A maths talent who won fame this week for giving up a milliondollar prize is living with his mother in
a simple flat in St Petersburg, coexisting on her ￡ 30amonth pension, because he has been
unemployed for many years.
The Sunday Telegraph tracked down the strange recluse(隐士) who shocked the maths world
when he solved a centuryold puzzle known as the Poincar? Conjecture.
Grigory Perelman's trouble comes from a split with a leading Russian mathematical institute, the
Steklov, in 2003. When the Institute in St Petersburg failed to reelect him as a member, Dr Perelman
was left feeling an "absolutely ungifted and untalented person", said a friend. He became unconfident
and cut himself off.
Other friends say he cannot afford to travel to the International Mathematical Union's congress in
Madrid, where many people want him to receive the maths equivalent(等价物) of the Nobel Prize, and
that he is too modest to ask anyone to pay for his trip.
Interviewed in St Petersburg, Dr Perelman insisted that he was unworthy of all the attention, and
was uninterested in the prize. "I do not think anything that I say can be of the slightest public interest,"
he said. "I am not saying that because I value my privacy, or that I am doing anything I want to hide.
There are no topsecret projects going on here. I just believe the public has no interest in me."
He continued: "I know that selfpromotion happens a lot and if people want to do that, good luck to
them, but I do not regard it as a positive thing. I realized this a long time ago and nobody is going to
change my mind. Newspapers should be more discerning(有洞察力的) over who they write about.
They should have more taste. As far as I am concerned, I can't offer anything for their readers."
Dr Perelman has some small savings from his time as a lecturer, but is apparently unwilling to increase
them with the D＄1 million offered by the Clay Mathematics Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
for solving one of the world's seven "Millennium Problems".
1. Grigory Perelman lives with his mother because ________.
A. he has to look after her
B. his mother has a million dollars
C. he has been out of work for a long time
D. he is badly paid at the mathematical institute
2. The phrase"absolutely ungifted and untalented person"shows that Dr Perelman felt ________.
A. angry
B. discouraged
C. proud
D. confident
3. Grigory Perelman refused to accept the prize because ________.
A. he thought the prize was worthless
B. he didn't believe the news
C. he couldn't afford to travel to Madrid
D. he showed no interest in it
4. From the passage, we can infer that Grigory Perelman ________.
A. solved the most difficult maths problem
B. has a strong personality
C. wanted to make himself known to all
D. didn't get on well with the press
5. What's the best title for the passage?
A. Great Mathematician Leads Simple Life
B. Maths Genius Abandons a Milliondollar Prize
C. Mathematics Institute Offers Grigory D＄1 Million
D. One of the World's Seven "Millennium Problems" Solved
