5
B.
Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking is a famous British scientist. He was often on TV and in magazine. He lived in
Cambridge and was married with three children.
Stephen had ALS: this disease slowly paralysed him. He couldn’t walk or talk, and he had to move
around in a special wheelchair with a computer. He used a computerised voice system to talk. At first, he used
the voice system with his finger, and when that became impossible, he used a muscle in his cheek. He even
used this computer to teach math at the University of Cambridge. Because of the disease, Stephen couldn’t
live on his own. A nurse had to help him dress, eat, and take a bath. She was with him 24 hours a day.
Stephen was famous for his studies of black holes, places in space that can suck in everything near them.
In 1994, the Hubble Space Telescope (哈伯太空望遠鏡) showed evidence for the existence of a super giant
black hole. The black hole is as large as Solar System. More recently, scientists proved there is another super
giant black hole. The one is located 26,000 light years from the Earth. The energy of the hole is weak, but
scientists are now able to record it and prove its existence.
Although he was sick, Stephen never gave up on his life. He still tried his best to work hard on many
kinds of studies. He published his best-selling book in 1988, “A Brief History of Time”(時間簡史). The
book is about the beginning of the world and the universe. It explains the universe in ways even ordinary
people can understand. Stephen also believed that time travel is possible, and one day people might live on
other planets in the universe. He hoped to travel to space himself one day and trained with NASA.
ALS 肌萎縮性脊隨側索硬化症 paralysed 癱瘓 computerised 計算機化的 professor 教授 suck in
吸入 evidence 證據 existence 存在 Solar System 太陽系 prove 證實 publish 出版 universe 宇宙 explain
解釋 ordinary 普通的
4. ( ) What can’t we know from the reading?
(A) Stephen is a scientist, a teacher, and a book writer.
(B) Stephen wished he could go travel to other planets one day.
(C) A black hole could be as big as our Solar System.
(D) Even though Stephen were paralysed, he could still talk by himself without any help.
5.( ) Who will be the most possible to buy Stephen’s book, “A Brief History of Time”?
(A) School history teachers.
(B) Cambridge students.
(C) People who want to know more about our universe.
(D) People who want to learn math well.
6.( ) Which would be the best title (標題) of the reading?
(A) Stephen Hawking – A Great Fighter of Life
(B) Stephen Hawking – A Paralysed Man
(C) Stephen Hawking – The Man Who Saw Black Holes
(D) Stephen Hawking – The Best Author in History