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.)
沒那回事兒。從上午九點到下午七點左右回家吃飯，霍金一直都在四壁排滿書、面前擺著夫人簡和三個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壯的人也感到勞累不堪。上個月的某天上午，當他坐著輪椅來到系的師生公共休息室時，他的研究生正圍著矮桌子在三句不離本行地交談著。霍金熟練地操縱著輪椅來到一張桌子旁邊，咔噠一聲按了按控制開關，計算機便發出輕微的嘟嘟聲。他從顯示在屏幕上的詞表中選出了幾個單詞，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：“早上好。我可以來杯咖啡嗎?”接著，為了在座的一位來訪者，他又特意加了一句：“對不起，我的發音帶有美國腔。”（他用的聲音合成器是美國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.
當話題轉到創造力以及數學家似乎在二十幾歲就達到一個創造力的高峰時，霍金的計算機發出了嘟嘟聲。他說：“我已經在走下坡路了。”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 was twelve, he recalls humorously, "one of my friends bet another friend a bag of sweets that I would 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念日。小時候，他學習閱讀很遲鈍，但他喜歡把東西拆開，不過他承認自己從來不善于把拆開的東西再照原樣裝好。他幽默地回憶說，十二歲的時候，“我的一個朋友以一袋糖果跟另一個朋友打賭，說我永遠不會有什么作為。我不知道這次打賭是不是已經了結，如果已經了結，也不知道是誰打贏了。”
評論
打印
