剑桥大学校园英语情景对话17：轮椅上的天才霍金（mp3+中英）

E： Have you heard the news that American President Obama presented Presidential Medal of Freedom to Prof Hawking at the White House?

E:你知道美国总统奥巴马在白宫给霍金教授颁发总统自由勋章的消息吗？

J: Yes, of course, it’s such big news. President Obama addressed: “His popular books have advanced the cause of science itself. From his wheelchair，he's led us on a journey to the farthest reaches of the cosmos. ” Prof Hawking is one of the greatest scientists in the world and he deserved it!

J：我当然知道了，这可是一条重大消息。奥巴马总统在颁奖辞中说道："他（霍金） 的畅销书推动了科学事业的发展。他在轮椅上引领我们踏上一条通往宇宙最深处 的道路。”霍金教授是最杰出的科学家之一，这个奖项他当之无愧！

E: I can’t agree with you more. As a scientist in wheelchair, he makes a huge progress in the field of physics despite the difficulties in speaking and writing.

E:我很赞同你的说法。作为一个坐在轮椅上的科学家，尽管霍金在说话与写作上有 障碍，但他在物理学领域作出了巨大的贡献。

J: After he was diagnosed with a rare, disease and be told to have just a few years to live, he chose to live with new purpose.

J：当霍金被诊断患有一种罕见的疾病并被告知只有几年时间活在世上后，他选择了为新的目标和意义而活。

E: At the very beginning, Hawing was in low spirits until he saw an unpleasant sight.

E: 一开始霍金意志消沉，直到他亲眼目睹了悲惨的一幕。

J: What exactly this unpleasant sight was?

J：这悲惨的一幕到底是什么？

E: While Hawking had been in hospital, he had seen a boy die of leukemia，in the bed opposite him. And suddenly Hawking realized that there were people who were worse off than him. Whenever he felt sorry for himself, he remembered that boy.

E:当霍金还在医院的时候，他看到一个男 孩死于白血病，那男孩的床就在他对面， 突然间霍金意识到自己并不是世界上最悲惨的人。每当他为自己感到难过的时候，他就会记起那个男孩。

J: Well4 to some extent, that boy saved Hawking’s life.

J:从某种程度上来说，那个男核救了雷金的命。

E： Speaking of Hawking's research, he always keeps critical thinking. He is brave to challenge famous theories like black hole theory，big bang theory and string theory.

E:说到霍金的研究，他总是保持枇判性思维。他勇敢地去挑战诸如黑洞理论、大爆 炸理论和弦理论之类的著名学说。

J: Without the doubts of authorities，he cannot explore more in physics and be closer to the truth.

J:没有对权威的质疑，他就不能探索发现物理学的更多奥秘，也不会离真理越来越 近。

E: As a physicist, Hawking wants to see the outer space.

E:作为一个物理学家，霍金想去太空看看。

J： He underwent a zero-gravity flight in 2007 and planned to go into space in 2009. Hawking announced this plan at his 65th birthday in 2007.

J:他在2007年进行了一次零重力飞行，并计划2009年进入太空。在2007年霍金 65岁生日的时候，他宣布了这一计划。

E: Prof Hawking’s next step towards the cosmos then depended on the Virgin Galactic space tourism plans of Sir Richard Branson, whose Spaceship Two carried six passengers into space in 2008.

E:霍金教授的下一步走向宇宙的计划取决于里查德布兰森爵士的‘‘维珍银河"太 空旅行计划。2008年，里查德布兰森爵士的“太空飞船2号"把6名乘客送入 了太空。

J： Usually a flight costs about ￡100,000, but Sir Richard will sponsor Prof Hawking’s flight. But Hawking didn’t go to space in 2009.

J:—般来说，一次太空飞行要花费10万英磅，但里查德布兰森爵士将会赞助霍金 教授的太空飞行。然而由于种种原因，霍金并没有在2009年进入太空。

E： By the way, have you read Hawking’s masterpiece A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes?

E:对了，你看过霍金的代表作{时间简史：从大爆炸到黑洞> 吗？

J： Of course. I bought this book as soon as it came into the market.

J：我当然看过啦，这本书一上市我就买了。

E: It became a best-seller of long standing and established his reputation as an accessible genius. And he wrote other popular articles and appeared in movies and television.

E:很长一段时间以来，这本书都很畅销。这本书粪定了霍金作为一个平易近人的天 才的地位。他还写了很多大受欢迎的文章，还出现在电影和电视上。

J: He remains extremely busy, his work hardly slows by Lou Gehrig’s disease for which he uses a wheelchair and speaks through a computer and voice synthesizer.

 j：霍金仍然很忙，但是他的工作并没有因卢伽雷氏症而延缓：他以轮椅代步，通过 电脑和声音含成器说话。

E： But I found A Brief History of Time was difficult to read.

E:不过我觉得 《时间简史》很难读懂。

J : It is said that there are just a few people in the world could truly understand this book.

J:据说世上只有很少的人能真正读懂这本书。

E: We are just ordinary people, but not physicists. What Pm trying to say is Hawking and his books have attracted people’s attention to the world of physics.
 

E:我们只是普通人，不是物理学家。我觉得霍金和他的书让人们把目光投向了物理 世界，去探索这个有趣的领域。