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UNIT 6
Text A
Pre-reading Activities
First Listening
1.Before you listen to the tape have a quick look at the paragraph below. It's similar to what you'll hear on the tape, but there are some differences. As you listen the first time, underline the sections of the paragraph that are different from what you hear on the tape. Don't worry yet about what the exact differences are-just underline where they appear.
Steven Hawking, the world-famous scientist and author, lost his ability to speak in 1985. Already confined to a wheelchair, unable to move more than a few muscles, he lost his voice and this meant he could communicate only by raising his eyebrows. Then an American computer programmer came to Hawking's rescue by designing a vocalizing computer specially for him. With its help. Hawking can construct sentences at a speed of about 15 words per minute, by selecting words from his computer screen and then clicking on a device that vocalizes the sentences for him. Hawking jokes about the computer: "The only trouble is that it gives me an American accent."
Second Listening
2. What else do you know about Steven Hawking and his book A Brief History of Time? Why is he called "the smartest man in the world"?
A Brief History of Stephen Hawking
Michael White & John Gribbin
He has been proclaimed "the finest mind alive", "the greatest genius of the late 20th century", and "Einstein's heir". Known to millions, far and wide, for his book A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking is a star scientist in more ways than one. His gift for revealing the mysteries of the universe in a style that non-scientists can enjoy made Hawking an instant celebrity and his book a bestseller in both Britain and America. It has earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records for spending 184 weeks in The Sunday Times "top-ten" lists, and has sold more than five million copies worldwide — virtually unheard-of success for a science book.
How did all this happen? How has a man who is almost completely paralysed and unable to speak except through a computer overcome these incredible obstacles and achieved far more than most people ever dream of?
Stephen William Hawking was a healthy baby, born to intellectual, eccentric parents. His father Frank, a doctor specialising in tropical diseases, and his mother Isobel, a doctor's daughter, lived in a big old house full of books. Carpets and furniture stayed in use until they fell apart; the wallpaper hung peeling from old age. The family car was a London taxi, bought for ￡50.
Hawking has always been fascinated by his birth date: January 8,1942. It was the 300th anniversary of the death of Galileo, the Italian mathematician and astronomer who revolutionised astronomy by maintaining that the Sun is the centre of the Solar System — not the Earth, as ancient astronomers believed.
"Galileo", says Hawking, "was the first scientist to start using his eyes, both figuratively and literally. In a sense, he was responsible for the age of science we now enjoy."
Hawking attended St. Albans School, a private school noted for its high academic standards. He was part of a small elite group, the brightest of the bright students. They hung around together, listened to classical music and read only such "smart" authors as Aldous Huxley and Hawking's hero, Bertrand Russell, at once an intellectual giant and liberal activist.
Hawking spent very little time on maths homework, yet got full marks. A friend recalls: "While I would be struggling away with a complicated problem, he just knew the answer. He didn't have to think about it."
This instinctive insight also impressed his teachers. One of Hawking's science teachers, for example, recalls the time he posed the question: "Does a cup of hot tea reach a drinkable temperature more quickly if you put the milk in first, or add the milk after pouring?" While the rest of the class struggled over how to even begin approaching the problem, Hawking almost instantly announced the correct answer: "Add the milk after pouring, of course." (The hotter the tea initially, the faster it will cool.) Another teacher relates how Hawking and his friends built a simple computer—and this was in 1958, a time when only large research centres had any computers at all.
Hawking the schoolboy was a typical grind, underweight and awkward and peering through eyeglasses. His grey uniform always looked a mess and he spoke rather unclearly, having inherited a slight lisp from his father. This had nothing to do with early signs of illness; he was just that sort of kid—a figure of classroom fun, respected by his friends, avoided by most.
Hawking went on to study at Oxford, winning a scholarship to read Natural Science, a course which combines mathematics, physics and astronomy, at University College. He found much of the work easy and averaged only one hour's work a day. Once, when his tutor set some physics problems from a textbook, Hawking didn't even bother to do them. Asked why, he spent 20 minutes pointing out errors in the book. His main enthusiasm was the Boat Club. Many times he returned to shore with bits of the boat knocked off, having tried to guide his crew through an impossibly narrow gap. His rowing trainer suspects, "Half the time, he was sitting in the stern with his head in the stars, working out mathematical formulae."
Oxford has always had its share of eccentric students, so Hawking fit right in. But then, when he was 21, he was told that he had ALS—a progressive and incurable nerve disease. The doctors predicted that he had only a few years to live.
"Before my condition was diagnosed, I was very bored with life," Hawking says today, speaking from his wheelchair through a computerized voice synthesizer. The doctors' grim prognosis made him determined to get the most from a life he had previously taken for granted.
"But I didn't die," Hawking notes dryly. Instead, as his physical condition worsened, Hawking's reputation in scientific circles grew, as if to demonstrate the theory of mind over matter. Hawking himself acknowledges his disease as being a crucial factor in focusing his attention on what turned out to be his real strength: theoretical research. Hawking specializes in theoretical cosmology, a branch of science that seeks ultimate answers to big questions; Why has the universe happened, and what are the laws that govern it? His main work has been on black holes and the origin and expansion of the universe. He currently holds the Cambridge University professorship once held by Sir Isaac Newton.
The smartest man in the world is not immune to the depression that can accompany severe disabilities. But Hawking says: "I soon realized that the rest of the world won't want to know you if you're bitter or angry. You have to be positive if you're to get much sympathy or help." He goes on: "Nowadays, muscle power is obsolete. What we need is mind power—and disabled people are as good at that as anyone else."
(966 words)
New Words
*proclaim
vi. say publicly and officially 宣告，宣布
*heir
n. 继承人
best-seller
n. sth. (esp. a book) that sells in very large numbers 畅销书/货
top-ten
n. 排行前十名
virtually
ad. almost; very nearly 几乎；实际上
virtual
a. almost what is stated; in fact though not officially 实质上，实际上（但并非正式的）
*paralyse, -ze
vt. make sb. lose the ability to move part or all of his body, or to feel anything in it 使瘫痪
obstacle
n. sth. that blocks one's way or makes movement, progress, etc. difficult 障碍（物）
