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Born in London in 1815, Ada Lovelace was the daughter of Annabella Millbanke and the British poet Lord
Byron. Her parents separated just a month after she was born. Less than a year later, Lord Byron went abroad
and never returned ( he died in Greece in 1824). Ada never knew her father and was raised by her mother. Her mother had mathematical training and insisted that Ada, who was educated privately, study mathematics too.
Ada did well not only in mathematics and science, but also in music and PE.
In 1833, Ada met Charles Babbage, a famous English mathematician. He was known as the inventor of a
calculating machine called the Difference Engine. They became good friends and began to write to each other
on the topics of mathematics, logic, and many other subjects.
Babbage had made plans in 1834 for a new kind of calculating machine ( although the Difference Engine
was not finished),an Analytical Engine. Few people in England would support him with his first machine
unfinished. But he found support for his new calculating machine abroad. In 1842, an Italian mathematician,
Louis Menabrea, published a paper in French on the subject of the Analytical Engine. Babbage asked Ada to
translate the paper.
When she showed Babbage her translation he suggested that she add her own notes, which turned out to be
three times as long as Menabrea' s. The notes are the source of her enduring fame (不朽的声誉 ). In her notes, Ada predicted (预言 )that such a machine might be used to write music, to draw pictures, and would be used
for both practical and scientific use. She was correct.
After she wrote the description of Babbage' s Analytical Engine,her life was plagued (折磨) with illnesses.
In 1852, she died of cancer and was buried beside her father at Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire, England.
In 1980, 165 years after Ada' s birth, the US Defense Department announced a powerful new computer
language. They named it Ada in honor of Ada Lovelace' s important role in the history of computing.
1. It seemed that Ada' s mother _____.
A. had little money to educate Ada at home
B. wanted Ada to be a great musician
C. didn't wish Ada to be a poet like her father
D. didn't think Ada was a clever girl
2. Babbage didn' t find support for his Analytical Engine in Britain because _____.
A. his first calculating machine was not finished
B. no one thought the machine would be useful
C. he had moved to Italy and settled there
D. most of his inventions proved useless
3. Menabrea' s paper on Babbage' s Analytical Engine was written in _____.
A. English
B. Italian
C. German
D. French
4. What do we learn about Ada from the passage?
A. She was remembered as a great translator.
B. Her predictions have come true.
C. Her notes were written in computer language.
D. She led a long and fruitful life.
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