学位英语

Einstein Named “Person of the Century”

Albert Einstein, whose theories on space time and matter helped unravel the secrets of the atom and of the universe, was chosen as “Person of the Century” by Time magazine on Sunday.

A man whose very name is synonymous with scientific genius, Einstein has come to represent more than any other person the flowering of 20th century scientific though that set the stage for the age of technology.

“The world has changed far more in the past 100 years than in any other century in history. The reason is not political or economic, but technological—technologies that flowed directly from advances in basic science,” wrote theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking in a Time essay explaining Einstein’s significance. _____ (1) _____.

Time chose as runner-up President Franklin Roosevelt1 to represent the triumph of freedom and democracy over fascism, and Mahatma Gandhi2 as an icon for a century when civil and human rights became crucial factors in global politics.

“What we saw was Franklin Roosevelt embodying the great theme of freedom’s fight against totalitarianism, Gandhi personifying the great theme of individuals struggling for their rights, and Einstein being both a great genius and a great symbol of a scientific revolution that brought with it amazing technological advances that helped expand the growth of freedom, ”said Time Magazine Editor Walter Isaacson.

Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany in 1879. _____ (2) _____. He was slow to learn to speak and did not do well in elementary school. He could not stomach organized learning and loathed taking exams3.

In 1905, however, he was to publish a theory which stands as one of the most intricate examples of human imagination in history. _____ (3) _____. Everything else—mass, weight, space, even time itself—is a variable. And he offered the world his now-famous equation: energy equals mass times the speed of light squared—E=mc2.

_____ (4) _____. “There was less faith in absolutes, not only of time and space but also of truth and morality. ”

Einstein’s famous equation was also the seed that led to the development of atomic energy and weapons. In 1939, six years after he fled European fascism and settled at Princeton University, Einstein, an avowed pacifist4, signed a letter to President Roosevelt urging the United States to develop an atomic bomb before Nazi Germany did. _____ (5) _____. Einstein did not work on the project.

Einstein died in Princeton, New Jersey in 1955.

词汇：

unravel [?n'r?v?l] vt. 解开 personify [p?(:)'s?nifai] vt. 象征，体现

synonymous [si'n?nim?s] adj. 同义词 intricate ['intrikit] adj. 复杂的

runner-up 亚军，第二名 constant ['k?nst?nt] n. 常量

icon ['a?k?n] n. 象征;图符 variable ['vε?ri?bl] n. 变量

totalitarianism [,t??t?l?`te?r??n?z?m] n. 极权主义

equation [i'kwei∫?n] n.等量

注释：

1. President Franklin Roosevelt ：美国第32任总统罗斯福 (1882-1945)

2. Mahatma Gandhi ：印度政治和精神领袖、改革家甘地(1869-1948)

3. He could not stomach organized learning and loathed taking exams. ：他无法忍受一切都安排得死死的教学，讨厌考试。

4. avowed pacifist ：公开承认的和平主义者

练习：

A. “Indirectly, relativity paved the way for a new relativism in morality, art and politics,” Isaacson wrote in an essay explaining Time’s choices.

B. How he thought of the relativity theory influenced the general public's view about Albert Einstein.

C. “Clearly, no scientist better represents those advances than Albert Einstein.”

D. Roosevelt heeded the advice and formed the “Manhattan Project” that secretly developed the first atomic weapon.

E. In his early years, Einstein did not show the promise of what he was to become.

F. In his “Special Theory of Relativity,” Einstein described how the only constant in the universe is the speed of light.

答案与题解：

1. C 本文主要讲爱因斯坦为20世纪人类科学作出的重大贡献。本段是理论物理学家史蒂芬·霍金在《时代》杂志上发表的一片评价爱因斯坦所做贡献的文章中的几句话，他说世界在过去的100年发生的变化比以往任何一个世纪都大得多，其原因不在于政治或经济，而在于技术----由于基础科学的进步而直接造就的新技术者两句话并未提及爱因斯坦，因此此处选C最合适：“显然，没有一位科学家能比爱因斯坦更好地代表这些科学进步。”those 在此发挥了衔接作用。

2. E 本段简要介绍爱因斯坦早年生平。E说：“爱因斯坦在小时候并未显示日后会成为大科学家的任何天赋。”后一句话实际上是对E的详细解释。

3. F 本段主要介绍爱因斯坦提出的相对论。第一句话告诉我们1905年的时候爱因斯坦发表一个人类历史上展现出最具奇巧想象力的理论，第三、四句话是具体解释相对论，F说：“在‘特殊相对论‘中，爱因斯坦描述了宇宙中为什么唯一恒定的是光速。”由此看来F放在此处最合适，其中constant 和variable意思相反，构成词汇衔接(lexical cohesion)。

4. A 本段是伊萨克森在《时代》杂志上的一篇文章中对相对论的深远意义所做的评述，他说：“相对论间接地位道德、艺术和政治领域中新相对主义的出现铺平了道路。”后一句是对此的进一步解释。

5. D 本段主要讲爱因斯坦与原子能和原子武器发展的关系。前一句告诉我们爱因斯坦1939年在一封信给罗斯福总统的敦促美国抢在纳粹德国之前研制原子弹的信上签了名。D说：“罗斯福对这项建议十分关注，遂制定了秘密制造第一颗原子弹的‘曼哈顿计划’。”后一句说爱因斯坦未参与这项计划，其中 the project 指的就是 the “Manhattan Project”。

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