Cambridge 19 | Test 2 | Passage 3

An inquiry into the existence of the gifted child

Let us start by looking at a modern “genius,” Maryam Mirzakhani, who died at the early age of 40. She was the only woman to win the Fields Medal—the mathematical equivalent of a Nobel Prize. It would be easy to assume that someone as special as Mirzakhani must have been one of those “gifted” children, those who have an extraordinary ability in a specific sphere of activity or knowledge. But look closer and a different story emerges. Mirzakhani was born in Tehran, Iran. She went to a highlyselective girls’ school but maths wasn’t her interest—reading was. She loved novels and would readanything she could lay her hands on. As for maths, she did rather poorly at it for the first couple of years in her middle school, but became interested when her elder brother told her about what he’d learned. He shared a famous maths problem from a magazine that fascinated her—and she washooked.

selective (adjective)

/sɪˈlek.tɪv/

intentionally choosing some things and not others

e.g., The club is selective in choosing members.

e.g., The college has a highly selective admissionsprocess.

get/lay/put your hands on something (idiom)

to find something

e.g., I can never lay my hands on a stapler in this office.

hooked (adjective)

/hʊkt/

‌if you are hooked on something, you enjoy it very much and you want to do it as often as possible

e.g., Her friends talked her into playing golf, and now she's hooked.