Class 10 English · Original EZT practice
The Making of a Scientist - Robert W. Peterson (Class 10 English, Footprints without Feet, Chapter 6)
The Making of a Scientist is Chapter 6 of Class 10 Footprints without Feet (Reprint 2026-27, pp. 32-38). Robert W. Peterson traces how Richard Ebright went from a small-town butterfly collector to a college student whose new theory on how cells work appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science at twenty-two. The chapter follows the chain - a children's book, a county science fair loss, and years of experiments on monarch butterflies - that shaped a scientist. This page gives a full summary, key people, theme, word meanings and fresh practice questions. (Note: this is original practice, not a textbook exercise key.)
6 original worked examples, 6 fresh self-check questions and 4 mixed questions, with explained answers. These are not copied textbook exercises, an official chapter index or a full answer key. No affiliation with NCERT is claimed.
Official sources for topic and edition context, checked 24 October 2026:
1. Summary - from collector to cell theorist
As a child Ebright collected - butterflies from kindergarten, then rocks, fossils and coins - and by second grade had all twenty-five butterfly species found around his hometown. His mother got him the children's book The Travels of Monarch X, which told how monarchs migrate to Central America; 'that probably would have been the end of my butterfly collecting' without it. The book invited readers to tag butterflies for Dr Urquhart's migration research. Ebright's mother wrote in, and soon he was raising thousands of monarchs in his basement through their life cycle, tagging and releasing them - though in all that time only two of his tagged butterflies were recaptured, within seventy-five miles. In seventh grade he entered a county science fair with slides of frog tissues - and lost. He saw that the winners had done real experiments, not neat displays, and resolved: 'for the next year's fair I would have to do a real experiment.' Dr Urquhart sent a stack of experiment ideas. Ebright's eighth-grade project tested whether a beetle carried the viral disease killing monarch caterpillars - 'I didn't get any real results,' but he showed he had tried, and 'this time I won.' The next year he tested whether birds would eat monarchs; a starling 'would eat all the monarchs it could get', earning first in zoology and third overall at the county fair. From his second year of high school he asked what the twelve tiny gold spots on a monarch pupa do. Everyone assumed they were ornamental - Dr Urquhart didn't. Ebright and another student built a device proving the spots produce a hormone needed for the butterfly's development, leading to the discovery of an unknown insect hormone and wins at the county and International Science and Engineering Fair. In his senior year he grew monarch wing cells in culture and showed they developed into normal wing scales only when fed the gold-spot hormone - first place for zoology at the International Fair. After his freshman year at Harvard, using the U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratory's instruments, he identified the hormone's chemical structure. Looking at X-ray photos of that structure during his junior year, Ebright got the idea for his theory of how the cell can 'read' the blueprint of its DNA. He and James R. Wong worked all night on models and wrote the paper published when he was twenty-two. He graduated from Harvard with highest honours and became a graduate student researcher at Harvard Medical School testing the theory - work that could lead to ideas for preventing some cancers. The chapter closes on the recipe: 'Start with a first-rate mind, add curiosity, and mix in the will to win for the right reasons.'
2. Key people
Richard H. Ebright: an only child from north of Reading, Pennsylvania, whose collecting, curiosity and competitiveness carried him from tagging monarchs to a prize-winning cell theory. Ebright's mother: his 'only companion until he started school'; bought him telescopes, microscopes and cameras, wrote to Dr Urquhart, and found him learning work every evening. Dr Frederick A. Urquhart: the University of Toronto researcher whose butterfly-tagging study and stack of experiment ideas guided Ebright through high school. James R. Wong: Ebright's college room-mate; they worked all night on plastic molecular models and co-wrote the theory paper. Richard A. Weiherer: Ebright's social studies teacher and debating adviser, who 'opened my mind to new ideas'.
3. Theme and word meanings
Curiosity plus effort makes a scientist: Ebright's gifts mattered because his mother, mentors and his own experiments kept feeding them. Real science means experiments, not displays: the seventh-grade fair loss taught him the difference between a neat exhibit and a test. Winning for the right reasons: 'not interested in winning for winning's sake... he wanted to do the best job he could.' Word meanings from the textbook glossary: leagues - groups of sports clubs or teams playing matches among themselves; county - region; starling - common European bird (with black, brown-spotted plumage) which nests near buildings and is a good mimic; entomology - the study of insects; eureka - a cry of triumph at a discovery (originally attributed to Archimedes); canoeist - a person who paddles a canoe, a light boat.
Choose, solve, check, then try a fresh question.
Before calculating, read the method prompt and name the condition that makes it useful. Write your own attempt. Open the steps only when you need them, and use the check to catch a wrong sign, unit or interpretation. Finish with the fresh question before reading its answer.
Trace the turning point
Choose the method: One book opens a world.
EZT practice question
How did The Travels of Monarch X change Ebright's life?
Show the worked solution
- The children's book told how monarch butterflies migrate to Central America - a real scientific mystery.
- It invited readers to tag butterflies for Dr Frederick A. Urquhart's migration research, and Ebright's mother wrote in.
- So collecting turned into research: 'it opened the world of science to him' - without the book, butterfly collecting 'probably would have been the end'.
Answer: It told how monarchs migrate to Central America and invited readers to tag butterflies for Dr Urquhart's research - in the chapter's words, 'it opened the world of science to him.'
Check: Two parts: the migration story and the tagging invitation that turned a hobby into science.
Watch for this: Do not credit the book with his later theory - it started the journey, it did not contain the destination.
Now try it yourself
How many of Ebright's tagged butterflies were recaptured?
Check your answer
Only two, and both within seventy-five miles of his home.
The thin result shows patience, not instant reward, drives science.
Read the lesson of the loss
Choose the method: Displays lose to experiments.
EZT practice question
What lesson did Ebright take from losing the seventh-grade science fair?
Show the worked solution
- He entered the county science fair with slides of frog tissues - a neat display - and lost.
- Studying the winners, he saw they had done real experiments, not displays.
- He resolved: 'for the next year's fair I would have to do a real experiment.'
Answer: He saw that the winners had done real experiments rather than neat displays like his frog-tissue slides, and decided he would run a real experiment the next year.
Check: Contrast the two kinds of entry: display (slides) versus experiment (a test).
Watch for this: Do not say the loss discouraged him - the chapter presents it as the turning point in his method.
Now try it yourself
What did Ebright enter in the seventh-grade fair?
Check your answer
Slides of frog tissues - prepared carefully, but a display, not an experiment.
Naming the entry shows exactly what he had to outgrow.
Explain a win without results
Choose the method: Honest trying counts.
EZT practice question
What was Ebright's eighth-grade project, and why did it win despite 'no real results'?
Show the worked solution
- Working from Dr Urquhart's stack of experiment ideas, he tested whether a beetle carried the viral disease killing monarch caterpillars.
- The test produced nothing conclusive - 'I didn't get any real results.'
- But he had genuinely attempted a real experiment, and that is what the judges rewarded: 'this time I won.'
Answer: He tested whether a beetle carried the disease killing monarch caterpillars; he won because he showed he had genuinely tried the experiment, even though it produced no real results.
Check: Name the hypothesis first, then the reason the effort still won.
Watch for this: Do not invent a positive finding - the chapter is explicit that there were no real results.
Now try it yourself
What did Ebright test the following year?
Check your answer
Whether birds would eat monarchs - a starling 'would eat all the monarchs it could get', earning first in zoology and third overall.
The next project did produce a result, completing the lesson.
Follow the gold-spot question
Choose the method: Question the ornamental.
EZT practice question
What question about the monarch pupa drove Ebright's high-school research?
Show the worked solution
- From his second year of high school he asked what the twelve tiny gold spots on a monarch pupa are for.
- Everyone assumed the spots were merely ornamental - Dr Urquhart didn't, and neither did Ebright.
- He and another student built a device proving the spots produce a hormone necessary for the butterfly's full development - the discovery of an unknown insect hormone.
Answer: What the twelve tiny gold spots on a monarch pupa do - he proved they produce a hormone necessary for the butterfly's full development, discovering an unknown insect hormone.
Check: State the question and the proved answer together - the pair is the discovery.
Watch for this: Do not say the spots were useless decoration - that is the assumption the experiment disproved.
Now try it yourself
What did the gold-spot work win?
Check your answer
Wins at the county fair and at the International Science and Engineering Fair.
A real question, really tested, travels far.
Explain the senior-year proof
Choose the method: Feed the cells the hormone.
EZT practice question
How did Ebright's senior-year experiment show the hormone's effect?
Show the worked solution
- He grew cells from a monarch's wing in culture.
- The cells divided and developed into normal wing scales only when fed the hormone from the gold spots.
- That controlled difference won first place for zoology at the International Fair.
Answer: Cells grown from a monarch's wing divided and developed into normal wing scales only when fed the hormone from the gold spots - earning first place for zoology at the International Fair.
Check: The word 'only' carries the proof: with hormone, normal scales; without, not.
Watch for this: Do not merge this with the gold-spot discovery - that found the hormone; this proved what it does to cells.
Now try it yourself
What did Ebright do after his freshman year at Harvard?
Check your answer
Using the U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratory's instruments, he identified the hormone's chemical structure.
Structure is the bridge from biology to his cell theory.
List the recipe
Choose the method: Mind, curiosity, will.
EZT practice question
According to the chapter, what are 'the ingredients in the making of a scientist'?
Show the worked solution
- The chapter closes with a recipe: 'Start with a first-rate mind.'
- 'Add curiosity' - the drive that kept him asking what things are for.
- 'And mix in the will to win for the right reasons' - he wanted to do the best job he could, not prizes for their own sake.
Answer: A first-rate mind, curiosity, and the will to win for the right reasons - wanting to do the best job possible, not winning for prizes.
Check: Three ingredients, in the chapter's own order: mind, curiosity, will.
Watch for this: Do not drop 'for the right reasons' - the chapter separates winning well from winning for winning's sake.
Now try it yourself
Who 'opened' Ebright's mind 'to new ideas' at school?
Check your answer
Richard A. Weiherer, his social studies teacher and debating adviser.
The ingredients were fed by people, not born finished.
Try a mixed set
Choose a method or explanation before opening each answer.
1. The turning-point book?
Show answer and reason
The Travels of Monarch X - it invited readers to tag monarchs for research.
It opened the world of science to him.
2. The fair-loss lesson?
Show answer and reason
Winners do real experiments, not neat displays.
Next year he ran a real experiment - and won.
3. The gold spots proved to be?
Show answer and reason
Producers of a hormone needed for the butterfly's development.
Not ornamental, as everyone assumed.
4. The three ingredients?
Show answer and reason
A first-rate mind, curiosity, and the will to win for the right reasons.
The chapter's closing recipe.
Try it yourself
Work these on paper before checking any notes. Answers are deliberately not shown here.
- Explain in two sentences how one children's book changed the direction of Ebright's life.
- List Ebright's three science-fair entries in order and say what each taught or earned him.
- Contrast 'winning for winning's sake' with 'the will to win for the right reasons' using one detail from the chapter.
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Questions about this practice page
- What book became the turning point in Ebright's life in The Making of a Scientist?
- The Travels of Monarch X, a children's book about monarch migration that invited readers to tag butterflies for research.
- Who wrote The Making of a Scientist?
- Robert W. Peterson. The textbook names him as the author and carries no author note, so this page makes no further biographical claims.
- How did Ebright's mother help make him a scientist?
- She was his first companion, bought him telescopes, microscopes and cameras, wrote to Dr Urquhart, and found him learning work every evening.
- What was Richard Ebright's great discovery at age twenty-two?
- With his room-mate James R. Wong, a new theory of how the cell reads the blueprint of its DNA, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
- Where is The Making of a Scientist in the Class 10 book?
- Chapter 6 of the supplementary reader Footprints without Feet (Reprint 2026-27, pp. 32-38), by Robert W. Peterson.