Nearly nine years ago….their leaders always knew better. Answer the following questions based on your reading of the passage 1. What had drained the blood from the heart of the author? 2. Describe the circumstances leading to the making of atom bomb. 3. When was the Hydrogen bomb ready for use? 4. What, according to the author, was the main reason of the failure of the German scientists? 5. What do you learn from the passage about Albert Einstein?

Nearly nine years ago, on a warm autumn evening in 1945 , I was driving over the mountains of Southern Japan to the city of Nagasaki. I thought I was still in open country when all at once I realized that I was already crossing what had been the city. The shadows which flickered past me in the dusk were not rocks and trees: they were crushed buildings; the bare and skewed ribs of factories, and two crumpled gasometers.
The scale of the damage of Nagasaki drained the blood from my heart then, and does so now when I speak of it. For three miles my road lay through a desert which man had made in a second. Now, nine years later, the hydrogen bomb is ready to dwarf this scale, and to turn each mile of destruction into ten miles. And citizens and scientists share at one another and ask: 'How did we blunder into this nightmare?
I put this first as a question of history, because the history of this is known to few people. The fission of uranium was discovered by two German scientists a year before the war. Within a few months, it was reported that Germany had forbidden the export of uranium from the mines of Czechoslovakia which she had just annexed. Scientists on the Continent, in England and America, asked themselves whether the secret weapon on which the Germans were said to be working was an atomic bomb. If the fission of uranium could be used explosively (and this already seemed possible in 1939) it might in theory make an explosion a million times larger than hitherto. The monopoly of such an atomic bomb would give Hitler instant victory, and make him master of Europe and the world. The scientists knew the scale of what they feared very well: they feared first desolation and then slavery. With heavy hearts, they told Albert Einstein what they knew of atomic fission. Einstein had been a pacifist all his life, and he did not easily put his conscience on one side. But it seemed clear to him that no scientist was free to keep this knowledge to himself. He felt that no one could decide whether a nation should or should not use atomic bombs, except the nation itself; the choice must be offered to the nation, and made by those whom the nation has elected to act for it. On August 2, 1939, a month before Hitler invaded Poland, Einstein wrote to President Roosevelt to tell him that he thought an atomic bomb might be made, and he feared that the Germans were trying to make one.
This is how it came about that, later in the war, scientists worked together in England, in Canada and America, to make the atomic bomb. They hated war no less than the layman does- no less than the soldier does; they, too, had wrestled with their consciences; and they had decided that their duty was to let the nation use their skill, just as it uses the skill of the solider or the expert in camouflage. The atomic scientists believed that they were in a race against Germany whose outcome might decide, the war even in its last weeks. We know now that the race was almost a walk-over. The Germans were indeed trying to make an atomic explosion, and they thought that they were ahead of the allies. But by our standards, what they had done was pitiful; they had not made a pile that worked, and they believed that the fast chain reaction of an atomic bomb was impossible. The Nazis had made fundamental science a poor relation, and put it under second rate party men with splendid titles. And more deeply, the Nazis had sapped the pith and power of research, the quizzical eye and questioning mind, the urge to find the facts for oneself. There were not enough unconventional ideas in the German atomic projects, and when the younger men did put up some, their leaders always knew better.

Answer the following questions based on your reading of the passage

1. What had drained the blood from the heart of the author?
2. Describe the circumstances leading to the making of atom bomb.
3. When was the Hydrogen bomb ready for use?
4. What, according to the author, was the main reason of the failure of the German scientists?
5. What do you learn from the passage about Albert Einstein?

Answer:

1. The author's heart was drained of blood when he witnessed the scale of the destruction in Nagasaki caused by the atomic bomb. This left a profound impact on him, and the memory of the devastation still affected him when he wrote about it.

2. The circumstances leading to the making of the atomic bomb began with the discovery of uranium fission by two German scientists a year before World War II. Shortly after this discovery, it was reported that Germany had forbidden the export of uranium from the mines of Czechoslovakia, which they had just annexed. Scientists in various countries, including England and America, realized the potential of atomic fission to create a powerful explosive device. They feared that if Germany developed such a weapon, it could lead to Hitler's victory and world domination. With this fear in mind, scientists, including Albert Einstein, felt a moral obligation to inform their respective governments about the possibility of atomic bombs. Einstein wrote a letter to President Roosevelt in August 1939, a month before the outbreak of World War II, warning him of the potential of atomic bombs and expressing concerns that the Germans might be working on one.

3. According to the passage, the hydrogen bomb was ready to dwarf the scale of destruction caused by the atomic bomb nine years after the events described in the passage. The exact year when the hydrogen bomb was ready is not mentioned, but it implies that it was a significant advancement in destructive capability.

4. The main reason for the failure of the German scientists in developing an atomic bomb was twofold. First, they had not made a functional pile (referring to a nuclear reactor), and second, they believed that the fast chain reaction required for an atomic bomb was impossible. The passage suggests that the Nazis had mismanaged their atomic projects. They had not invested adequately in fundamental scientific research and had put individuals with titles but limited expertise in charge. Furthermore, the Nazis had stifled unconventional ideas and critical thinking within their scientific community.

5. The passage mentions that Albert Einstein had been a lifelong pacifist, and he did not easily set aside his conscience. However, he believed that no scientist should keep the knowledge of atomic fission to themselves. He thought that the choice of whether to use atomic bombs should be made by the nation and its elected leaders. This led him to write a letter to President Roosevelt in 1939, warning about the potential of atomic bombs and the Germans' possible efforts to develop them. From the passage, we learn that Einstein felt a sense of moral duty to inform the government about the scientific developments that could have a significant impact on the war and world events.