Marie Curie had an amazing memory, and one event from when she was twenty years old shows just how special it was.

At a party she attended, one of the guests recited a poem that Marie really liked. She enjoyed it so much that she asked him for a copy of it.

The guest, wanting to impress her and also test her memory, said she didn’t need a written copy. If her memory was as good as people said, he told her, she should be able to remember it by hearing it just one more time.

"I’ll try," Marie said, "but I’m not sure if I can do it."

She listened to the poem a second time and then went into another room.

About thirty minutes later, she came back to join the guests—and to everyone’s surprise, she recited the entire poem out loud without making a single mistake.

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