关于上外版大学英语写作精选第二册的内容
UNIT 5
TEXT
Seen through the eyes of a young friend Einstein was a simple, modest and ordinary man.
The professor and the Yo-yo
My father was a close friend of Albert Einstein. As a shy young visitor to Einstein's home, I was made to feel at ease when Einstein said, "I have something to show you." He went to his desk and returned with a Yo-Yo. He tried to show me how it worked but he couldn't make it roll back up the string. When my turn came, I displayed my few tricks and pointed out to him that the incorrectly looped string had thrown the toy off balance. Einstein nodded, properly impressed by my skill and knowledge. Later, I bought a new Yo-Yo and mailed it to the Professor as a Christmas present, and received a poem of thanks.
As boy and then as an adult, I never lost my wonder at the personality that was Einstein. He was the only person I knew who had come to terms with himself and the world around him. He knew what he wanted and he wanted only this: to understand within his limits as a human being the nature of the universe and the logic and simplicity in its functioning. He knew there were answers beyond his intellectual reach. But this did not frustrate him. He was content to go as far as he could.
In the 23 years of our friendship, I never saw him show jealousy, vanity, bitterness, anger, resentment, or personal ambition. He seemed immune to these emotions. He was beyond any pretension. Although he corresponded with many of the world's most important people, his stationery carried only a watermark - W - for Woolworth's.
To do his work he needed only a pencil only a pencil and a pad of paper. Material things meant nothing to him. I never knew him to carry money because he never had any use for it. He believed in simplicity, so much so that he used only a safety razor and water to shave. When I suggested that he try shaving cream, he said, "The razor and water do the job."
"But Professor, why don't you try the cream just once?" I argued. "It makes shaving smoother and less painful."
He shrugged. Finally, I presented him with a tube of shaving cream. The next morning when he came down to breakfast, he was beaming with the pleasure of a new, great discovery. "You know, that cream really works," he announced. "It doesn't pull the beard. It feels wonderful." Thereafter, he used the shaving cream every morning until the tube was empty. Then he reverted to using plain water.
Einstein was purely and exclusively a theorist. He didn't have the slightest interest in the practical application of his ideas and theories. His E=mc2 is probably the most famous equation in history - yet Einstein wouldn't walk down the street to see a reactor create atomic energy. He won the Nobel Prize for his Photoelectric Theory, a series of equations that he considered relatively minor in importance, but he didn't have any curiosity in observing how his theory made TV possible.
My brother once gave the Professor a toy, a bird that balanced on the edge of a bowl of water and repeatedly dunked its head in the water. Einstein watched it in delight, trying to deduce the operating principle. But be couldn't.
The next morning he announced, "I had thought about that bird for a long time before I went to bed and it must work this way…" He began a ling explanation. Then he stopped, realizing a flaw in his reasoning. "No, I guess that's not it," he said. He pursued various theories for several days until I suggested we take the toy apart to see how it did work. His quick expression of disapproval told me he did not agree with this practical approach. He never did work out the solution.
Another puzzle that Einstein could never understand was his own fame. He had developed theories that were profound and capable of exciting relatively few scientists. Yet his name was a household word across the civilized world. "I've had good ideas, and so have other men," he once said. "But it's been my good fortune that my ideas have been accepted." He was bewildered by his fame: people wanted to meet him; strangers stared at him on the street; scientists, statesmen, students, and housewives wrote him letters. He never could understand why he received this attention, why he was singled out as something special.
PHRASES & EXPRESSIONS
-
mydream英语作文(精选28篇)
作文是经过人的思想考虑和语言组织,通过文字来表达一个主题意义的记叙方法。作文分为小学作文、中学作文、大学作文(论文)。下面是小编整理的mydream英语作文(精选28篇),欢迎大家分享。mydream英语作文篇1EveryonehaserentdreamsalwaysmakemeexcitedwhenIwasalittleb...
-
家庭生活初三英语作文范文(精选19篇)
在学习、工作或生活中,大家最不陌生的就是作文了吧,通过作文可以把我们那些零零散散的思想,聚集在一块。相信写作文是一个让许多人都头痛的问题,下面是小编为大家整理的家庭生活初三英语作文范文,仅供参考,希望能够帮助到大家。家庭生活初三英语作文篇1Myparentsarev...
-
简单的英语自我介绍小学六年级作文(通用25篇)
在平日的学习、工作和生活里,许多人都写过作文吧,写作文可以锻炼我们的独处习惯,让自己的心静下来,思考自己未来的方向。那么一般作文是怎么写的呢?以下是小编精心整理的简单的英语自我介绍小学六年级作文,仅供参考,欢迎大家阅读。简单的英语自我介绍小学六年级作文篇...
-
关于坚持不懈的英语作文(通用15篇)
学习是一条慢长而艰苦的道路,不能靠一时激情,也不是熬几天几夜就能学好的,必须养成平时努力学习的习惯。所以我说:学习贵在坚持!下面是应届毕业生小编为您整理的关于坚持不懈英语作文,希望能够帮到大家!坚持不懈的英语作文篇1Thedreamisbeautiful,itisthemoralnatur...