英国新闻听力 霍金一开口,世界侧耳听

He was a brilliant though by his own admission lazy physics student to the Oxford¹ in the 1960s. “The course was ridiculously easy”, he said. But the career which followed like the stars he loved so much has shone brightly ever since. Despite being diagnosed with a rare form of Motor Neuron Disease when he was 21, and the physical deprivations² it’s caused, his work on the laws which govern the universe have been groundbreaking.

It is of course Stephen Hawking³, physicist⁴, cosmologist and author of A Brief History of Time. Rather alarmingly, one observation he makes is that humanity is at risk from a series of dangers of its own making. In other words, our cleverness might be our downfall. BBC news online will be publishing the text of Professor Hawking’s lectures with accompanying notes from our science editor David Shukman. And David has this assessment⁵ of Professor Hawking’s standing⁶ in the scientific community.

Everything about him is distinctive⁷. The terrible plight⁸ of a brilliant mind trapped in an increasingly disabled body. The slight smile. The plays on the face that can no longer move. The voice, delivered with an American accent, slowly and mechanically. It’s not always easy to hear, but it is immediately recognizable. Some years ago, before an interview in his office at Cambridge University, his staff had warned me not to make small talk because it takes him so long to compose his answers. But in the excitement of meeting him, I just blurted⁹ out “How are you” and had to wait guiltily for the reply.

Against all the odds¹⁰, this remarkable¹¹ figure has traveled the world, written bestselling books, appeared in comedy shows and acquired the status as a hugely popular science communicator. So when he speaks or gets his machine to, people listen. This year, he recorded two talks on the nature of black holes and the latest research into them. He also agreed to respond to prearranged questions.

He was asked about the fate of humanity. On a previous occasion, he’d said, artificial intelligence could wipe us out. This time, he singled out three scenarios¹², nuclear war, global warming and genetically¹³ engineered viruses, disasters that would be of our own making. And he said that further progress in science and technology would create new ways things can go wrong and that this becomes a near certainty in the next thousand or ten thousand years.

20世纪60年代，他是牛津大学物理系的一名学生，聪明绝顶却自称懒人一个。“课程简单得可笑，”他说。但是此后他的事业就像他喜欢的星星，闪烁耀眼的光芒。21岁时，霍金被诊断出患有运动神经元病的一种罕见病症，对他的身体造成了极大破坏，但是，他的关于统治宇宙法则的工作却是具有开创性的。

当然，他就是史蒂芬·霍金——物理学家、宇宙学家和《时间简史》的作者。他的一个观察发现相当令人担忧，那就是，人类制造了一系列危险，并将自食其果。换言之，我们的聪明可能导致我们的衰败。BBC新闻网将发布霍金教授演讲的文本并附以本台科学编辑大卫·舒克曼的注释。大卫这样评价霍金教授在科学界的地位。

他的一切都是独一无二的。糟糕的困境：杰出的大脑，日益消残的身体。浅浅的微笑。脸上永恒不变的表情。带有美国口音的缓慢而机械的嗓音。这个声音一般不容易听到，但却有极高的辨识度。几年前，我去剑桥大学霍金的办公室采访他，开始前，工作人员提醒我不要闲聊，因为教授要花很长时间组织答案。但因为见到他激动，我脱口而出“您好吗？”然后愧疚地等待教授的回答。

尽管面临重重困难，但是这个伟大的人物周游了世界、创作了畅销书、在喜剧中露了面，并且获得大受欢迎的科学传播者的地位。他一说话，或让他的机器一说话，人们都竖耳倾听。今年，他录了两个演讲，是关于黑洞的性质和最近的黑洞研究的。他也同意回答一些事先安排好的问题。

他被问到人类的宿命。他曾经说过，人工智能会消灭我们。这次，他单列出了三个场景：核战争、全球变暖和转基因病毒。这些都是我们自己制造的灾难。他还说，科技的持续进步还将为形势恶化创造新的途径，而且几乎可以肯定地说，接下来的一千年或一万年，这种预测会成真。

1 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

2 deprivations   

剥夺( deprivation的名词复数 )； 被夺去； 缺乏； 匮乏

参考例句：

• At this, some of the others chime in with memories of prewar deprivations. 听到这话，另外那些人中有几个开始加进来讲述他们对战前贫困生活的回忆。 来自柯林斯例句

3 hawking   

利用鹰行猎

参考例句：

• He is hawking his goods everywhere. 他在到处兜售他的货物。
• We obtain the event horizon and the Hawking spectrumformula. 得到了黑洞的局部事件视界位置和Hawking温度以及Klein—Gordon粒子的Hawking辐射谱。

4 physicist   

n.物理学家，研究物理学的人

参考例句：

• He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
• The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。

5 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

6 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

7 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。

8 plight   

n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定

参考例句：

• The leader was much concerned over the plight of the refugees.那位领袖对难民的困境很担忧。
• She was in a most helpless plight.她真不知如何是好。

9 blurted   

v.突然说出，脱口而出( blurt的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She blurted it out before I could stop her. 我还没来得及制止，她已脱口而出。
• He blurted out the truth, that he committed the crime. 他不慎说出了真相，说是他犯了那个罪。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

11 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

12 scenarios   

n.[意]情节；剧本；事态；脚本

参考例句：

• Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者，根据一些事故解说，石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样，我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

13 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物