Marie Curie: She Drove X-Ray Cars to the Front Line in the First World War

She had two Nobel Prizes.

Then a war began, and she learned to drive, to take X-ray machines to the soldiers.

This is the story of Marie Curie.

Welcome to brightlivesenglish.com, where we teach real English using real-life stories.

Front line. The front line is the place where the two armies meet and the fighting happens.

She took the cars close to the front line.

Surgeon. A surgeon is a doctor who cuts the body open to repair it.

With X-rays, surgeons could see exactly where the metal was.

Equip. To equip something is to give it the tools it needs.

She equipped about twenty cars with X-ray machines.

Vehicle. A vehicle is a machine that carries people or things, like a car or a van.

The vehicles became known as "the little Curies".

Operate. To operate a machine is to use it and control it.

She taught about one hundred and fifty women to operate the machines.

Now, one pattern: a participle clause.

Realising X-rays could help, she learned to drive.

It means: she realised X-rays could help, so she learned to drive.

Realising X-rays could help, she learned to drive.

Ready? Let's begin.

Marie Curie was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes.

Her husband Pierre had died in a street accident in 1906.

By 1914, she led a new radium institute in Paris.

In August 1914, the First World War began, and the German army came close to Paris.

She carried France's radium, in a heavy lead box, by train to Bordeaux for safety.

Then she went straight back to Paris on a military train.

Thousands of wounded soldiers came to the hospitals.

But most hospitals near the fighting had no X-ray machines.

Surgeons had to search for bullets and bits of metal without seeing them.

Realising X-rays could help, she learned to drive.

She also studied car repair and the human body.

A women's group paid for the first car, and its engine made the electricity for the X-rays.

But could the X-rays reach the soldiers in time?

In the autumn of 1914, she and her daughter Irène, who was just 17, set off.

She took the cars close to the front line.

They made the first images in tents and old buildings.

With X-rays, surgeons could see exactly where the metal was, and they could work faster.

She equipped about 20 cars with X-ray machines and set up about 200 X-ray rooms in hospitals.

The vehicles became known as "the little Curies".

She taught about 150 women to operate the machines.

Irène ran an X-ray unit on her own, near the fighting, taught doctors how to use it, and later received a military medal.

She even offered her Nobel gold medals to help pay for the war.

The bank said no.

So she used her prize money to buy war bonds instead.

During the war, about a million X-ray exams were made.

She later wrote, "The use of the X-rays during the war saved the lives of many wounded men."

Years of radiation slowly made her ill.

She died in 1934.

But the little Curies showed what science can do when people need it most.

Let's review. She took the cars close to the front line.

With X-rays, surgeons could see exactly where the metal was.

She equipped about twenty cars with X-ray machines.

The vehicles became known as "the little Curies".

She taught about one hundred and fifty women to operate the machines.

And remember: realising X-rays could help, she learned to drive.

Marie Curie's story teaches us: when people need help, use what you know.

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