知性英语－阿尔伯特-爱因斯坦

 
　　Why was Einstein so clever?

　　Was there something special about his brain?

　　In fact scientists have examined Einstein's brain very thoroughly 1 and found that the part of the brain that has to do with visual imaging and mathematical thinking was in fact enlarged. However, this does not altogether account for his greatness.

　　There were other factors that helped nurture 2 this genius. Einstein had a very supportive and encouraging environment in which to grow up. His parents allowed him to develop his curiosity. His mother taught him to play the violin and he played it very well. His uncle also encouraged him enormously. Einstein, you know, was not very interested in school and would much prefer to think things out for himself.

　　Do you know he even failed at his first attempt to get into a prestigious 3 school in Switzerland? He was born in Germany in a town called Wurm on the 14th of March 1879. But his family moved to Switzerland when he was 16 years old. Do you know what subject caused him to fail? Yes, you guessed it - English! He didn't give up though, and studied hard and tried again, and was accepted the next year. Even at university he sometime missed classes because he had too much on his mind and could not tear himself away. Fortunately, he had a good friend who took notes for him.

　　Einstein always looked at problems from every angle and was convinced that there is a unifying 4 cause that relates everything together.

　　Of course he is most famous for his theory of relativity. Everyone knows the equation E=mc2. You can look in the science section for an explanation for this. Einstein liked to use the example of a tall building to explain the understanding behind this equation. Imagine you are in an infinitely 5 tall building and you are coming down inside it in an elevator. You don't realize you are falling because you are doing everything you can normally do - you can bend over, bounce a ball, talk and so on. You won't worry about crashing because, remember, the building is infinite. Of course, people outside will be able to see you falling! You won't worry about that - in fact you may think that those people are flying up as you are going down! It all depends on your point of view and its all relative to where you are and how fast you are going!

 
　　Einstein was also passionately 7 interested in peace and could not live in his homeland after the rise of Hitler. He lived in the United States but traveled extensively around the world. He was always able to reach out to children and loved to answer their questions. He believed that we should share our talents and resources to make our world better. He was passionate 6 about social justice and social responsibilities and said that he wanted his life to be guided by Kindness, Beauty and Truth.

　　One of his last acts was to allow his name to be added to a manifesto 8 urging all nations to give up nuclear weapons. He died in Princeton, New Jersey 9, on April 18th 1955. Before he died he stated that he would allow his brain to be preserved for science.

　　Einstein's theories are still valid 10 today. For the last 30 years of his life he was working on the Unified 11 Field Theory. He was not able to prove this in his lifetime and in fact although great advances have been made in this area of Physics it is still not proven. Perhaps you can help to lead us to the answer!