Hardly. From midmorning until he departs for dinner around 7 p. m., Hawking follows a routine that would tax the most able-bodied, working in his book-lined office, amid photographs of his wife Jane and their three children. When he rolled into the department's common room one morning last month, his students were talking shop around low tables. Maneuvering to one of the tables, Hawking clicked his control switch, evoking tiny beeps from his computer and selecting words from lists displayed on his screen. These words, assembled in sequence at the bottom of the screen, finally issued from the voice synthesizer: "Good morning. Can I have coffee?" Then, for the benefit of a visitor: "I am sorry about my American accent."(The synthesizer is produced by a California company.)
沒(méi)那回事兒。從上午九點(diǎn)到下午七點(diǎn)左右回家吃飯，霍金一直都在四壁排滿書(shū)、面前擺著夫人簡(jiǎn)和三個(gè)孩子照片的辦公室里工作，每日的工作量之大足以使身體最強(qiáng)壯的人也感到勞累不堪。上個(gè)月的某天上午，當(dāng)他坐著輪椅來(lái)到系的師生公共休息室時(shí)，他的研究生正圍著矮桌子在三句不離本行地交談著?；艚鹗炀毜夭倏v著輪椅來(lái)到一張桌子旁邊，咔噠一聲按了按控制開(kāi)關(guān)，計(jì)算機(jī)便發(fā)出輕微的嘟嘟聲。他從顯示在屏幕上的詞表中選出了幾個(gè)單詞，這些單詞在屏幕下方按順序排列好以后，終于從聲音合成器中放了出來(lái)：“早上好。我可以來(lái)杯咖啡嗎?”接著，為了在座的一位來(lái)訪者，他又特意加了一句：“對(duì)不起，我的發(fā)音帶有美國(guó)腔?！保ㄋ玫穆曇艉铣善魇敲绹?guó)加州的一家公司制造的。）
When the conversation shifted to creativity and how mathematicians seem to reach a creative peak in their early 20s, Hawking's computer beeped. "I'm over the hill," he said, to a chorus of laughter.
當(dāng)話題轉(zhuǎn)到創(chuàng)造力以及數(shù)學(xué)家似乎在二十幾歲就達(dá)到一個(gè)創(chuàng)造力的高峰時(shí)，霍金的計(jì)算機(jī)發(fā)出了嘟嘟聲。他說(shuō)：“我已經(jīng)在走下坡路了。”一句話引得眾人哈哈大笑。
Hawking was born on Jan. 8, 1942-300 years to the day, he often notes, after the death ofGalileo. As a small boy, he was slow to learn to read but liked to take things apart though he confesses that he was never very good at putting things back together. When he wastwelve, he recalls humorously, "one of my friends bet another friend a bag of sweets that Iwould never come to anything. I don't know if this bet was ever settled and, if so, who won."
霍金生于1942年1月8日，這一天——他常常提到——正好是伽利略逝世三百周年紀(jì)念日。小時(shí)候，他學(xué)習(xí)閱讀很遲鈍，但他喜歡把東西拆開(kāi)，不過(guò)他承認(rèn)自己從來(lái)不善于把拆開(kāi)的東西再照原樣裝好。他幽默地回憶說(shuō)，十二歲的時(shí)候，“我的一個(gè)朋友以一袋糖果跟另一個(gè)朋友打賭，說(shuō)我永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)有什么作為。我不知道這次打賭是不是已經(jīng)了結(jié)，如果已經(jīng)了結(jié)，也不知道是誰(shuí)打贏了?！?/p>
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