小学英语英语故事名人故事霍金和他的世界.docx

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1、霍金和他的世界斯蒂芬霍金教授是当代享有盛誉的伟人之一，被称为在世的最伟大的科学家，当今的爱因 斯坦。他在统一 20世纪物理学的两大基础理论一爱因斯坦的相对论和普朗克的量子论方面 走出了重要一步。1989年获得英国爵士荣誉称号。他是英国皇家学会学员和美国科学院外 籍院士。霍金教授1942年出生于英国牛津，这天正好是伽利略的300年忌日。1963年，霍金教授 被诊断患有肌肉萎缩症，即运动神经病。1965年获得理论物理学博士学位。1974年3月1 日，霍金教授在自然上发表论文，阐述了自己的新发现一黑洞是有辐射的。在几个星期 内，全世界的物理学家都在讨论他的研究工作(霍金所指的辐射被称为霍金辐射)。霍

2、金的 新发现，被认为是多年来理论物理学最重要的进展。该论文被称为“物理学史上最深刻的论 文之一”。1975-1976年间，在其获得6项大奖中有伦敦皇家天文学会的埃丁顿勋章、梵 蒂冈教皇科学学会卜一世勋章、霍普金斯奖、美国丹尼欧海涅曼奖、马克斯韦奖和英国皇家 学会的休斯勋章。1978年他获得物理界最有威望的大奖一阿尔伯特爱因斯坦奖。1979年， 被任命为著名的、曾一度为牛顿所任的剑桥大学卢卡逊数学教授。1988年，霍金的惊世之 著时间简史：从大爆炸到黑洞(A Brief History of Time： from the Big Bang to Black Holes)发行。从研究黑洞出发，探索

3、了宇宙的起源和归宿，解答了人类有史以来一直探索 的问题：时间有没有开端，空间有没有边界。这是人类科学史上里程碑式的佳作。该书被译 成40余种文字，出版了 1000余万册。霍金教授的通俗演讲在国际上也享有盛誉，他的足迹 遍布世界各地。他试图通过自己的书籍和通俗演讲，将自己的思想与整个世界交流。2000 年初，霍金在美国白宫做了演讲，这是世界之夜(Millenium Evenings)活动的一局部，克 林顿总统亲切会见他并向他表示祝贺。2001年10月又一部力作The Universe in a Nutshell出版发行。该书是时间简史的姐妹篇。在该书中，霍金揭示了自时间简史 发表以来，理论物理学

4、的伟大突破。1942-1-8：出生于英国牛津。1963：被诊断出肌萎缩性侧索硬化症。1973：首部著作空时的大型结构出版。1974：宣布发现黑洞辐射，成为英国皇家学会会员。1979：广义相对论评述：纪念爱因斯坦百年诞辰出版。1985：失去语言能力，使用带语音合成器的计算机。1988：时间简史：从大爆炸到黑洞获沃尔夫基金奖。至今销售2500万册。1993：黑洞与婴儿宇宙及其它论文出版。A Brief History of HimStephen William Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 (300 years after the death of Gali

5、leo) in Oxford, England. His parents* house was in north London, but during the second world war Oxford was considered a safer place to have babies. When he was eight, his family moved to St Albans, a town about 20 mi les north of London. At eleven Stephen went to St Albans School, and then on to Un

6、iversity College, Oxford, his father* s old college. Stephen wanted to do Mathematics, although his father would have preferred medicine. Mathematics was not available at University College, so he did Physics instead. After three years and not very much work he was awarded a first class honours degr

7、ee in Natural Science.Stephen then went on to Cambridge to do research in Cosmology, there being no-one working in that area in Oxford at the time. His supervisor was Denis Scieima, although he had hoped to get Fred Hoyle who was working in Cambridge. After gaining his Ph. D. he became first a Resea

8、rch Fellow, and later on a Professorial Fei low at Gonvi 1 le and Caius College. After leaving the Institute of Astronomy in 1973 Stephen came to the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and since 1979 has held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. The chair was founde

9、d in 1663 with money left in the will of the Reverend Henry Lucas, who had been the Member of Parliament for the University. It was first held by Isaac Barrow, and then in 1669 by Isaac Newton.Stephen Hawking has worked on the basic laws which govern the universe. With Roger Penrose he showed that E

10、instein，s General Theory of Relativity implied space and time wou 1 d have a beginning in the Big Bang and an end in black holes. These results indicated it was necessary to unify General Relativity with Quantum Theory, the other great Scientific development of the first half of the 20th Century. On

11、e consequence of such a unification that he discovered was that black holes should not be completely black, but should emit radiation and eventually evaporate and disappear. Another conjecture is that the universe has no edge or boundary in imaginary time. This would imply that the way the universe

12、began was completely determined by the laws of science.His many publications include The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime with G F R Ellis, General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey, with W Israel, and 300 Years of Gravity, with W Israel. Stephen Hawking has three popular books published; h

13、is best seller A Brief History of Time, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays and most recently in 2001, The Universe in a Nutshell.Professor Hawking has twelve honorary degrees, was awarded the CBE in 1982, and was made a Companion of Honour in 1989. He is the recipient of many awards, me

14、dals and prizes and is a Fellow of The Royal Society and a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences.Stephen Hawking continues to combine family life (he has three children and one grandchild), and his research into theoretical physics together with an extensive programme of travel and public le

15、ctures.My Experience with ALS (by Stephen Hawking)1 am quite often asked: How do you feel about having ALS? The answer is, not a lot. I try to lead as normal a life as possible, and not think about my condition, or regret the things it prevents me from doing, which are not that many.It was a great s

16、hock to me to discover that I had motor neurone disease. I had never been very well coordinated physically as a child. I was not good at bal 1 games, and my handwriting was the despair of my teachers. Maybe for this reason, I didnt care much for sport or physical activities. But things seemed to cha

17、nge when I wont to Oxford, at the age of 17. I took up coxing and rowing. I was not Boat Race standard, but I got by at the level of inter-College competition.in my third year at Oxford, however, I noticed that I seemed to be gett ing more clumsy, and I fell over once or twice for no apparent reason

18、. But it was not until I was at Cambridge, in the following year, that my father noticed, and took me to the family doctor. He referred me to a specialist, and shortly after my 21st birthday, I went into hospital for tests. I was in for two weeks, during which I had a wide variety of tests. They too

19、k a muscle sample from my arm, stuck electrodes into me, and injected some radio opaque fluid into my spine, and watched it going up and down with x-rays, as they ti 1 ted the bed. After al 1 that, they didnt tel 1 me what I had, except that it was not multiple sclerosis, and that I was an a-typical

20、 case. I gathered, however, that they expected it to continue to get worse, and that there was nothing they could do, except give me vitamins. I could see that they didn* t expect them to have much effect. I didn，t feci like asking for more details, because they were obviously bad.The realisation th

21、at I had an incurable disease, that was likely to kill me in a few years, was a bit of a shock. How could something like that happen to me? Why should I be cut off like this? However, whi1e I had been in hospital, I had seen a boy I vaguely knew die of leukaemia, in the bed opposite me. It had not b

22、een a pretty sight. Clearly there were people who were worse off than me. At least my condition dicin t make me feci sick. Whenever I feel inclined to be sorry for myself I remember that boy.Not knowing what was going to happen to me, or how rapidly the disease would progress, I was at a loose end.

23、The doctors told me to go back to Cambridge and carry on with the research I had just started in general relativity and cosmology. But I was not making much progress, because i didnt have much mathematical background. And, anyway, I might not live long enough to finish my PhD. I felt somewhat of a t

24、ragic character. I took to 1 istening to Wagner, but reports in magazine articles that I drank heavily are an exaggeration. The trouble is once one article said it, other articles copied it, because it made a good story. People believe that anything that has appeared in print so many times must be t

25、rue.My dreams at that time were rather disturbed. Before my condition had been diagnosed, I had been very bored with life. There had not seemed to be anything worth doing. But shortly after I came out of hospital, I dreamt that I was going to be executed. I suddenly realised that there were a lot of

26、 worthwhile things I could do if I were reprieved. Another dream, that I had several times, was that I would sacrifice my life to save others. After all, if I were going to die anyway, it might as well do some good. But I didnt die. In fact, although there was a cloud hanging over my future, I found

27、, to my surprise, that I was enjoying life in the present more than before. I began to make progress wi th my research, and I got engaged to a girl cal led Jane Wilde, whom I had met just about the time my condition was diagnosed. That engagement changed my life. It gave me something to live for. Bu

28、t it also meant that I had to get a job if we were to get married. I therefore applied for a research fellowship at Gonville and Caius (pronounced Keys) college, Cambridge. To my great surprise, I got a fellowship, and we got married a few months later.The fellowship at Caius took care of my immedia

29、te employment problem. I was lucky to have chosen to work in theoretical physics, because that was one of the few areas in which my condition would not be a serious handicap. And I was fortunate that my scientific reputation increased, at the same time that my disability got worse. This meant that p

30、eople were prepared to offer me a sequence of positions in which I only had to do research, without having to lecture.We were also fortunate in housing. When we were married, Jane was still an undergraduate at Westfield College in London, so she had to go up to London during the week. This meant tha

31、t we had to find somewhere I cou1d manage on my own, and which was central, because I could not walk far. I asked the College if they could help, but was told by the then Bursar: it is College policy not to help Fellows with housing. We therefore put our name down to rent one of a group of new flats

32、 that were being built in the maiket place. (Years later, I discovered that those flats were actually owned by the College, but they didnt tel 1 me that.) However, when we returned to Cambridge from a visit to America after the marriage, we found that the flats were not ready. As a great concession,

33、 the Bursar said we could have a room in a hostel for graduate students. He said, “We normally charge 12 shillings and 6 pence a night for this room. However, as there wi 11 be two of you in the room, we will charge 25 shillings. * We stayed there only three nights. Then we found a small house about

34、 100 yards from my university department. It belonged to another College, who had let it to one of its fellows. However he had moved out to a house he had bought in the suburbs. He sub-let the house to us for the remaining three months of his lease. During those three months, we found that another h

35、ouse in the same road was standing empty. A neighbour summoned the owner from Dorset, and told her that it was a scandal that her house should he empty, when young people were looking for accommodation. So she let the house to us. After we had lived there for a few years, we wanted to buy the house,

36、 and do it up. So we asked my College for a mortgage. However, the College did a survey, and decided it was not a good risk. In the end we got a mortgage from a building society, and my parents gave us the money to do it up. We lived there for another four years, but it became too difficult for me t

37、o manage the stairs. By this time, the College appreciated me rather more, and there was a different Bursar. They therefore offered us a ground floor flat in a house that they owned. This suited me very well, because it had large rooms and wide doors. It was sufficiently central that I could get to

38、my University department, or the College, in my electric wheel chair. It was also nice for our three children, because it was surrounded by garden, which was looked after by the College gardeners. Up to 1974, 1 was able to feed myself, and get in and out of bed. Jane managed to help me, and bring up

39、 the children, without outside help. However, things were getting more difficult, so we took to having one of my research students living with us. In return for free accommodation, and a lot of my attention, they helped me get up and go to bed. In 1980, we changed to a system of community and privat

40、e nurses, who came in for an hour or two in the morning and evening. This lasted until I caught pneumonia in 1985. I had to have a tracheotomy operation. After this, I had to have 24 hour nursing care. This was made possible by grants from several foundations. Before the operation, my speech had bee

41、n getting more slurred, so that only a few people who knew me well, could understand me. But at least I could communicate. I wrote scientific papers by dictating to a secretary, and I gave seminars through an interpreter, who repeated my words more clearly. However, the tracheotomy operation removed

42、 my ability to speak altogether. For a time, the only way I could communicate was to spell out words letter by letter, by raising my eyebrows when someone pointed to the right letter on a spelling card. 1t is pretty difficult to carry on a conversation like that, let alone write a scientific paper.

43、However, a computer expert in Cal ifornia, called Wal t Wol tosz, heard of my pl ight. He sent me a computer program he had written, called Equalizer. This allowed me to select words from a series of menus on the screen, by pressing a switch in my hand. The program could also be controlled by a swit

44、ch, operated by head or eye movement. When I have built up what I want to say, I can send it to a speech synthesizer. At first, I just ran the Equalizer program on a desk top computer.However David Mason, of Cambridge Adaptive Communication, fitted a small portable computer and a speech synthesizer

45、to my wheel chair. This system al lowed me to communicate much better than I could before. I can manage up to 15 words a minute. I can either speak what I have written, or save it to disk. I can then print it out, or call it back and speak it sentence by sentence. Using this system, I have written a

46、 book, and dozens of scientific papers. I have also given many scientific and popular talks. They have all been well received. I think that is in a large part due to the quality of the speech synthesiser, which is made by Speech Plus. Ones voice is very important. If you have a slurred voice, people

47、 are 1 ikely to treat you as mentally deficient: Does he take sugar? This synthesiser is by far the best I have heard, because it varies the intonation, and doesnt speak 1 ike a Dalek. The only trouble is that it gives me an American accent.I have had motor neurone disease for practically all my adu

48、lt life. Yet it has not prevented me from having a very attractive family, and being successful in my work. This is thanks to the help I have received from Jane, my children, and a large number of other people and organisations. I have been lucky, that my condition has progressed more slowly than is often the case. But it shows that one need not lose hope.