雅思阅读材料之Stephen Hawking.pdf

智 课 网 雅 思 备 考 资 料 雅思阅读材料之Stephen Hawking 下面是一篇来自英国电讯报的雅思阅读材料，这篇雅思阅读材料的 主要内容是史蒂芬霍金。他在接受英国卫报采访的时候又一次声明，自 己并不怕死，天堂对于害怕黑暗的人来说只是一个童话，而他不是。下 面是详细内容。 Stephen Hawking: heaven is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark The 69 year-old physicist, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 21, insisted that he is “not afraid of death”. Shortly after being diagnosed with the incurable illnes many expected the author of A Brief History of Time to die. But he said it has instead led him to enjoy life more. In an interview with The Guardian, ahead of key note speech on Tuesday, Prof Hawking discusses his thoughts on death. He rejected the idea of life beyond death and emphasised, what he described as the need to fulfil our potential on Earth by making good use of our lives. I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years,” he told the newspaper. “Im not afraid of death, but Im in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first. I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail.” He added: “There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.” Asked how we should live he replied: We should seek the greatest value of our action. He is due to speak at the Google Zeitgeist meeting in London, in which he will address the question: Why are we here? He will argue that tiny “quantum fluctuations” in the very early universe became the seeds from which galaxies, stars, and ultimately, human life began. He will join other speakers including George Osborne, the Chancellor and Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel prize-winning economist. In A Brief History of Time, Prof Hawkings most famous work, he did not dismiss the possibility that God had a hand in the creation of the world. He wrote in the 1988 book: If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason