8 .
Stephen Hawking, the most famous scientist of his time, died when he was 76 on March 14, 2018. He died peacefully on Wednesday at his home in Cambridge, England.
Hawking was a physicist. He was known worldwide for explaining subjects like the beginnings of the universe (宇宙) and what black holes are.
He got the ALS (渐冻症) in 1963. At that time, doctors said he would only live a few years. But he proved them wrong by living for over 50 years more and going on with his scientific work. The disease finally put him in a wheelchair and took away his ability to speak. For many years, Hawking communicated by using a special tool but not in his own voice.
His 1988 book “A Brief History of Time” became an international bestseller and made him world-famous. Hawking was also known for his successful research on black holes. His work is known as Hawking radiation.
In his 2013 book “My Brief History”, Hawking wrote about his ideas of the illness, “I felt it was very unfair — why should this happen to me?” He added, “At the time, I thought my life was over and that I would never realize the ability I felt I had.” “But now, my goal is simple,” Hawking once said. “It is a complete understanding of the universe — what it is and why it is there.”
Hawking was a big supporter of human space travel, especially the space travel to the Moon and Mars. He said it would help humans in a common purpose of spreading themselves beyond the Earth. “We are running out of space and the only places to go to are other worlds. It is time to explore other solar systems. Spreading out may be the only thing that saves us from ourselves. I believe that humans need to leave the Earth,” he said last year.
1. Stephen Hawking was a great scientist and he
.
| A．was born in 1940 in Cambridge |
| B．passed away peacefully in a hospital |
| C．was famous for his travel to the Moon |
| D．made people understand the universe better |
2. Paragraph 3 shows that
.
| A．Hawking died only a few years after he got the ALS |
| B．doctors played an important role in Hawking’s daily life |
| C．how Hawking’s disease was caused and how he was treated |
| D．Hawking managed to go on with scientific work with the ALS |
3. What does the underlined word “
it” in Paragraph 6 mean?
| A．running out of the space |
| B．a supporter of space travel |
| C．a common purpose of helping humans |
| D．human space travel to the Moon and Mars |
4. The right order of the following events should be
.
a. Hawking got the ALS in 1963.
b. Hawking passed away on March 14, 2018.
c. Hawking wrote “
My Brief History” which is about his illness.
d. Hawking wrote “
A Brief History of Time” and it made him world-famous.
| A．a, d, c, b | B．a, b, c, d | C．b, a, c, d | D．d, a, c, b |
5. We can learn from the passage that
.
| A．Hawking always believed that he would be successful |
| B．Hawking communicated by a special tool in his own voice |
| C．Hawking believed spreading out could help save people on the Earth |
| D．Hawking didn’t become famous until “My Brief History” was published |
