My-Friend--Albert-Einstein课文翻译

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My Friend Albert Einstein

My Friend, Albert EinsteinBanesh HoffmannHe was one of the greatest scientists the world has ever known, yet if I had to convey the essence of Albert Einstein in a single word, I would choose simplicity. Perhaps an anecdote will help. Once, caught in a downpour, he took off his hat and held it under his coat. Asked why, he explained, with admirable logic, that the rain would damage the hat, but his hair would be none the worse for its wetting. This knack for going instinctively to the heart of a matter was the secret of his major scientific discoveries---this and his extraordinary feeling for beauty.I first met Alert Einstein in 1935, at the famous Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. He had been among the first to be invited to the Institute, and was offered carte blanche as to salary. To the director’s dismay, Einstein asked for an impossible sum: it was far too small. The director had to plead with him to accept a larger salary.I was in awe of Einstein, and hesitated before approaching him about some ideas I had been working on. When I finally knocked on his door, a gentle voice said, ―Come‖---with a rising inflection that made the single word both a welcome and a question. I entered his office and found him seated at a table, calculating and smoking his pipe. Dressed in ill-fitting clothes, his hair characteristically awry, he smiled a warm welcome. His utter naturalness at once set me at ease.As I began to explain my ideas, he asked me to write the equations on the blackboard so he could see how they developed. Then came the staggering ---and altogether endearing---request: ―Please go slowly. I do not understand things quickly.‖ This from Einstein! He said it gently, and I laughed. From then on, all vestiges of fear were gone.Einstein was born in 1879 in the German city of Ulm. He had been no infant prodigy; indeed, he was so late in learning to speak that his parents feared he was dullard. In school, though his teachers saw no special talent in him, the signs were already there. He taught himself calculus, for example, and his teachers seemed a little afraid of him because he asked questions they could not answer. At the age of 16, he asked himself whether a light wave would seem stationary if one ran abreast of it. From that innocent question would arise, ten years later, his theory of relativity.Einstein failed his entrance examinations at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School, in Aurich, but was admitted a year later. There he went beyond his regular work to study the masterworks of physics on his own. Rejected when he applied for academic positions, he ultimately found work, in 1902, as a patent examiner in Berne, and there in 1905 his genius burst into fabulous flower.Among the extraordinary thins he produced in that memorable year were his theory of relativity, with its famous offshoot, E=mc² (energy equals mass times the speed of light squared), and his quantum theory of light. These two theories were not only revolutionary, but seemingly contradictory: the former was intimately linked to the theory that light consists of waves, while the latter said it consists somehow of particles. Yet this unknown young man boldly proposed both at once ---and he was right in both cases, though how he could have been is far too complex a story to tell here.Collaborating with Einstein was an unforgettable experience. In 1937, the Polish physicist Leopold Infeld and I asked if we could work with him. He was pleased with the proposal, since he had an idea about gravitation waiting to be worked out in detail. Thus we got to know not merely the man and the friend, but also the professional.The intensity and depth of his concentration were fantastic. When battling a recalcitrantproblem, he worried it as an animal worries its prey. Often, when we found ourselves up against a seemingly insuperable difficulty, he would stand up, put his pipe on the table, and say in his quaint English, ―I will a little tink‖ (he could not pronounce ―th‖). Then he would pace up and down, twirling a lock of his long, graying hair around his forefinger.A dreamy, faraway and yet inward look would come over his face. There was no appearance of concentration, no furrowing of the brow---only a placid inner communion. The minutes would pass, and then suddenly Einstein would stop pacing as his face relaxed into a gentle smile. He had found the solution to the problem. Sometimes it was so simple that Infeld and I could have kicked ourselves for not having thought of it. But the magic had been performed invisibly in the depths of Ei nstein’s mind, by a process we could not fathom.When his wife died he was deeply shaken, but insisted that now more than ever was the time to be working hard. I remember going to his house to work with him during that sad time. His face was haggard and grief-lined, but he put forth a great effort to concentrate. To help him, I steered the discussion away from routine matters into more difficult theoretical problem, and Einstein gradually became absorbed in the discussion. We kept at it for some tow hours, and at the end his eyes were no longer sad. As I left, he thanked me with moving sincerity. ―It was a fun,‖ he said. He had had a moment of surcease from grief, and then groping words expressed a deep emotion.Einstein was an accomplished amateur musician. We used to play duets, he on the violin, I at the piano. One day he surprised me by saying Mozart was the greatest composer of all. Beethoven ―created‖ his music, but the music of Mozart was of such purity and beauty one felt he had merely ―found‖ it --- that it had always existed as part of the inner beauty of the Universe, waiting to be revealed.It was this very Mozartean simplicity that most characterized Einstein’s methods. His 1905 theory of relativity, for example, was built on just tow simple assumptions. One is the so-called principle of relativity, which means, roughly speaking, that we cannot tell whether we are at rest or moving smoothly. The other assumption is that the speed of light is the same no matter what the speed of the object that produces it. You can see how reasonable this is if you think of agitating a stick in a lake to create waves. Whether you wiggle the stick from a stationary pier, or from a rushing speedboat, the waves, once generated, are on their own, and their speed has nothing to do with that of the stick.Each of these assumptions, by itself, was so plausible as to seem primitively obvious. But together they were in such violent conflict that a lesser man would have dropped one or the other and fled in panic. Einstein daringly kept both ---and by so doing he revolutionized physics. For he demonstrated they could, after all, exist peacefully side by side, provided we gave up cherished beliefs about the nature of time.Science is like a house of cards, with concepts like time and space at the lowest level. Tampering with time brought most of the house tumbling down, and it was this that made Einstein’s work so important --- and controversial. At a conference in Pinceton in honor of his 70th birthday, one of the speakers, a Nobel Prize winner, tried to convey the magical quality of Einstein’s achievement. Words failed him, and with a shrug of helplessness he pointed to his wristwatch, and said in tones of awed amazement, ―It all came from this.‖ His very ineloquence made this the most eloquent tribute I have heard to Einstein’s genius …Einstein’s work, performed quietly with pencil and paper, seemed remote from the turmoil of everyday life: But his ideas were so revolutionary they caused violent controversy and irrationalanger. Indeed, in order to be able to award him a belated Nobel Prize, the selection committee had to avoid mentioning relativity, and pretend the prize was awarded primarily for his work on the quantum theory.Political events upset the serenity of his life even more. When the Nazis came to power in Germany, his theories were officially declared false because they had been formulated by a Jew. His property was confiscated, and it is said a price was put on his head.When scientists in the United States, fearful that the Nazis might develop an atomic bomb, sought to alert American authorities to the danger, they were scarcely heeded. In desperation, they drafted a letter which Einstein signed and sent directly to President Roosevelt. It was this act that led to the fateful decision to go all-out on the production of an atomic bomb ---and endeavor in which Einstein took no active part. When he heard of the agony and destruction that his E=mc²had wrought, he was dismayed beyond measure, and from then on there was a look of ineffable sadness in his eyes.There was something elusively whimsical about Einstein. It is illustrated by my favorite anecdote about him. In his first year in Princeton, on Christmas Eve, so the story goes, some children sang carols outside his house. Having finished, they knocked on his door and explained they were collecting money to buy Christmas presents. Einstein listened, then said, ―Wait a moment.‖ He put on his scarf and overcoat, and took his violin from its case. Then, joining the children as they went from door to door, he accompanied their singing of ―Silent Night‖ on his violin.How shall I sum up what it meant to have known Einstein and his works? Like the Nobel Prize winner who pointed helplessly at his watch, I can find no adequate words. It was akin to the revelation of great art that lets one see what was formerly hidden. And when, for example, I walk on the sand of a lonely beach, I am reminded of his ceaseless search for cosmic simplicity --- and the scene takes on a deeper, sadder beauty.The Invisible PoorMichael HarringtonThe millions who are poor in the United States tend to become increasingly invisible. Here is a great mass of people, yet it takes an effort of the intellect and will even to see them.I discovered this personally in a curious way. After I wrote my first article on poverty in America, I had all the statistics down on paper. I had proved to my satisfaction that there were around 50,000,000 poor in this country. Yet, I realized I did not believe my own figures. The poor existed in the Government reports; they were percentages and numbers in long, close columns, but they were not part of my experience. I could prove that the other America existed, but I had never been there.There are perennial reasons that make the other America an invisible land.Poverty is often off the beaten track. It always has been. The ordinary tourist never left the main highway, and today he rides interstate turnpikes. He does not go into the valleys of Pennsylvania where the towns look like movie sets of Wales in the thirties. He does not see the company houses in rows, the rutted roads (the poor always have bad roads whether they live in the city, in towns, or on farms), and everything is black and dirty. And even if he were to pass through such a place by accident, the tourist would not meet the unemployed men in the bar or the women coming home from a runaway sweatshop.Then, too, beauty and myths are perennial masks of poverty. The traveler comes to the Appalachians in the lovely season. He sees the hill, the streams, the foliage --- but not the poor. Or perhaps he looks at a run-down mountain house and, remembering Rousseau rather than seeing with his eyes, decides that ―those people‖ are truly fortunate to be living the way they are and that they are lucky to be exempt from the strains and tensions of the middle class. The only problem is that ―those people,‖ the quaint inhabitants of those hills, are undereducated, underprivileged, lack medical care, and are in the process of being forced from the land into a life in the cities, where they are misfits.These are normal and obvious cause of the invisibility of the poor. They operated a generation ago; they will be functioning a generation hence. It is more important to understand that the very development of American society is creating a new kind of blindness about poverty. The poor are increasingly slipping out the very experience and consciousness of the nation.If the middle class never did like ugliness and poverty, it was at least aware of them. ―Across the tracks‖ was not a very long way to go. There were forays into the slums at Christmas time; there were charitable organizations that brought contact with the poor. Occasionally, almost everyone passed through the Negro ghetto or the blocks of tenements, if only to get downtown to work or to entertainment.Now the American city has been transformed. The poor still inhabit the miserable housing in the central area, but they are increasingly isolated from contact with, or sight of, anybody else. Middle-class women coming in from Suburbia on a rare trip may catch the merest glimpse of the other America on the way to an evening at the theater, but their children are segregated in suburban schools. The business or professional man may drive along the fringes of slums in a car or bus, but it is not an important experience to him. The failures, the unskilled, the disabled, the aged, and the minorities are right there, across the tracks, where they have always been. But hardly anyone else is.In short, the very development of the American city has removed poverty from the living, emotional experience of millions upon millions of middle-class Americans. Living out in the suburbs, it is easy to assume that ours is, indeed, and affluent society.This new segregation of poverty is compounded by a well-meaning ignorance. A good many concerned and sympathetic Americans are aware that there is much discussion of urban renewal. Suddenly, driving through the city, they notice that a familiar slum has been torn down and that there are towering, modern buildings where once there had been tenements or hovels. There is a warm feeling of satisfaction, of pride in the way things are working out: the poor, it is obvious, are being taken care of.The irony in this… is that the truth is nearly the exact opposite to the impression. The total impact of the various housing programs in postwar America has been to squeeze more and more people into existing slums… Clothes make the poor invisible too: America has the best-dressed poverty the world has ever known. For a variety of reasons, the benefits of mass production have been spread much more evenly in this area than in many others. It is much easier in the United States to be decently dressed than it is to be decently housed, fed, or doctored. Even people with terribly depressed incomes can look prosperous.This is an extremely important factor in defining our emotional and existential ignorance of poverty. In Detroit the existence of social classes became much more difficult to discern the day the companies put lockers in the plants. From that moment on, one did not see men in work clothes on the way to the factory, but citizens in slacks and white shirts. This process has been magnified with the poor throughout the country. There are tens of thousands of Americans in the big cities who are wearing shoes, perhaps even a stylishly cut suit or dress, and yet are hungry. It is not a matter of planning, though it almost seems as if the affluent society had given out costumes to the poor so that they would not offend the rest of society with the sight of rags.Then, many of the poor are the wrong age to be seen. A good number of them (over 8,000,000) are sixty-five years of age or better; an even larger number are under eighteen. The aged members of the other America are often sick, and they cannot move. Another group of them live out their lives in loneliness and frustration: they sit in rented rooms, or else they stay close to a house in a neighborhood that has completely changed from the old days. Indeed, one of the worst aspects of poverty among the aged is that these people are out of sight and out mind, and alone.The young are somewhat more visible, yet they too stay close to their neighborhoods. Sometimes they advertise their poverty through a lurid tabloid story about a gang killing. But generally they do not disturb the quiet streets of the middle class.And finally, the poor are politically invisible. It is one of the cruelest ironies of social life in advanced countries that the dispossessed at the bottom of society are unable to speak for themselves. The people of the other America do not, by far and large, belong to unions to fraternal organizations, or to political parties. They are without lobbies of their own; they put forward no legislative program. As a group, they are atomized. They have no face; they have no voice.Thus, there is not even a cynical political motive for caring about the poor, as in the old days. Because the slums are no longer centers of powerful political organizations, the politicians need not really care about their inhabitants. The sums are no longer visible to the middle class, so much of the idealistic urge to fight for those who need help is gone. Only the social agencies have a really direct involvement with the other America, and they are without any great political power.To the extent that the poor have a spokesman in American life, that role is played by the labormovement. The unions have their own particular idealism, and ideology of concern. More than that, they realize that the existence of a reservoir of cheap, unorganized labor is a menace to wages and working conditions throughout the entire economy. Thus, many union legislative proposals --- to extend the coverage of minimum wage and social security, to organize migrant farm laborers --- articulate the needs of the poor.That the poor are invisible is one of the most important things about them. They are not simply neglected and forgotten as in the old rhetoric of reform; what is much worse, they are not seen.Group the Gifted: ProKenneth MottI regard gifted children as those who possess some quality or innate ability which has been recognized and identified by any number of testing and observation devices and who manifest interest and success in either physical, intellectual, or artistic pursuits.These might be children who are gifted athletes but who have real trouble mastering academic subject matter, or students who are poor athletes bu t are highly intellectual ―quiz kids‖ who knock the top off all measuring devices. ―Gifted‖ may describe pupils of average intelligence who have exceptional ability in art or music, or it may refer to the child with an IQ of 135 who excels in everything.How can we deal with these gifted? I firmly believe that we should group them as nearly as possible according to interest and ability (giftedness) and challenge them with a type of program that will help them to grow to the fullest extent of their abilities and capacities.This grouping could take the form of special subject arrangements in the elementary grades, a situation in which a class is heterogeneously grouped most of the day but is divided at times into special interest or ability class groups for special instruction. In high school, it may take the form of grouping students in regular classes according to any number of criteria but basically those of interest and proficiency (or lack of proficiency) in various subject areas.One of the basic arguments against grouping the gifted is the fear of creating a caste of intellectual snobs. Similarly, some educators fear that the average and slow students would come to regard themselves as inferior.If my definition of the gifted is accepted, then these fears are groundless. After all, the schools have grouped gifted athletes for years. Yet how many athletes regard themselves as part of an elite? Do varsity athletes look down upon other pupils as inferior? The vast majority apparently do not.Consider also th e amount of ―gifted grouping‖ in speech, music, art, and journalism. Schools have readily grouped the gifted in these areas without any apparent ill effect. To the extent of myobservation, encouraging gifted debaters, musicians, artists, and writers to develop their special talents does not create envy or feelings of inferiority among less talented students.If educators sincerely desire to promote individual growth and self-respect, they have no grounds, as far as I can see, to fear any kind of grouping. The teacher, not the manner in which a class is organized, determines students' attitudes toward individual differences. Before he can hope to instill the proper attitude, however, the teacher needs to make a critical analysis of his own attitudes toward such differences.If a group of gifted or nongifted students form the wrong concept about themselves, the fault probably lies with the teachers, parents, or administrators. I have confidence that if teachers accept and respect individual worth, that if they challenge and spark interests in young people, the individual student will mature and grow successfully along the lines of his interests and abilities. I say, let those with similar ―gifts‖ associate, plan, and enjoy being together.Many educators disagree with the idea of gifted grouping because they believe that it does not affect achievement significantly. They cite pilot studies which indicate that no significant change in achievement results when children are separated into slow and accelerated classes.The fact is, however, that in a vast majority of pilot studies the children have been grouped only according to IQ scores, which are far from reliable, and the conclusions have been based on achievement scores which measure only mastery of factual detail.Unfortunately, there are no reliable devices for measuring growth in such areas as creativity, attitudes, personal adjustment, latent interest and talent, and innate capacity.My opinion, which is based on more than a decade in the classroom, is that learning skyrockets when individuals are grouped according to interest and ability and are motivated, challenged, and inspired by a type of schoolwork that will yield some measure of success to them.Heterogeneous classrooms frequently produce frustration in children who are persistently unable to do the same work that most of the other children do. Frustration is also produced when bright children are not properly challenged by their school work, as is too often the case in heterogeneous classrooms.I have little fear of gifted students being pushed beyond their endurance, for I have faith in the ability of most teachers to recognize the limits to which any student should be pushed. On the other hand, I don't believe giftedness should be wasted away simply because a bright or talented student is content to proceed at what is --- for him --- a snail's pace or to stand at the top of a class of students with less ability.Several schools with which I am familiar have experimented with grouping the gifted in a reading program. (Their regular procedure had been to have three or four reading groups in one classroom under one teacher. The teacher's time was divided among several small groups.) The experiment involved putting slow readers from different classrooms in one classroom, average readers from different classrooms in another class, and fast readers in still another class. Each classroom still had one teacher, but he no longer had to divide his time among several different groups. The control group consisted of a class organized and taught under the regular procedure mentioned above.After two years, the researchers found greater overall progress at all reading levels in the experimental group. In fact, some slow readers joined the average ones and some average ones moved up to the fast group. In this case, special ability grouping paid dividends all around.I believe the same results could have been achieved in science, social studies, mathematics, or English. By decreasing the range of interest and/or ability levels, the teacher is able to do more toward helping individual growth.While I do not believe that children should be regarded as resources to be molded to the needs of society, I do believe that as individuals they are endowed with certain characteristics and attributes --- ―gifts‖ of nature --- which represent their potential success in life. Where children have certain ―gifts‖ in common, they should be allowed to work and study together.Grouping the Gifted: ConBruno BettelheimAn argument often advanced on behalf of special classes for gifted children is that in regular classrooms these children are held back and possibly thwarted in their intellectual growth by learning situations that are designed for the average child. There can be little doubt that special classes for the gifted can help them to graduate earlier and take their place in life sooner. On the other hand, to take these students out of the regular classroom may create serious problems for them and for society.For example, in regular classrooms, we are told, the gifted child becomes bored and loses interest in learning. This complaint, incidentally, is heard more often from adults, parents, or educators than from students. Nevertheless, on the strength of these complaints, some parents and educators conclude that special classes should be set up for the gifted.Although some children at the top of their class do complain of being bored in school, the issue of why they are bored goes far beyond the work they have in school. If the findings of psychoanalytic investigation of feelings have any validity, feelings of boredom arise as a defense against deep feelings of anxiety. To be bored, therefore, is to be anxious.The student who is bored by his studies is the student who can take few constructive measures of his own to manage his anxieties. Consequently, he represses or denies them; he must ask others, specifically his teachers, to keep him frantically busy, studying and competing intellectually so that he will not feel anxiety.The gifted child who is bored is an anxious child. To feed neurotic defense mechanisms may serve some needs of society, but to nourish his neurosis certainly does not help him as a human being.Psychology, like nature, does not permit a vacuum. If study material does not hold the student's attention because of his easy mastery of it, the result is not necessarily boredom. Other intellectual interests can fill the unscheduled time. Is it reasonable to assume that gifted children learn only when pressed by the curriculum?Several years ago I observed what happened to a number of gifted children who were taken out of a highly accelerated, highly competitive, private school and placed in a public high school of good academic standing where, by comparison, the work was so easy as to be ―boring‖.Close inspection revealed an interesting and worthwhile development in most of the transplanted youngsters. In the special school for the gifted these children had shown little ability to use their own critical judgment. Instead, they had relied heavily on their teacher's direction. In the slower-paced school, no longer having to worry about keeping up, these students began to reflect spontaneously on many problems, some of which were not in the school program.The students acquired on their own a much deeper appreciation of life, art, literature, and other human beings. No longer exhausted by meeting assigned learning tasks, these youngsters had energy to branch out, broaden their interests, and understand far more deeply.Prolonged, rarely assailed security may be the best preparation for tackling difficult intellectual problems. Because the gifted child learns easily, he acquires a feeling of security in a regular class. On the other hand, if such a child is put into a special class where learning is not easy for him, where he is only average among a group of extremely gifted youngsters, he may, as often happens, come to feel that he has only average abilities which are not up to coping with difficult challenges.Another argument advanced for special classes for the gifted is that removing highly capable students from the regular classroom lessens anxiety among the slower learners. Possibly so. But how do anxieties become manageable except through a friendly working relationship with someone felt to be superior --- in this case, the faster learners in the classroom?In many of our big cities today, the students left behind in the non-collegiate programs are marked as a lower breed. Indeed, most of them come from poor, lower-class homes. Surrounded by students who have little interest in acquiring an education, lacking companionship with students who want to learn, and receiving no encouragement at home, these children apply themselves even less than they would if there were good students in class with whom to identify.In order to achieve educationally, many children from economically impoverished homes need to be challenged and motivated by example. Grouping deprives these children of such stimulation. They are left behind as second-class students, a situation which is more likely to create hopelessness than to lessen anxiety. Should some of them display outstanding leadership or ability, they are sent away to join their intellectual peers, leaving the nongifted group even more impoverished.Grouping children intelligently has much in common with mountain climbing. In mountain climbing, the guides usually distribute themselves ahead of and behind beginners or less skilled climbers. Placed in the center of the group with people who have learned both the skill and the teamwork required in mountain climbing, the beginner is likely to learn quickly and well.If, however, all of the good climbers are put into one party, and all of the poor ones in another, the second group is likely to fail miserably or perish altogether.When the debate over what is the ―best ― education for the child reaches an impasse, the argument is frequently switched to what is best for society. Today we are told that we need more scientists and more engineers to ―survive.‖ Therefore, we must speed the growth of young people who have the necessary talent.Does anyone really know what the needs of society will be thirty years hence? Can science guarantee survival? Might society not have a greater need for fresh, imaginative ideas on how to。

09 My Friend, Albert Einstein

He was one of the greatest scientists the world has ever known, yet if I had to convey the essence of Albert Einstein in a single word, I would choose simplicity. Perhaps an anecdote will help. Once, caught in a downpour, he took off his hat and held it under his coat. Asked why, he explained, with admirable logic, that the rain would damage the hat, but his hair would be none the worse for its wetting. This knack for going instinctively to the heart of a matter was the secret of his major scientific discoveries---this and his extraordinary feeling for beauty. I first met Alert Einstein in 1935, at the famous Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. He had been among the first to be invited to the Institute, and was offered carte blanche as to salary. To the director’s dismay, Einstein asked

新编英语教程5课文翻译(标准)

Unit Three: 我的朋友阿尔伯特.爱因斯坦1)虽然阿尔伯特.爱因斯坦是迄今为止世界上最伟大的科学家之一，但如果要我用一个词来描述他的话我会选择纯朴。

或者有关他的一些轶事能让你理解我为什么这么说。

有一次，遇上了倾盆大雨，他摘下帽子揣在衣服下面。

别人问他为什么，他以令人钦佩的逻辑解释说，雨会淋坏帽子，而他的头发淋湿了却不会坏。

这种直达问题核心的诀窍以及他对美非同寻常的感知就是他主要科学发现的秘密所在。

2)1935年，在坐落于新泽西著名的普林斯顿高级研究院，我第一次见到阿尔伯特.爱因斯坦。

他是第一批被该院邀请的人，在工资方面学院任由他提条件。

令院长惊鄂的是，爱因斯坦要求的薪水简直办不到---- 他要得太少了。

院长不得不恳求他接受一个大一些的数目。

3)我对爱因斯坦很敬畏，犹豫再三才就我一直在考虑的一些想法向他请教。

当我终于鼓起勇气敲响他的门时，听到一个温和的声音说：“进来。

”声调有些上扬，带有欢迎和询问的语气。

我走进他的办公室，看见他坐在桌子旁边，一边抽着烟斗一边算着什么。

他的衣服很不合身，头发乱蓬蓬的，极具个性，向我热情地微笑着表示欢迎我的到来。

他的平易自然立刻让我放松了下来。

4)当我开始阐述自己的见解时，他叫我把方程式写在黑板上，这样他就能明白它们是怎么展开。

接着他提出了一个令人惊鄂但又非常可爱的请求：“请你漫漫地写，我理解东西不快。

”这种话竟出自爱因斯坦之口！他说得很温和，我笑了。

从此残留的畏惧之情都烟消云散了。

5)爱因斯坦于1879年出生在德国的乌尔姆市。

他并非神童式的人物。

事实上他说话很晚，他的父母甚至担心他是弱、智儿。

上学后,虽然老师们看不出他有什么天分，但天才的迹象已经显露。

例如，他自学微积分，老师们有些怕他，因为他总问些他们回答不出的问题。

因此，十六岁时他就问自己是否当人跟着光波跑得一样快的时候它会好像是静止的。

由这一天真的问题的引发，十年之后他创立了相对论。

6)爱因斯坦没有通过苏黎士瑞士联邦工艺学校的入学考试，但在一年后被录取了。

AlbertEinstein课文汉译例句讲解练习答案

Unit ThreeText I: My Friend, Albert EinsteinBan esh Hoffma nnI.Pre-reading Brainstorming:1.What do you know about Einstein? What was he like?The text is mai nly about Ein ste in pers on ality and his in comparable con tributi ons to scie nee. It is in evitable that men tio n must be made of Ein stein ' theory of relativity and his other achieveme nts in mathematics and physics which, however, are very difficult for layman （外行人）to understand and explain. For this reason, only very brief notes are given to the technical terms. What is more important about the text is a description of Ein stein concerning his kn ack for going in st in ctively to the heart of a matter ” （凭本能抓住事物本质的技巧）（Line 5-6）, his utter naturalness” （Line, 17-18）, the fhntastic intensity and depth of his concentration "（考虑问题的强度和深度都是奇妙无比）（Line, 46）, the revolutionary ideas "（Line, 95） about mathematics and physics, etc. There is much to lear n from the Ian guage of the text, too.His main achieveme nts: theory of relativity; E=mc （en ergy equals mass times the speed of light squared）（能量=质量x光速）；the qua ntum theory of light （光量子理论）A very famous scientist, a scientific genius with a lock of long, graying hair.2.How do you think Hoffmann describes Einstein as his friend?Hoffma nn takes a differe nt perspective. He tries to reveal some of the less well-known aspects of Einstein personality, traits that characterize him more as a man than as a scientific genius.II.Related In formatio n1.Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: （1756-1791）, Austrian composer, one of the world ' s greatest mus igeniuses wrote masterpieces in every branch of music. During his short life, Mozart composed a great volume of music. His 789 compositi ons in clude operas, symph oni es, con cert（协奏曲）,quartets（四重奏）for the piano and for stringed instruments and sonatas for both piano and violin. His music has delicate beauty and is always fresh and pleas ing to the ear.2.Ludwig van Beethoven: （1770-1827）, German composer, was one of music' greatestgeniuses.His works have a rare of originality, emotional depth, and expressive power. He was known for his nine symph oni es, pia nos essenee concertos and sonatas, and string quartets (弦乐四重奏) .Most ofBeethoven's compositi ons were writte n in the classical forms established by his predecessors Mozart and Hayd n, so he is sometimes con sidered the last great composer in the classical traditi on. But he also remolded and expa nded the old forms and in fused them with a highlypers onal inten sity of emoti on, so he is also referred to as the first of the Roma ntics. 3. The Nobel Prize: Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1838-1896), a distinguished Swedish chemist and industrialist, provided for the award of Nobel Prize. He experime nted with differe nt kinds of explosives such as n itroglyceriR 硝酸甘油) and dynamite (黄色炸药)，both deadly explosives. However, he was a pacifist and he feared that his inventions might further warfare. In his will he left about $9,000,000 in a fund to reward those who did most for his fellow man in scienee, literature, and peace. In his will, he specified that the interest accrued by the fund be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest ben efit on mankind ” in the field of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace, regardless of nationality.4. The Nazis: Nazism is a political doctrine of racial supremacy, nationalism, and dictatorship. Nazi is an abbreviation of German word for National Socialist Party founded by Hitler. He defined the Germanic people as a race, called Aryans superior to other races. He blamed Germany's troubles on Jewish capitalism, Communism, and the heavy reparation payments Germany was required to make to the victorious Allies by the Treaty of Versailles (June 28, 1919)that en ded the First World War. III. Text Comprehension1) Main Idea :This profile (short, vivid biography, briefly outlining a person ' most outstanding characteristics: his ability, personality, or career 人物简介)is mai nly about Ei nstei n person ality and his incomparable con tributio ns to scie nee. 2) Purpose of writing and Tone ：The purpose is to illustrate with an ecdotessome characteristic features of Ein ste in both as a man and as a scie ntist.3) Organi zati on and Developme nt: Introduction (P1):Using the word simplicity " to begin the illustration of EinsteinBody (P2-19):P2-4: About his modesty ;P5-7: Einstein ' s brief life history and his two great theories;P8-11: About his concentration on workP12-13: About his love of natural simplicity;P14-16: About his academic courageP17-18: About his sense of justiceP19: About his youthful innocenceConclusio n (P20)Summing up what it means to have known Ein ste in and his work.4)Comprehension Questions1.Which phrase in the first paragraph explains the abstract notion of“ simplicity ”？---"goi ng in sti nctively to the heart of a matter"2.From the two an ecdotes related in para. 2-4, what impressi on of Ein stei n have you got?---He was a very modest pers on, n ever thinking himself any superior to or more authoritative tha n others because of his fame and achieveme nts as a great scie ntist of the time.3.What, according to the author, is Einstein 'most outstanding trait as a scie ntist?---Concentration. Refer to the first sentence of para. 9. (The intensity anddepth of his concen trati on were fan tastiQ4.Why did Ein stei n in sist on worki ng hard whe n he was so badly shake n by his wife ' s death?---Work ing hard requires concen trati on, which would help him to dispel the feeli ng of sorrow.5.How do you in terpret the sentence in para. 11: “ To help him, I steered thediscussion away from routine matters into more difficult theoreticalproblems ”？---Tackli ng more difficult theoretical problems requires greater concen trati on and absorpti on.This would help him temporarily forget the sad ness caused by his wife's death.6.What revelation is made through Einstein comment on Beethoven and Mozart ' works?---As a simple man, Ei nstei n takes it that beauty exists in the Uni verse. Such beauty is n atural, pure, and simple. Beauty found is eve n greater and more admirable tha n beauty created.7.How did Ein ste in feel about the destructive effect produced as a result of the applicati on of his E=mc formula?---This is someth ing he had not expected. He was greatly dismayed by the devastat ing effect his formula produced once it was put into applicati on.8.Do you think the an ecdote related in para. 19 aims to illustrate Ein ste in “whimsicality ” ?If not, whatonality trait other than being whimsicalityis revealed here?---He was not really a whimsical man. If he could be called a whimsical man, then his whimsicality came from the young heart and childlike innocence which he had man aged to reta in.5)Difficult Sentences for Paraphrasing:1.This kn ack for going in sti nctively to the heart of a matter was the secret of his major scientific discoveries --- this and his extraordinary feeling for beauty. (Para. 1)---This n atural ability of in tuitively gett ing to the esse nee of a subject was the key to the great discoveries made by him in scie nee. This n atural gift and his unu sual aware ness of beauty.2.The inten sity and depth of his concen trati on were fan tastic. Whe n battl ing a recalcitra nt problem, he worried it as an ani mal worries its prey.(P-9)---His en grossme nt in ideas was in credibly intense and deep. When attack ing a problem difficult to solve, he kept attempting to deal with it with great effort, just as an ani mal chases and bites a weaker ani mal it preys upon un til the latter gives in.3.A dreamy, faraway and yet in ward look would come over his face. There was no appearanceof concentration, no furrowing of the blow --- only a placid inner commu nio n. (P-10)他脸上会露出心不在焉、恍恍惚惚却又像在内心思索的神色。

Albert Einstain

My Friend, Einstein AlbertI was in awe of Einstein, and hesitated before approaching him about some ideas I had been working on. When I finally knocked on his door, a gentle voice said, “Come” — with a rising inflection that made the single word both a welcome and a question. I entered his office and found him seated at a table, calculating and smoking his pipe. Dressed in ill-fitting clothes, his hair characteristically awry, he smiled a warm welcome. His utter naturalness at once set me at ease.As I began to explain my ideas, he asked me to write the equations on the blackboard so he could see how they developed. Then came the staggering—and altogether endearing—request: “Please go slowly. I do not understand things quickly.” This from Eins tein! He said it gently, and I laughed. From then on, all vestiges of fear were gone.Collaborating with Einstein was an unforgettable experience. In 1937, the Polish physicist Leopold Infeld and I asked if we could work with him. He was pleased with the proposal, since he had an idea about gravitation waiting to be worked out in detail. Thus we got to know not merely the man and the friend, but also the professional.The intensity and depth of his concentration were fantastic. When battling a recalcitrant problem, he worried it as an animal worries its prey. Often, when we found ourselves up against a seemingly insuperable difficulty, he would stand up, put his pipe on the table, and say in his quaint English, “I will a little tink” (he could not pronounce “th”). Then he would pace up and down, twirling a lock of his long, graying hair around his fore-finger.A dreamy, faraway and yet inward look would come over his face. There was no appearance of concentration, no furrowing of the brow -- only a placid inner communion. The minutes would pass, and then suddenly Einstein would stop pacing as his face relaxed into a gentle smile. He had found the solution to the problem. Sometimes it was so simple that Infeld and I could have kicked ourselves for not having thought of it. But the magic had been performed invisibly in the depths of Einstein’s mind, by a process we could not fathom.。

MyFriend,AlbertEinstein课文翻译

我的朋友阿尔伯特•爱因斯坦班尼旭·霍夫曼爱因斯坦是历史上最伟大的科学家，如果用一个词出神入化地描述他，那就是“率真”。

有个例子很能表现他的率真：一次，爱因斯坦突遇大雨，他脱下帽子将其藏在衣内。

问及为什么这样，他很有逻辑地说，大雨会淋坏帽子，脱下帽子，头发受淋没什么关系。

真是一语切入问题实质。

正是这种人品素质，以及他对美的非凡感受，才是奠定他重大科学发现的秘诀。

第一次见到爱因斯坦，是1935年，在新泽西州普林斯顿那所著名的高级研究院里。

他是受研究院邀请最早的学者之一，薪金任他自己填写。

可令院长失望的是，爱因斯坦填写的薪金太少了，院长不得不恳请先生多填一些。

我非常敬畏爱因斯坦。

一次，我正在研究一个问题，必须向先生请教。

临行前，我一直犹犹豫豫。

当我终于敲响先生的屋门时，听到一声温和的“请进！”-------声调微微上扬，透着欢迎和询问的语气。

我走进办公室，见先生坐在桌前，一边吸烟一边做计算。

他头发有些凌乱，一副不修边幅的样子。

他对我颔首微笑，平易的面容使我立即消除了紧张感。

我开始解释自己的想法。

他让我把公式写在黑板上，以便能看明白每一个发展步骤。

“请你慢慢说，我接受力很慢。

”先生的请求令我愕然，也使我倍感亲切。

这话竟出自爱因斯坦之口，而且说得那么温和！我笑了。

所有的拘束荡然无存。

与爱因斯坦合作让我终身不忘。

1937年我和波兰物理学家奥波德•英费尔德请求与先生一起工作，他愉快地答应了。

当时，他的万有引力设想正待进一步研究和证明。

这以后，工作中的朝夕相处，使我们不仅接近和了解了作为人，作为朋友的爱因斯坦，更了解了作为科学家的爱因斯坦。

爱因斯坦研究之专注，是无与伦比的。

较量难题，他犹如野兽扑食物。

每当我们陷入一个近乎难以超越的困境，爱因斯坦便习惯地站起来，放下烟斗，用他那滑稽的英语说“我想想”（他发不”th”这个音，所以把“think”说成了“ tink”）。

边说边在屋里来回踱步，食指还不停地捻弄他那一头乱发。

My-Friend--Albert-Einstein课文翻译

My-Friend--Albert-Einstein 课文翻译我的朋友阿尔伯特•爱因斯坦班尼旭·霍夫曼爱因斯坦是历史上最伟大的科学家，如果用一个词出神入化地描述他，那就是“率真”。

有个例子很能表现他的率真：一次，爱因斯坦突遇大雨，他脱下帽子将其藏在衣内。

问及为什么这样，他很有逻辑地说，大雨会淋坏帽子，脱下帽子，头发受淋没什么关系。

真是一语切入问题实质。

正是这种人品素质，以及他对美的非凡感受，才是奠定他重大科学发现的秘诀。

第一次见到爱因斯坦，是1935年，在新泽西州普林斯顿那所著名的高级研究院里。

他是受研究院邀请最早的学者之一，薪金任他自己填写。

可令院长失望的是，爱因斯坦填写的薪金太少了，院长不得不恳请先生多填一些。

我非常敬畏爱因斯坦。

一次，我正在研究一个问题，必须向先生请教。

临行前，我一直犹犹豫豫。

当我终于敲响先生的屋门时，听到一声温和的“请进！”-------声调微微上扬，透着欢迎和询问的语气。

我走进办公室，见先生坐在桌前，一边吸烟一边做计算。

他头发有些凌乱，一副不修边幅的样子。

他对我颔首微笑，平易的面容使我立即消除了紧张感。

我开始解释自己的想法。

他让我把公式写在黑板上，以便能看明白每一个发展步骤。

“请你慢慢说，我接受力很慢。

”先生的请求令我愕然，也使我倍感亲切。

这话竟出自爱因斯坦之口，而且说得那么温和！我笑了。

所有的拘束荡然无存。

与爱因斯坦合作让我终身不忘。

1937年我和波兰物理学家奥波德•英费尔德请求与先生一起工作，他愉快地答应了。

当时，他的万有引力设想正待进一步研究和证明。

这以后，工作中的朝夕相处，使我们不仅接近和了解了作为人，作为朋友的爱因斯坦，更了解了作为科学家的爱因斯坦。

爱因斯坦研究之专注，是无与伦比的。

较量难题，他犹如野兽扑食物。

原文My Friend爱因斯坦

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我的朋友阿尔伯特•爱因斯坦班尼旭·霍夫曼爱因斯坦是历史上最伟大的科学家，如果用一个词出神入化地描述他，那就是“率真”。

有个例子很能表现他的率真：一次，爱因斯坦突遇大雨，他脱下帽子将其藏在衣。

问及为什么这样，他很有逻辑地说，大雨会淋坏帽子，脱下帽子，头发受淋没什么关系。

真是一语切入问题实质。

正是这种人品素质，以及他对美的非凡感受，才是奠定他重大科学发现的秘诀。

第一次见到爱因斯坦，是1935年，在新泽西州普林斯顿那所著名的高级研究院里。

他是受研究院邀请最早的学者之一，薪金任他自己填写。

可令院长失望的是，爱因斯坦填写的薪金太少了，院长不得不恳请先生多填一些。

我非常敬畏爱因斯坦。

一次，我正在研究一个问题，必须向先生请教。

临行前，我一直犹犹豫豫。

当我终于敲响先生的屋门时，听到一声温和的“请进！”-------声调微微上扬，透着欢迎和询问的语气。

我走进办公室，见先生坐在桌前，一边吸烟一边做计算。

他头发有些凌乱，一副不修边幅的样子。

他对我颔首微笑，平易的面容使我立即消除了紧感。

我开始解释自己的想法。

他让我把公式写在黑板上，以便能看明白每一个发展步骤。

“请你慢慢说，我接受力很慢。

”先生的请求令我愕然，也使我倍感亲切。

这话竟出自爱因斯坦之口，而且说得那么温和！我笑了。

所有的拘束荡然无存。

与爱因斯坦合作让我终身不忘。

1937年我和波兰物理学家奥波德•英费尔德请求与先生一起工作，他愉快地答应了。

当时，他的万有引力设想正待进一步研究和证明。

这以后，工作中的朝夕相处，使我们不仅接近和了解了作为人，作为朋友的爱因斯坦，更了解了作为科学家的爱因斯坦。

爱因斯坦研究之专注，是无与伦比的。

较量难题，他犹如野兽扑食物。

边说边在屋里来回踱步，食指还不停地捻弄他那一头乱发。

爱因斯坦独自梦幻般地出神，平静地思索，根本没有挖空心思，绞尽脑汁的摸样。

时间一分一秒地过去，突然他停住脚步，脸上露出轻松的微笑，解决办法出来了。

有时，解法非常简单，而我和英费尔德却没有想到，我们简直想踹自己两脚。

先生这无形的魔力我们是永远没法企及的。

师母的去世对先生无疑是一个沉重打击，但这并没有影响他沉浸工作。

记得在那段悲痛的日子里，我曾去过他家与他一起工作。

他疲惫而悲伤，但依然竭力倾心工作。

我尽量避免与他谈及家事，而是跟他讨论艰深的理论问题，帮他忘却悲痛。

爱因斯坦慢慢深入讨论，眼里已不再流露悲伤。

我们一直谈了两个多小时，告别时，他非常感我的诚意，对我说：“你的这个问题很有意思。

”他暂时忘却了悲痛，寻词觅句表达他心深切的情感。

爱因斯坦不在乎仪式，也不归属任何组织，但他是我碰到的最虔诚的人。

他曾跟我说“主意来自上帝”，语中充满对上帝的敬意。

普林斯顿大学数学楼石壁炉上用德语刻着的“上帝难以捉摸，但上帝没有恶意”，可谓是他的科学信条。

爱因斯坦的意思是，科学家从事的工作也许艰难无比，但绝不是杳渺无望。

宇宙是规则有序的，上帝不会有意以悖谬和矛盾来迷惑我们。

爱因斯坦还是一个出色的业余音乐家。

我们常常在一起二重奏，他拉小提琴，我弹钢琴。

有一次他说莫扎特是最伟大的作曲家，我很吃惊。

他解释说，贝多芬“创造”音乐，而莫扎特的音乐之纯洁优美，令人感到是他“发现”了音乐--------发现了这宇宙本身的故事，正等待人类去展示的在美。

这种莫扎特式的简洁，就是典型的爱因斯坦方法。

爱因斯坦1905年创立的相对论理论，就是建立在两个简单的假设上的。

一个是所谓的相对原则，简单地说，就是我们无法判定，自己是处于静止状态，还是正在平稳地运动。

另一个假设是，不论产生光的物质其速度如何，光速都是一样的。

假如你用棍子在湖里搅动，观察湖水产生波浪的情形，就可以看出这个假设的合理性。

不论在静止的码头，还是在飞驶的快艇上搅动棍子，波浪一旦产生，就按其自身的速度传播，与棍子速度无关。

两个假设分开看，都具有明显的合理性。

可是将它们放在一起就矛盾对立，足以使胆怯者放弃设想，逃之夭夭了。

爱因斯坦勇敢地对两个假想进行探索----他的努力导致物理学上的革命。

他证明，如果我们放弃对时间本质的固有的理解，二者是可以和平共处的。

科学如同小孩用纸牌搭的房子，时间与空间概念是这个房子的地基。

以前我们对时间概念的曲解，是整个房子几近倒坍。

正因为如此，爱因斯坦的工作尤为重要，也格外引起争议。

在普林斯顿爱因斯坦七十寿辰的庆祝会上，一位诺贝尔奖获得者在试图表述爱因斯坦巨大成就的魔力而终于未果时，无奈地耸耸肩，指着腕上的表，无比惊奇地说，“一切都来源于它呀！”他的如此不善言辞，是我听到的对爱因斯坦天才的最雄辩的赞美。

爱因斯坦对名气处之泰然，可却躲避不及。

他走到哪，马上就被人认出。

一个秋季的星期六，我和爱因斯坦在普林斯顿大学边走边谈论一个技术问题。

路上，家长和毕业生们正潮水般地涌向体育馆，热切期待即将举行的足球比赛。

走进我们的时候，他们突然停住脚步。

他们认出了先生，顿时一脸庄严，似乎突然走进另一个世界。

可是爱因斯坦根本没发现什么异常，依旧全然不知地继续着他的讨论。

别以为爱因斯坦只钻研艰深的科学问题。

实际上，他常常在日常生活的细枝末节中发现科学原则，而这些细枝末节，常常被人忽略。

有一次他问我是否思考过这样一个问题：踩在干燥或者浸满水的沙土上，双脚会下陷，但半湿的沙土表层却很结实。

这是为什么？我无以对答，他的答案却惊人的简单。

他说这就是表面力，即液体表面弹性表皮导致的结果。

水珠的凝积也是因为表面力。

有时我们看到，窗玻璃上两颗小雨珠一碰到一起，立即溶成一个大水珠，这也是表面力的结果。

爱因斯坦解释说，沙土半湿时，沙粒间有少量水分，水分的表面力使沙粒与沙粒互相粘合，粘合后摩擦力使沙粒不易移动。

而沙土干燥时，沙粒间没有水分。

沙土浸透时，沙粒间虽然有水，但没有粘合它们的水表面。

这个问题没有相对论重大，但我们很难预测这看似简单的小问题会促使爱因斯坦做出重大发现。

从这小小的沙土问题，我们窥见出爱因斯坦多么深邃而有创见，而思路有是多么地清晰和简洁。

Unit ThreeTEXT IMy Friend, Albert EinsteinI. Paraphrase the parts underlined in the following:[1]He was one of the greatest scientists the world has ever known, yet if I had to convey the essence of Albert Einstein in a single word, I would choose simplicity. Perhaps an anecdote will help. Once, caught in a downpour, he took off his hat and held it under his coat. Asked why, he explained, with admirable logic, that the rain would damage the hat, but his hair would be none the worse for its wetting. This 1knack for going instinctively to the heart of a matter was the secret of his major scientific discoveries—this and his extraordinary feeling for beauty.[2]I first met Albert Einstein in 1935, at the famous Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N. J. He had been among the first to be invited to the Institute, and was offered carte blanche 2as to salary. To the director's dismay, Einstein asked for an impossible sum: it was far too small. The director had to 3plead with him to accept a large salary.[3]I 4was in awe of Einstein, and hesitated before 5approaching him about some ideasI had been 6working on . When I finally knocked on his door, a gentle voice said, “Come”— with a rising 7inflection that made the single word both a welcome and a question. I entered his office and found him seated at a table, calculating and smoking his pipe. Dressed in ill - fitting clothes, his hair characteristically 8awry, he smiled a warm welcome. His utter naturalness at once set me at ease.[4]As I began to explain my ideas, he asked me to write the equations on the blackboard so he could see how they developed. Then came the staggering --- and a1together 9endearing --- request : “Please go slowly. I do not understand thingsquickly.” This from Einstein! He said it gently, and I laughed. From then on, all 10vestiges of fear were gone.[5]Einstein was born in 1879 in the German city of Ulm. He had been no 11infant prodigy ; indeed, he was so late in learning to speak that his parents feared he was a 12dullard. In school, though his teachers saw no special talent in him, the signs were already there. He taught himself calculus, for example, and his teachers seemed a little afraid of him because he asked questions they could not answer. At the age of 16, he himself whether a light wave would seem stationary if one ran 13abreast of it. From that innocent question would arise, ten years later, his theory of relativity.[6]Einstein failed his entrance examinations at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School, in Zurich, but was admitted a year later. There he went beyond his regular work to study the 14masterwork of physics on his own. Rejected when he applied for academic positions, he ultimately found work, in 1902, as a patent examiner in Berne, and there in 1905 his genius burst into fabulous flower.[7]Among the extraordinary things he produced in that memorable year were his theory of relativity, with its famous offshoot, E = mc 2 (energy equals mass times the speed of light squared), and his quantum theory of light. These two theories were not only revolutionary, but seemingly contradictory: the former was intimately linked to the theory that light consists of waves, while the latter said it consists somehow of particles. Yet this unknown young man boldly proposed both at once --- and he was right in both cases, though how he could have been is far too complex a story to tell here.[8]Collaborating with Einstein was an unforgettable experience. In 1937, the Polish physicist Leopold Infeld and I asked if we could work with him. He was pleased with the proposal, since he had an idea about gravitation waiting to be 15worked out in detail. Thus we got to know not merely the man and the friend, but also the professional.[9]The intensity and depth of his concentration were fantastic. When battling a 16recalcitrant problem, he 17worried it as an animal worries its prey. Often, when we found ourselves up against a 18seemingly insuperable difficulty, he would stand up, put his pipe on the table, and say in his 19quaint English, “I will a little tink” (he could not pronounce “th”). Then he would pace up and down, 20twirling a lock of his long, graying hair around his forefinger.[10]A dreamy, faraway and yet inward look would come over his face. There was no appearance of concentration, no furrowing of the brow---only a 21placid inner communion. The minutes would pass, and then suddenly Einstein would stop pacing as his face relaxed into a gentle smile . He had found the solution to the problem. Sometimes it was so simple that Infeld and I could have 22kicked ourselves for nothaving thought of it. But the magic had been performed invisibly in the depths of Einstein's mind, by a process we could not 23fathom.[11]When his wife died he was deeply shaken, but insisted that now more than ever was the time to be working hard. I remember going to his house to work with him during that sad time. 24His face was haggard and grief-lined, but he put forth a great effort to concentrate. To help him, I steered the discussion away from routine matters into more difficult theoretical problems, and Einstein gradually became absorbed in the discussion. We kept at it for some two hours, and at the end his eyes were no longer sad. As I left, he thanked me with moving sincerity. “It was a fun,” he said. He had had a moment of 25surcease from grief, and then 26groping words expressed a deep emotion.[12]Einstein was an accomplished amateur musician. We used to play duets, he on the violin, I at the piano. One day he surprised me by saying Mozart was the greatest composer of a ll. Beethoven “created” his music, but the music of Mozart was of such purity and beauty one felt he had merely “found” it--that it had always existed as part of the inner beauty of the Universe, waiting to be revealed.[13]It was this very Mozartean simplicity that most characterized Einstein's methods. His 1905 theory of relativity, for example, was built on just two simple assumptions. One is the so-called principle of relativity, which means, roughly speaking, that we cannot tell whether we are at rest or moving smoothly. The other assumption is that the speed of light is the same no matter what the speed of the object that produces it. You can see how reasonable this is if you think of agitating a stick in a lake to create waves. Whether you wiggle the stick from a stationary 27pier , or from a rushing speedboat, the waves, once generated, are on their own, and their speed has nothing to do with that of the stick.[14]Each of these assumptions, by itself, was so 28plausible as to seem primitively obvious. But together they were in such violent conflict that a 29lesser man would have dropped one or the other and fled in panic. Einstein daringly kept both---revolutionized physics. For he demonstrated they could, after all, exist peacefully side by side, provided we gave up cherished beliefs about the nature of time.[15]Science is like 30a house of cards, with concepts like time and space at the lowest level. 31Tampering with time brought most of the house tumbling down, and it was this that made Einstein's work so important ---and controversial. At a conference in Princeton in honor of his 70th birthday, one of the speakers, a Nobel Prize winner, tried to convey the magical quality of Einstein's achievement. Words failed him, and with a shrug of helplessness he pointed to his wristwatch, and said in tones of 32awed amazement, “It all came from this.” His very ineloquence made this the most eloquent tribute I have ever heard to Einstein's genius…[16]Einstein's work, performed quietly with pencil and paper, seemed remote from the 33turmoil of everyday life: But his ideas were so revolutionary they caused violent controversy and irrational anger. Indeed, in order to be able to award him a belated Nobel Prize, the selection committee had to avoid mentioning relativity, and pretend the prize was awarded primarily for his work on the quantum theory.[17]Political events upset the 34serenity of his life even more. When the Nazis came to power in Germany, his theories were officially declared false because they had been formulated by a Jew. His property was confiscated, and it is said a price was put on his head.[18]When scientists in the United States, fearful that the Nazis might develop an atomic bomb, sought to 35alert American authorities to the danger, they were scarcely 36heeded. In desperation, they drafted a letter which Einstein signed and sent directly to President Roosevelt. It was this act that led to the fateful decision to go all-out on the production of an atomic bomb---an endeavor in which Einstein took no active part. When he heard of the agony and destruction that his E=mc had wrought, he was dismayed beyond measure, and from then on there was a look of 37ineffable sadness in his eyes.[19]38There was something elusively whimsical about Einstein. It is illustrated by my favorite anecdote about him. In his first year in Princeton, on Christmas Eve, so the story goes, some children sang 39carols outside his house. Having finished, they knocked on his door and explained they were collecting money to buy Christmas presents. Einstein listened, then said, “Wait a moment.” He put on his scarf and overcoat, and took his violin from its case. Then, joining the children as they went from door to door, he accompanied their singing of “Silent Night” on his v iolin. [20]How shall I sum up what it meant to have known Einstein and his works? Like the Nobel Prize winner who pointed helplessly at his watch, I can find no adequate words. 40It was akin to the revelation of great art that lets one see what was formerly hidden. And when, for example, I walk on the sand of a lonely beach, I am reminded of his ceaseless search for cosmic simplicity---and the scene takes on a deeper, sadder beauty.怪才迪姆斯·泰勒他身材矮小，头却很大，与他的身材很不相称——是个满脸病容的矮子。