. He invented ballistite in 1888, one of the first smokeless powders.Nobel never married. He found recreation in his laboratory and in writing poetry in imitation of his idol, Percy Bysshe Shelley. In later years he traveled throughout Europe and had homes in Paris, in Stockholm, and in San Remo, Italy. In 1876 he met Bertha Kinsky (later Baroness von Suttner),a Bohemian noblewoman. In letters to Nobel over several years she developed his ideas for world peace. Nobel's bequest for a peace prize was largely in tribute to her, though he was somewhat doubtful of the effectiveness of the pacifist movement. He died in 1896 at San Remo, leaving the executors of his will to work out the details of administering the Nobel prizes.Questions 26-30 are based on Passage Four.26. Nobel made a fortune out of( )
A、A. his promotion of world peace
B、B. his advancement of scientific knowledge
C、C. his encouragement of literary achievement
D、D. his invention and manufacture of high explosives
【正确答案】：D
【题目解析】：P445
