Stephen William Hawking was born on January
8th, 1942 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. At eleven Stephen went to St.
Albans School, and then on to University College, Oxford, his father’s old
college. Stephen wanted to do math, although his father would have preferred
medicine. Math was not available at University College, so he did physics
instead.
Stephen then went on to Cambridge to do
research in Cosmology (宇宙论). After gaining his Ph.D. (哲学博士)he became first a Research Fellow, and later on a Professorial
Fellow at Gonville and Caius College. After leaving the Institute of Astronomy
in 1973, Stephen came to the Department of Applied Math and Theoretical Physics
(理论物理), and since
1979 has held the post of Lucasian Professor of math.
Stephen Hawking has worked on the basic
laws which rule the universe. With Roger Penrose he showed that Einstein’s
General Theory of Relativity implied space and time would have a beginning in
the Big Bang and an end in black holes. These results show it was necessary to
unify(统一)General
Relativity with Quantum Theory (量子论). One result of such a unification that he discovered was that black
holes should not be completely black, but should give off radiation and
disappear in the end.
59. Which of the following is NOT suitable
for describing Stephen Hawking?
A. He once studied at the same college that
his father studied at.
B. At one time he did research in Cosmology
in Oxford.
C. He preferred math to medicine at
college.
D. He contributed to the unification of
General Theory of Relativity and Quantum Theory.
60. The underlined word “available” in the
first paragraph probably means “________”.
A. able to be
had
B. allowed to study
C. easy to understand
D. limited to learn
61. Why did Stephen Hawking’s parents move
to Oxford from North London?
A. Because they liked it better than North
London.
B. Because there was a world-famous
university there.
C. Because they were tired of living in
North London.
D. Because it was safer to give birth to a
baby in Oxford.
62. Which of the following would be the
best title for the passage?
A. Einstein and Stephen Hawking
B. Big Bang, a great theory
C. Stephen Hawking, a great British
scientist
D. The unification of two theories