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Fascinated by physics, Stephen concentrated in the subject at Oxford's University College, butdid not distinguish himself. He partied, took a great interest in rowing and studied only an hour or so a day. Moving on to Cambridge for graduate work in relativity, he found the going rough, party because of some puzzling physical problems; he stumbled frequently and seemed to be getting clumsy.
斯蒂芬酷愛物理，曾在牛津大學的大學學院專攻這一學科，但成績并不突出。他參加各種社交聚會，對劃船特別感興趣，每天只學習一個小時左右。進入劍橋大學作研究生攻讀相對論時，斯蒂芬發覺學習很吃力。造成這一情況的部分原因是他身體內出現的一些莫名其妙的癥狀；他常常絆倒，而且手腳也似乎越來越不靈活了。
Doctors soon gave him the bad news: he had ALS, it would only get worse, and there was no cure. Hawking was overwhelmed. Before long, he needed a cane to walk, was drinking heavily and ignoring his studies. "There didn't seem to be much point in completing my Ph. D.," he says.
很快，醫生便向他報告了壞消息：他患了ALS癥。這種病只會惡化，而沒有辦法治愈。霍金悲傷之至。不久，他便需要拄著拐杖才能行走；他開始酗酒，置學習于不顧。他說：“在當時的情況下，完成博士學業似乎已沒有多大意義了。”
Then Hawking's luck turned. The progress of the disease slowed, and Einsteinian space-time suddenly seemed less formidable. But what really made the difference, he says, "was that I got engaged to Jane," who was studying modern languages at Cambridge. "This gave me something to liver for." As he explains, "if we were to get married, I had to get a job. And to get a job, I had to finish my Ph. D. I started, working hard for the first time in my life. To my surprise, I found I liked it."
后來，霍金時來運轉。病情的發展慢了下來，而愛因斯坦的時空觀也突然顯得不那么令人生畏了。但真正對他產生了重大影響的，他說，“是我與簡訂了婚。”當時她正在劍橋大學攻讀現代語言。“這使我有了一個生活目的。”正如他所解釋的那樣：“如果我們打算結婚，我就要找到一份工作。而要找到工作，我就得完成博士學位。于是我生平第一次開始刻苦學習了。出乎我的意料，我發覺我喜歡刻苦學習。”
What particularly interested Stephen was singularities, strange beasts predicted by general relativity. Einstein's equations indicated that when a star several times larger than the sun exhausts its nuclear fuel and collapses, its matter crushes together at its center with such force that it forms a singularity, an infinitely dense point with no dimensions and irresistible gravity. A voluminous region surrounding the singularity becomes a "black hole," from which --- because of that immense gravity --- nothing, not even light, can escape.
使斯蒂芬特別感興趣的是奇點。這是廣義相對論所預言的一種怪物。愛因斯坦的方程式表明，當一個比太陽大數倍的星體耗盡了自身的核燃料而坍塌時，它的物質便以雷霆萬鈞之力在其核心部位擠在一起，從而形成一個奇點，這一奇點沒有維度，卻具有無限的密度和不可抗拒的引力。奇點周圍的廣大區域便成了一個“黑洞”，而由于那巨大的引力，任何東西都不能逃離黑洞，即使光也不能。
