7.
阅读理解
Stephen
Hawking, a world famous British physicist, will write a children's book with
his daughter. Hawking said the book would be "a bit like Harry
Potter" but without the magic. "It explains the wonders of the
universe, " said Hawking, while he was on a visit to Hong Kong last week.
Hawking,
64, is probably the world's most famous scientist after Albert Einstein. He is
an expert on black holes. He has put his whole life into digging into the
beginning (and the end) of the universe.
"My
goal is simple, " Hawking once said. "It is to completely
understand the universe, why it is and
why it is there at all."
Hawking
has a bad illness that stops him from moving or talking. For a period of time,
he had no way to communicate except by blinking.
Now
he sits on a wheelchair with a computer by his side. To communicate, he moves
two fingers to control the computer's mouse. He selects his words from the
screen, which are then spoken by a voice synthesizer (音响合成器).
"I
have had the disease for most of my life, " Hawking once said. "Yet
it has not stopped me from being successful at my work."
Although
Hawking is such a disabled man, he made great achievements. He has received
many awards and prizes for his work over the years. This includes winning the
Albert Einstein Award. It is the highest achievement in theoretical physics.