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A victim of an incurable disease, Stephen Hawking is almost completely paralysed, confined toa wheelchair, and unable to speak. Yet, he has overcome every obstacle and achieved far more than most able-bodied people ever dream of accomplishing and become one of the greatest physicists of our time.
斯蒂芬·霍金患了一種不治之癥，幾乎完全癱瘓，離不開輪椅，而且不能說話。然而，他克服了一切障礙，取得了比大多數(shù)體格健全者想要取得的還要多得多的成就，成了我們時代最偉大的物理學(xué)家之一。
Roaming the Cosmos
遨游宇宙
Leon Jaroff
利昂·賈洛夫
Darkness has fallen on Cambridge, England, and on a damp and chilly evening king's Parade is filled with students and faculty. Then, down the crowded thoroughfare comes the University of Cambridge's most distinctive vehicle, bearing its most distinguished citizen. In the motorized wheelchair, boyish face dimly illuminated by a glowing computer screen attached to the left armrest, is Stephen William Hawking, 46, one of the world's greatest theoretical physicists. As he skillfully maneuvers through the crowd, motorists slow down, some honking their horns in greeting. People wave and shout hello.
夜幕降臨，暮色籠罩著英格蘭劍橋市。在一個潮濕、寒冷的夜晚，“國王閱兵場”上到處是劍橋大學(xué)的師生。這時，沿著擁擠的大道駛來了校園內(nèi)最有特色的一部車子，上面載著該校最著名的公民。在這輛機動輪椅上坐著的是世界上最偉大的理論物理學(xué)家之一，四十六歲的斯蒂芬·威廉·霍金。固定在輪椅左邊靠手上的一只發(fā)光的計算機屏幕隱隱約約地照出了他那張孩子似的臉龐。當(dāng)他熟練地駕著輪椅駛過人群時，開汽車的人都放慢車速，有的還撳撳喇叭向他致意。人們揮著手，大聲跟他打招呼。
A huge smile lights up Hawking's bespectacled face, but he cannot wave or shout back. Sincehis early 20s, he has suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive deterioration of the central nervous system that usually causes death within three or four years. Hawking's illness has advanced more slowly, and now seems almost to have stabilized. Still, it has robbed him of virtually all movement. He has no control over most of his muscles, cannot dress or eat by himself and has lost his voice. Now he "speaks" only by using the slight voluntary movement left in his hands and fingers to operate his wheelchair's built-in computer and voice synthesizer.
戴著眼鏡的霍金滿面閃露出笑容，但他既不能揮手，也不能回喊作答。他剛二十歲出頭時就患了肌萎縮性脊髓側(cè)索硬化癥（ALS）。這是一種使中樞神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)日益退化的病癥，患者一般在三四年內(nèi)就會死亡。霍金的病情發(fā)展較慢，目前看來幾乎已經(jīng)穩(wěn)定。然而，這病仍使他失去了幾乎所有的活動能力。他已經(jīng)不能控制大部分肌肉，不能自己穿衣進食，不能開口說話。現(xiàn)在他只能依靠手和手指還剩下的一點隨意運動的能力操縱裝在輪椅上的計算機和聲音合成器來“說話”了。
